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TheLostOne
Asked: 2012-03-31 10:43:53 +0800 CST

Can an internet connection be more robust when connecting through a VPN?

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During live streams some viewers experiencing problems with the stream like dropouts and artifacts although they have a 100MBit line what makes me assume the problems are caused by packet loss.

Could a VPN to the streaming source network improve the connection?

Probably not since the packets still can choose their routes through the net and can get lost on the way, right?

vpn internet video-streaming packetloss

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If the issue is packet loss, then no, VPN will only make the issue worse.

    One instance where I have noticed VPN helping things, though, is an instance where the site router is under-provisioned or misconfigured and is bumping up against the max size for its NAT state tracking table. Since VPNs encapsulate everything into a single TCP stream (or they just use UDP), once you establish a connection, you tend to keep it, even if the router is refusing new connections due to full state table.

    Probably not since the packets still can choose their routes through the net and can get lost on the way, right?

    Packets don't get to choose their own routes. That's what routers do. The internet would be a disaster if devices were able to choose their own routes.

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  2. A VPN won't help here. Network conditions are the same either way. The VPN may improve error recovery, but won't change error handling. Dropouts and artifacts will still occur, however straight up failures may be less common.

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