Network speeds are worse than ever

hvadskerderligehvadskerderlige
in Feedback
I can't be the only one who has experienced extremely slow speeds lately. I usually use the Swedish servers and that adds about 10 extra ping but doesn't really change my speeds. But for the last couple of days my ping has been a lot worse and my speeds are less than half my 'non-VPN' speeds suddenly. 

This is getting really annoying. Pictures hosted on Reddit and Imgur won't load properly,. videos on Streamable and gfy's are not loading, and Twitch streams aren't being played properly. This is really frustrating and I don't know what I should do. Today I tried upgrading to the latest version (v73) and that didn't help at all.

Please fix your servers.
«1

Comments

  • mission156mission156
    I have noticed the US servers get very slow in the evenings.
  • VPNTesterVPNTester
    +1 FOR SLOWNESS... :-(

  • Max-PMax-P
    Hey guys, whenever you fall on a slow server please use the "Send slow speed complaint" button. Our network team relies on those heavily to detect issues and bottlenecks!

    Additionally if there's a specific time (I saw evenings mentionned - what times and which timezone?) and region/server that does that, that would be really helpful so I can set up a bunch of auto speed tests around those times to verify.
  • hvadskerderligehvadskerderlige
    Hi Max,

    I tried the Swedish, Norwegian, and Dutch servers between 16:00-00:00 GMT+1 and they all had this problem in this time span.

    I'm mostly on my PC at that time but I'm pretty sure that this problem isn't just in the evenings. I've noticed these slow speeds all week at different times of the day - I can't watch a stream on Twitch through PIA without having to turn the quality all the way down.

    I pay for 80/10 Mbit internet and usually get around 90/12 and normally about 80/12 using PIA. These last couple of days/this last week I've only been getting 20/10 using PIA on all the servers I've tested.
  • Max-PMax-P
    Hmm, do you guys also have some trouble accessing US sites without the VPN? What ISPs are you using?

    I did some testing on my end and I can get almost my full 200 Mbps all the way up to Denmark. All regions connected past this point I'm also getting around 20/20 so there seems to be some congestion between Denmark and Sweden/Norway/Finland.

    I asked the network team if we know anything about this, will update if/when I get more info.
  • hvadskerderligehvadskerderlige
    edited October 2017
    I live in Denmark so that's what is happening to me I guess. Hope to see this fixed soon :)
  • Harry2Harry2
    edited October 2017
    Max-P said:
    Hey guys, whenever you fall on a slow server please use the "Send slow speed complaint" button. Our network team relies on those heavily to detect issues and bottlenecks!

    Additionally if there's a specific time (I saw evenings mentionned - what times and which timezone?) and region/server that does that, that would be really helpful so I can set up a bunch of auto speed tests around those times to verify.
    UPDATE
    Mystically this problem has gone away just after posting? 
     
    I'm finding speed adequate, but there is a annoying lag  to connect to websites?
    once connectrd speed is fine, tried going to google DNS from PIA's the same problem
    Opera browser WIN10 64 bit, new HP computer this has started this over last month or so (V73)

    I am seeing IP's getting listed for being BOTNET's again because users are not turning on Windows Defender
    The best world malware/virus experts state
    "If Microsoft Windows Defender is available to you, use it!"
    Check yourself
    http://cbl.abuseat.org/lookup.cgi?ip=137.59.252.183
    Even Google search engine is doig a BOT check for this IP!
  • RS1990RS1990
    edited January 2018
    Anyone still having issues with their speed on the East Coast of the US? I have Optimum 200/35 and I get that without PIA, but when I turn on PIA, I get closer to 30/30 (tops) on the New York server. I also tried the East Coast server and it was similar. Debug Info ID 6951 if that is any help at all). I am not sure how to submit a slow speed complaint on the mobile app (Android).
  • Max-PMax-P
    RS1990 said:
    Anyone still having issues with their speed on the East Coast of the US? I have Optimum 200/35 and I get that without PIA, but when I turn on PIA, I get closer to 30/30 (tops) on the New York server. I also tried the East Coast server and it was similar. Debug Info ID 6951 if that is any help at all). I am not sure how to submit a slow speed complaint on the mobile app (Android).
    I've been connected to US East the whole evening and I'm pulling 200 Mbps from it no problem. I do notice however that you mentioned this being on your mobile phone: it's most likely that your phone is just not able to go faster than that due to several bottlenecks in the OS and CPU architecture and OpenVPN's design. My phone can only do 25 Mbps with PIA and that's regardless of whether I use the PIA app or a third-party OpenVPN app. Even to a local server on my local network, it doesn't perform any better.
  • RS1990RS1990
    OK, so it makes sense that I can get that without PIA? Thanks.
  • Max-PMax-P
    RS1990 said:
    OK, so it makes sense that I can get that without PIA? Thanks.
    Yes.

