Why a VPN is slow and how to speed up the connection
Any VPN adds one more leg to the path of your data — to a server in another country. Usually the difference is barely noticeable, but sometimes pages open slower and video stutters. Most often the cause is simple and takes a couple of minutes to fix.
The main causes
- Distance to the server. The farther the country, the higher the latency (ping). For everyday tasks the nearest locations are usually best.
- Server load. In the evening, when more people are online, a single server can be slower.
- Your own internet speed. A VPN cannot be faster than the line your device uses: with a 20 Mbit/s plan you get no more through the VPN.
- Weak Wi-Fi. Thick walls, distance to the router and a crowded 2.4 GHz band often cost more speed than the VPN itself.
- Background downloads. Updates, cloud sync and torrents on the same device or network take bandwidth.
- Battery saver. On phones it may limit the VPN app in the background.
What to do, step by step
- Compare the speed with and without the VPN — for example on speedtest.net. If it is slow without the VPN too, the internet or Wi-Fi is the problem.
- Pick another country or “Auto” — the app connects to the server with the lowest latency.
- Reconnect: turn the VPN off and on again, restart the app if needed.
- Move closer to the router or switch to the 5 GHz network; on a phone try mobile data.
- Turn off battery saving for the VPN app and update it to the latest version.
- Pause heavy background downloads while you need the speed.
How Yak VPN handles it
Every country in a Yak subscription runs in two connection variants at once — VLESS + Reality and VLESS + XHTTP + Reality. The app picks the one that works best on your network and switches to the other if one has trouble.
We measure the speed and ping of every location automatically every 3 hours and publish them on the home page, so you can see which server is faster right now. If nothing on the list helps, write to support — it works around the clock.