Hey guys, so I've been using Private Internet Access for a while. I've done some extensive tests because I've noticed that when i started to use VPN, the performance increased pretty well on just about all mediums but gaming. Now I've tried every type of possible connection, but my ping is WAY too high on gaming where i get some pretty substantial lag, almost as if i was on dial up. The download and upload speed is great, but ping is HORRIBLE beyond belief. I've done it with LoL, Diablo 3, CS:GO, etc., etc..
This doesn't stop there, now i understood my download speed was around 60Mb/s and upload around 30Mb/s without the VPN and more around 90Mb/s download and 30Mb/s upload so performance is noticeable. Now after about a week of VPN usage, i stopped and tried to go normal around the web, wanted to see if the performance really made a difference or if it was just a placebo on "perceivable performance gains".
I use Cox Cable, considering their owned by Time Warner (Cox doesn't really work with the same policies as Time Warner, and is just being ran financially....for now), i'm quite a happy customer. Only had 2 down times in a year (great when considering Century Link(prior ISP) being down once a week and ridiculous performance for the price). So overall great service before going VPN. Now, I noticed my ping being a TON better on gaming, where it got me thinking, "is it even worth having VPN with these stupid issue with ping?". So i started going on websites like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc(sites with high media content). Now i notice that my internet speed went down dramatically....and i mean DRAMATICALLY. This didn't make sense, So i did a speed test and now my download speed went down to 30Mb/s and upload around 15Mb/s. So i gave Cox Cable a call to inquire why my speed went down drastically. Nobody understood, and had to send me to higher level techs. After about 40 minutes of getting passed around to a higher tech, one guy told me that i was spotted using a VPN which gave them questions. They were asking me why i would be using a VPN, type of VPN, all the details about it and yati yati ya......you get the picture. So i was a little ticked off and i asked them why they would even care about having a VPN since it's 100% perfectly legal. The guy told me that a VPN is "unsecure" to their network because it "violates protocols" within their routing system. So to make sure that i wouldn't abuse their system, they put me on a watch list (whatever that means....smh). This doesn't affect me while i game though, my ping is fine, my download and upload speeds are great, etc. So this "watch list" sounds like putting people on a blacklist watch where "blacklisted sites" and i mean it loosly like Netflix, YouTube, etc. are ridiculously slow and don't function properly.
If i turn on VPN, i'm perfectly fine, but gaming just blows on this VPN, so during my gaming needs i turn it off. Not a big deal, but a bit of a pain when you forget and some games that require an authentication, giving you a red flagging and then you have to unlock your account because they found your account logging in California or wherever the VPN goes. Had this scenario happen with Blizzard, because i logged in Texas, they froze my account until i informed them of my VPN service.
I've been told by some IT buddies of mine that Intel NIC's get affected by using a VPN service because it creates another network device and then creates alternative network protocols and that probably that's the issue, but what bugs me is that Cox Cable knew i was on a VPN as soon as i called them and asked them why my internet was going slow.
I'm not complaining, not a big deal because at the end, i still get my speed when VPN is on and gaming isn't affected when it's off. If there are any others that had a scenario, i'd like to hear your story. This was just to inform others who may be interested in VPN services and give some insight of potential problems that may occur.