    I haven't researched this in depth enough yet to point to exactly why, but there's a few things:
    • Phones uses ARM processors, which are amazing for energy efficiency but they're also not very powerful
    • Phone processors are usually clocked much slower than their PC counterpart, widening the gap
    • The way Android does VPN seems to add a fair bit of overhead due to (I'm guessing) copies of data between the app and the system.
    • Context switches between the kernel and the different apps that needs to run in turn to make it all work.

    So, as far as I understand this, without a VPN, your traffic goes from App->Kernel->WiFi chip directly. With a VPN, it has to go App->Kernel->VPN app->openvpn->kernel->WiFi chip. But as I said, I still need to do some more research before I can point fingers exactly and accurately at where the bottleneck is. In the meantime all I know is that all VPN apps on Android are relatively slow.
  • RS1990RS1990
    I am now trying on my regular computer, which is a wired connection to my router. Without PIA, I get my full 200/35, but with PIA connected, it drops down to ~100/35. I expect some loss, but that seems excessive as well. Any thoughts on what I should look for to determine why I am not getting better speeds there?
  • Max-PMax-P
    RS1990 said:
    I am now trying on my regular computer, which is a wired connection to my router. Without PIA, I get my full 200/35, but with PIA connected, it drops down to ~100/35. I expect some loss, but that seems excessive as well. Any thoughts on what I should look for to determine why I am not getting better speeds there?
    At 100 Mbps down, it seems likely to me that you might be hitting the infamous TAP driver bottleneck, which has no know fix at the moment. We have reports of people saying that using L2TP as a workaround delivers better speeds. 
  • gorogoro
    Same here. US East - Optimum. Getting 100 without PIA, and it maxes at 50 with PIA. Tried multiple laptops, switched ports around one at a time, reinstalled TAP driver, same results - up to 50 with PIA.
  • vpnuser56vpnuser56
    Just ran some tests through US East, NYC, Midwest, Florida - best I got was 63Mbps from NYC, others were in high 40's low 50's.  With no VPN I get around 324 Mbps (I am one of the first batch of old TWC Maxx customers with 300Mbps service - running a Macbook Pro i7 CPU with 16GB RAM, wired Gbit connection to my router).  I used to get around 120Mbps a few months ago through the VPN.  This really sucks.
  • p4141841p4141841
    goro said:
    Same here. US East - Optimum. Getting 100 without PIA, and it maxes at 50 with PIA. Tried multiple laptops, switched ports around one at a time, reinstalled TAP driver, same results - up to 50 with PIA.
    I have found out the east coast is heavily degraded compared to the other servers.  its the last one i use.

    i suggest going to the website.   do the PIA speed test(not connected to the PIA service) and connect to the server that gives the acceptable speeds.    i found this to be helpful after several failed tickets to PIA support.   and it has not failed me since then.  

    btw I use pfsense to connect so i have no way to submit a slow server ticket to PIA.       my other way of connecting is through the chrome app.   again no way that i see to submit a slow server incident 

  • vpnuser56vpnuser56
    p4141841 said:
    goro said:
    Same here. US East - Optimum. Getting 100 without PIA, and it maxes at 50 with PIA. Tried multiple laptops, switched ports around one at a time, reinstalled TAP driver, same results - up to 50 with PIA.
    I have found out the east coast is heavily degraded compared to the other servers.  its the last one i use.

