There is a lot of hype surrounding VPNs and their superiority when it comes to streaming! They enable me to watch my favorite shows restricted by geographical location, but what else can they do? Does a VPN help with streaming?
A VPN can bypass ISP throttling and change the route data travels to increase internet speeds. You can also access geographically restricted content, hide your IP address from your ISP to access restricted content, and spoof your location to stream content from your home country.
VPNs can drastically improve how you experience streaming, as well as improve your internet speeds, so let’s look at what is essential when using VPNs and how they can benefit you!
Does A VPN Help With Streaming?
A VPN has a myriad of benefits for streamers! Firstly, a VPN may be used to unblock geographically restricted material, which is significant because much of the content on extensive streaming services are only available in a limited geographic location, such as with Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Netflix.
It is frequently the result of license limitations or government regulations. You may change your geolocation using a VPN to any region where your provider has a server, giving you access to material that would otherwise be blocked. You may select your location, nation, or even city with the correct VPN.
Second, a VPN might help you avoid the buffering problems that come with bandwidth limiting. You can be bound with an ISP that slows down multimedia content from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Disney+, SlingTV, and other popular services; a VPN can assist you in avoiding this.
Using a good VPN might help you avoid network throttling and buffering while streaming, although it can also slow down your internet performance. Slower speeds happen because a VPN routes your web traffic over an encrypted tunnel to a remote server, causing your internet connection to become slower.
The farther the tunnel is from your location, the longer the data travels, and the slower your internet appears. However, don’t be put off by this; you’ll be able to stream smoothly without visibly slowing down your internet connection if you pick a good service.
With a reliable VPN (such as ExpressVPN, Surfshark, NordVPN), you’ll also be able to choose from a broad range of server locations that aren’t swamped with web traffic. There are likely to be suitable servers nearby among the servers accessible, so the distance your data travels won’t create much if any, perceptible delay in connecting.
How Can You Use A VPN To Your Benefit?
You may fake your location by connecting to a VPN server in another country. If you’re not situated in the United States, you may use a VPN to connect to a familiar location and use the internet as usual; it’s also possible to do it backward.
You may connect to a VPN server in another country from the comfort of your own home, for example, to watch streaming content that isn’t available in the United States.
Some VPNs might assist you in gaining access to geo-restricted sports coverage. If you’re outside the United States, a television network like NBC, for example, may not be available to watch. Viewing may be feasible with the use of a VPN.
Nonetheless, verify your streaming service agreement for its Terms of Service, and be aware that using a VPN to evade its regulations may result in penalties in some areas.
From time to time, we all have to connect to an unprotected public Wi-Fi network. A VPN makes connecting to a Wi-Fi network safe, whether we’re on the go at a café or connected to the not-so-advanced Wi-Fi network at our local library or other public location.
The 6 Features That Make Up A Good VPN For Streaming
If you’re interested in trying a VPN, there are a few key features to look out for before deciding on a VPN. Their priority may vary slightly depending on the user, but most are great for any streamer and worth considering.
1. Geographical Access Should Be Included
Not all VPNs can let you circumvent geo-restricted material. If this is crucial to you, be sure your VPN includes this feature.
2. Ensure That It Supports P2P
If you wish to stream material from P2P services like Popcorn Time, this is highly important. (P2PTV refers to peer-to-peer software programs that redistribute video broadcasts across a P2P network in real-time.)
3. It Should Have A Large Network Of Servers
Make sure your option has servers all around the world, particularly in prominent places or cosmopolitan cities. Also, look at the overall number of servers – a higher number of servers means a lesser demand on each one and a speedier connection.
4. Solid Security Features Are Always A Plus
Many VPNs now provide additional security measures to help you stay secure online.
These security measures include:
- Advertising and malware filtering.
- Auto-reconnect to guarantee you never connect without your VPN.
- IP address leak prevention and an internet kill switch stop your connection if the VPN is unavailable.
These are just a couple of the features you should use keep an eye out to have.
5. Complete Privacy With No Logging
Make sure your VPN does not maintain any logs if you want to keep your internet activities hidden. There is no trace of what sites you have visited if there are no logs, which means you can guarantee that you have complete privacy on what you stream or browse.
6. Speed, Speed, And More Speed
If you want the fastest internet speed experience, you need to find a VPN that offers HD streaming; not only will it be faster, but you’ll have much better video quality.
VPNs that offer HD streaming will naturally be faster because their hardware is more advanced to support streaming HD than regular quality videos.
VPN For Streaming That Works
The recommended VPN for streaming that fits all the 6 criteria above is Surfshark.
The Bottom Line
VPNs are great alternatives for improving internet speeds and streaming while offering services that hide your IP address, provide more privacy and bypass ISP throttling.
