FIND THE FASTEST VPN
Locate the best server for your specific needs
VPN usage has surged during the lockdown. Employees working from home are using VPNS to access company servers, while those looking to alleviate the boredom of self isolation are using them to access geo-restricted content. This increased demand creates a problem: the more people connected to the same VPN, the slower it will become. With nearly 6,000 servers in 59 countries, NORDVPN is our current favourite VPN. Here, we'll show you how to use it to avoid to avoid the logjam and find the fastest VPN server for your specific needs.
STEP 1 If you’re not already a NORDVPN customer, sign up at https://join.nordvpn.com. We opted for the 1-month plan 1 , which costs £11.04 (the advertised price doesn’t include VAT). If you only want to test NORDVPN, you can ask for your money back within 30 days (request a refund via email or live chat at https:// nordvpn.com/contact-us). Watch out for the plans that appear to be cheaper because these require you to pay more money up front 2 (the headline prices show the total cost, divided by the number of months service you receive). Once you’ve entered your payment information, your browser will download a file – run this to install NORDVPN.
STEP 2 Once the installation process has finished, NORDVPN will open, prompting you to enter your email address and password 1 . You should have received an email with a link to create a password shortly after registering with NORDVPN. However when we registered, we didn’t receive this email. If you have the same problem, go to https://ucp.nordvpn. com/lost-password to request a new password. We’re now going to use NORDVPN to access Sony’s Crackle video-streaming service ( www.crackle.com), which has a terrific library of free films but isn’t currently available in the UK 2 .
STEP 3 Before connecting to a VPN server, it’s a good idea to test your current broadband speed, so you can see the amount it drops when you connect to a server. You can use any speed test you like - in this example we’re using Google’s, which you can run by going to www.google.com, searching for speed test, then clicking the blue Run Speed Test button. The test takes around 30 seconds. As you can see in our screenshot, our broadband connection is currently measuring a healthy 50.1Mbps 2 .
STEP 4 Now open NORDVPN. Using the map, select the country to which you want to connect. In our example, we’ve chosen the US 1 , because Sony Crackle is available there. NORDVPN will now attempt to find the fastest VPN server in that country. Once you’ve connected to the VPN (look for the ‘Connected to...’ message 2 ), return to Google’s Speed Test tool and click Test Again 3 . Our connection is much slower, coming in at just 9.68Mbps 4 . Sony Crackle states 9Mbps as the minimum recommended speed for streaming its HD video, and although we’re now able to access it 5 , the video frequently buffered when we played it. We therefore need to find a faster server.
STEP 5 US servers tend to be busier than in most other
countries (probably because of the popularity of US Netflix). It’s therefore worth checking whether the service you’re trying to access is available in other countries. We know Sony’s Crackle service is also available to residents of Canada and Australia. Using the map, we clicked on Australia 1
to connect to a VPN server there. As you can see, it made a big improvement, with a speed of 29.8Mbps 2 . And a quick check on the Crackle website showed it managed to stream video perfectly.
STEP 6 You won’t always be able to switch to a different country. If you’re trying to access US Netflix, for example, you’ll have to use a VPN server in the US. There are other things you can try, though. In the left sidebar, hover over the country you want to connect to, then click the three dots 1 , followed by the Server box 2 . This shows all VPN servers in
that country, along with their current load 3 (the higher the load percentage, the busier the server). Click a server to switch to it. Although it’s best to choose servers with the lowest load, don’t discount those further down the list. In our tests, one server with 20 per cent load was faster than one with seven per cent. Just run the speed test each time you switch servers.
STEP 7 If you manage to find a server that’s consistently faster than others, you can mark it as a favourite. To do this, return to the server list (see Step 6), hover over the server you want to mark, then click the small heart symbol (it will change from white to black). To return to this server in the future, scroll to the top of the server locations list in the sidebar and expand the My Favourites section 1 .