    i suggest going to the website.   do the PIA speed test(not connected to the PIA service) and connect to the server that gives the acceptable speeds.    i found this to be helpful after several failed tickets to PIA support.   and it has not failed me since then.  

    btw I use pfsense to connect so i have no way to submit a slow server ticket to PIA.       my other way of connecting is through the chrome app.   again no way that i see to submit a slow server incident 

    So I tried that - not connected to PIA VPN and ran the speed test from the same servers I tried above.  They all gave me 300+Mbps.  But when I connect to any of the VPN servers, I get 50-60 Mbps (running speedtest.net) - so what is this saying?
  • p4141841p4141841
    vpnuser56 said:
    p4141841 said:
    goro said:
    Same here. US East - Optimum. Getting 100 without PIA, and it maxes at 50 with PIA. Tried multiple laptops, switched ports around one at a time, reinstalled TAP driver, same results - up to 50 with PIA.
    I have found out the east coast is heavily degraded compared to the other servers.  its the last one i use.

    i suggest going to the website.   do the PIA speed test(not connected to the PIA service) and connect to the server that gives the acceptable speeds.    i found this to be helpful after several failed tickets to PIA support.   and it has not failed me since then.  

    btw I use pfsense to connect so i have no way to submit a slow server ticket to PIA.       my other way of connecting is through the chrome app.   again no way that i see to submit a slow server incident 

    So I tried that - not connected to PIA VPN and ran the speed test from the same servers I tried above.  They all gave me 300+Mbps.  But when I connect to any of the VPN servers, I get 50-60 Mbps (running speedtest.net) - so what is this saying?
    don't use speedtest.net as a reference.  use the PIA download test once connected.   and also not connected 
  • vpnuser56vpnuser56
    p4141841 said:


    So I tried that - not connected to PIA VPN and ran the speed test from the same servers I tried above.  They all gave me 300+Mbps.  But when I connect to any of the VPN servers, I get 50-60 Mbps (running speedtest.net) - so what is this saying?
    don't use speedtest.net as a reference.  use the PIA download test once connected.   and also not connected 
    PIA servers (when connected to the PIA VPN) give me about the same - high 50's to mid 60's Mbps.  Even when connected to the East server VPN - it's speedtest result is high 60's - nowhere near the 330 I get when not connected to the VPN.
  • Max-PMax-P
    @p4141841 What ISP and what kind of hardware and operating system are you using?

    @vpnuser56 ; That is strange. When disconnected from the VPN, how fast can you go when doing a direct speed test to the server from here? https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/network/

    US East is my favorite server because it consistently delivers 220 Mbps with very low latency for me, and I haven't noticed anything abnormal. I've been using it for most of the evening yesterday...

    You should be able to get your full speed since you're on Mac and don't suffer from the TAP driver bug as a result.
  • vpnuser56vpnuser56
    @Max-P When I disconnect from the VPN and tried the PIA speedtest using servers US East, NYC, Midwest, Florida I get around 315 to 335 Mbps.  When I re-connect the VPN to my Mac (using the PIA Mac client) they all slow down to 50 to 60 Mbps.
  • p4141841p4141841
    Max-P said:
    @p4141841 What ISP and what kind of hardware and operating system are you using?

    @vpnuser56 ; That is strange. When disconnected from the VPN, how fast can you go when doing a direct speed test to the server from here? https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/network/

    US East is my favorite server because it consistently delivers 220 Mbps with very low latency for me, and I haven't noticed anything abnormal. I've been using it for most of the evening yesterday...

    You should be able to get your full speed since you're on Mac and don't suffer from the TAP driver bug as a result.
    spectrum 100Mb download 10Mb most accounts are provisioned to get 120Mb down which i also get for download speeds.

    i use a SG2220 router https://store.netgate.com/SG-2220.aspx using AES-NI on a 1.7Ghz processor set to max speed.  

    i am located in KY.  and its sad the east cost server seems to be the closest but does not give me the best performance.  NY seems to be the best for me 
  • Max-PMax-P
    @vpnuser56 Have you tried changing ports and protocol yet? I can't think of any other reason why you would test 300 Mbps directly to our servers but not over OpenVPN. Some ISPs like to throttle UDP traffic because they associate it with DDoS attacks and switching to TCP in particular have the tendency of them letting it through more easily (since with TCP the two parties have to agree to talk to eachother first).

    I've ran some tests on Mac on my end and it's working perfectly fine so it's not Mac, the PIA app or PIA's servers. That really only leaves your ISP in-between... As much as I would like to assume that the ISP is fair and legit, it really looks like throttling to me.



    This is from US East, but I can get that full 200 Mbps with PIA about anywhere, even all the way from Canada to Australia. I get aweful latency of course going this far, but the througput it definitely there :/
  • StPatty33StPatty33
    This is driving me crazy.  On this PC (Windows 10) I get around 200 Mbps down and 40 Mbps up. I've tried every single port-forwarded locale this morning and not a single one will go over 45 down, and less than 2 up!  I typically stick with the Canadian forward-able connections, and when one gets slow like this, I just switch to another and it's good to go (good to go as in maybe 100 Mbps down and at least 20 up).  I can't get a single decent forwardable connection now.
  • p4141841p4141841
    Max-P said:
    @vpnuser56 Have you tried changing ports and protocol yet? I can't think of any other reason why you would test 300 Mbps directly to our servers but not over OpenVPN. Some ISPs like to throttle UDP traffic because they associate it with DDoS attacks and switching to TCP in particular have the tendency of them letting it through more easily (since with TCP the two parties have to agree to talk to eachother first).

    I've ran some tests on Mac on my end and it's working perfectly fine so it's not Mac, the PIA app or PIA's servers. That really only leaves your ISP in-between... As much as I would like to assume that the ISP is fair and legit, it really looks like throttling to me.



    This is from US East, but I can get that full 200 Mbps with PIA about anywhere, even all the way from Canada to Australia. I get aweful latency of course going this far, but the througput it definitely there :/
    running speed tests from that website with a 100Mb connection i never get above 50Mb.   connected to PIA i don't get above 50Mb.     running the test on your site shows more accurate speeds.... 
  • DubzDubz
    same and i have a 350Mbps connection its fine through my ISP but when connected to PIA it drops to 100Mbps download. I have tried everything nothing works, I dont know what to do now. Sucks big time.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    @Dubz, what operating system are you on? You may be encountering the TAP driver bottleneck on Windows. 
  • DubzDubz
    I am using Windows 10 pro, this problem just arouse like 3 weeks ago. Prior to that my speed was fine. I do not know wtf is going on. I have tried everything, reinstalled everything, even the tap driver several different versions. This is sh!tty because I cannot figure out why my speed has suddenly dropped. I have let the app through my firewall and excluded it from my anti-virus nothing works. Anything suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
  • LannyLanny
    edited February 2018
    I am also using Windows 10 Pro (in the UK using Southampton servers).  I contacted support a year ago saying I always got low speeds and they said that the TAP driver wasn't the culprit so I just put up with the speeds I received thinking it must be my PCs fault. 

    I get a rock solid 220 Mbps connection from my ISP without PIA connected.  With PIA I can only achieve a top speed of 75 Mbps.  I have gone through the instructions at :
    https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/219059608-Why-is-the-VPN-connection-not-working-or-slow-with-the-PIA-App-
    and none of the ports make any difference.

    Could anyone that's getting more than 100 Mbps using a PIA connection on Windows 10 please let me know so that I know I am not alone in this !

    EDIT:  I have tried replacing the TAP driver with an older version (as per your instructions) and also updating the TAP driver to the latest version.  The best speed I have managed is 77 Mbps.

    Thanks.

  • MeFirstMeFirst
    edited March 2018
    Dutch cluster. Speed is now about half of what it was when I signed up in november. Hitting the NForce speedtest server w/o VPN enabled I get my full 220/1000, going though VPN it's down to ~100/400 or 200/200 or 100/200, depending on which of your IP's I get assigned.
Sign In or Register to comment.