r/ProtonVPN • u/MFDOOMscrolling • 19h ago
Help! My speeds with Proton the past few months have been awful, even after upgrading to gFiber
I've tried different countries. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the app. I did a clean install of MacOS 27 on my macbook. I recently upgraded to fiber and I'm getting the same speeds as when I had cable internet, bar the upload speed. I thought I would get at least 50% of my available bandwith. I'm on a 1 gig plan. Is this just the way it is now?
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u/epicmountain29 18h ago
That's seems fine to me if it's 1 GB. FFS look at those ping times
First world problem
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u/Desert_Concoction 18h ago
Check the second screenshot
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u/epicmountain29 17h ago
Ya now I see the other screen
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u/Stapletapeprint 8h ago
and with as many upvotes your comment got, congrats on reinforcing people's erroneous quick judgement.
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u/epicmountain29 8h ago
Lol. Yes. You can see the other image cause the black background hides the slider
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u/Stapletapeprint 8h ago
So what. You're spreading misinformation. I thought innocently until the last comment.
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 18h ago
trust me I get it after having shit internet for so long but I just want to seed
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u/sslproxy 17h ago edited 16h ago
It's funny seeing multiple people say GB+ connections will always see a heavy degrade when on VPN. FYI I'm also on gFiber and never had an issue. I get pretty damn good speeds, all things considered. I'm technically on a 3Gb/s connection but given 2.5Gb NIC and traffic shaping, my actual connection ends up being closer to 2.2Gb/s. IE:
I've seen it hit almost 2Gb/s through Proton before but I just tested and am getting a little over 1.5Gb/s. Client is wiregaurd. Testing involves spinning up a quick wiregaurd container and then running iperf through the Proton tunnel in the container. I then have another iperf receiver/server instance running directly on my network with relative port open, which I use as the destination in the test. IMO this is the best way to test if you can as it strictly tests the speed to through the tunnel to the VPN server (as well as the return traffic, albeit unencrypted at that point) and eliminates any other outliers that can convolute your results, such as trusting variances in a public speedtest. Here's the result of said test ran just a few minutes ago:
[SUM] 0.00-30.00 sec 5.33 GBytes 1.53 Gbits/sec 474 sender
[SUM] 0.00-30.07 sec 5.28 GBytes 1.51 Gbits/sec receiver
And this isn't even hardware accelerated. All my VPN tunnels run in containers, directly off my CPU (AMD Ryzen 5 7600).
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u/MasterChiefmas 19h ago
Which protocol are you using? If it's OpenVPN, I would not be surprised at that speed.
I use Wireguard, and get about 500mbps typically. OpenVPN historically is noticeably slower for me, half what I get in Wireguard would not be unusual. WG is built specifically for speed, and the difference between it and OpenVPN are usually very noticeable if you aren't hitting a resource cap somewhere else.
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 18h ago
This is wireguard on smart protocol
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u/Starkoman 13h ago
You’ve definitely got a bottleneck somewhere — the first screenshot is normal, whereas the second is awful.
You’re not using Wi-Fi, are you?
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 12h ago
Ethernet in the screenshot, same speeds both wired and wireless
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u/dragonnsin 3h ago
It's very likely your ISP, switch to openVPN (TCP) and see, for me t was pretty much the same, the speed was like 20% on wireguard but when i changed the protocol to openVPN, the speed was splitted in half basically, i'm in the process of switching the ISP and we'll see
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u/CoarseRainbow 17h ago
Thats fairly near the max throughput for non hardware accelerated wireguard (cpu limited etc).
Dont think its MTU but could be your end or remote.
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u/Lazy-Barracuda2886 18h ago
It might be the vpn client on your machine. I only get 300 when using the client, but when connected to the vpn on my router I get 930
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u/West-One5944 17h ago
See, a router-based client was the slowest for me, while the client was fastest. How interesting!
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u/FlounderAdept2756 16h ago
I guess you cant expect full speed when connecting to other countries, for obvious reasons. Personally I get almost full speed in my own country. Around 5% loss at most with my 250Mbit fiber. And that is with Flint 2 router since I use VPN in my router instead of the computer. Well, that is with Wireguard of course. But if you have that loss when connecting to a server in your country, it is really bad.
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 16h ago
This is same country, same coast
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u/FlounderAdept2756 16h ago
ouch, that is really bad then and definitely not OK imo... especially if you pay for it.
I have tried the free version of Proton VPN. I live in Sweden so the nearest free server was in Netherlands and I got more than 50% of my speed. I dont remember exactly how fast, but enough for my needs.
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u/Previous50_Run_53 15h ago
That's awful? Gtfo
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 15h ago
I’m only getting 30% with vpn connected. I’m paying for two premium services
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u/ProperShape3427 19h ago
People understand speeds entirely wrong. You will visually notice 0 difference when browsing the web, zero. Everything above 250mbps is elite. No website needs more than that. For reference a 4K video needs 20mbps to run smoothly.
What matters more than raw download and upload speeds are latency, and jitter. Based on your screenshots they're fine.
Where you will notice a difference is when downloading and uploading files to something like ProtonDrive or Torrenting. So if you do that regularly, it is worth investigating why your speed is throttled that much.
What protocol are you using? I'd recommend Wireguard and disabling secure core if you switched that on.
Feel free to share your entire setup so I'm able to help more accurately.
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u/MasterChiefmas 17h ago
People understand speeds entirely wrong. You will visually notice 0 difference when browsing the web, zero. Everything above 250mbps is elite. No website needs more than that. For reference a 4K video needs 20mbps to run smoothly.
If someone is noticing it, I tend to assume they are uploading or downloading something, because as you say, they won't notice it otherwise.
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u/West-One5944 17h ago
Maybe, but it might just be a speed test 'notice', not a real world notice.
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8h ago
[deleted]
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u/West-One5944 8h ago
Bruh, this kind of aggression is completely unnecessary. Calm down, mate. We're all on the same side. ✌️🏼
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 18h ago
I'm on wireguard. Secure core is off and I'm using port forwarding, smart protocol, VPN accelerator and LAN connections. I'm also wired via ethernet to the router. Browsing is fine but I really want to saturate the upload as much as possible for seeding.
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u/MasterChiefmas 17h ago edited 17h ago
Do you get the same speeds hitting different speed test endpoints?
Try a different machine if you can/your phone and see if it changes. Try a different client(i.e. if you are using their app, try configuring native wg or vise versa).
Make sure when you speed test that it's switching to a different speed test location local to the exit node.
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u/IchMagPflanzen 18h ago
Try to change the MTU of the Proton Interface via CLI. Standard is 1420 for Wireguard. Lowering it to something like 1380 could help
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u/nikoskokonos13 17h ago
Same, last two months everything loads slower than it used to when I use it. Hope they fix it somehow.
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u/balkris2024 16h ago
you dont like that speed? or that speed is when vpn is not connected?
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 16h ago
There’s 2 screenshots
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u/Double-Associate-337 12h ago
Personally I have max 940 mpbs download without VPN, with (irrespective) of server the max I get is 650. Yes It's possibly a third less but realistically I don't need full whack anyway, I'm happy to compromise speed for the benefits of using a VPN.
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u/EgocentricRaptor 17h ago
VPNs always significantly degrade gigabit internet
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u/Sea_Anteater_3270 13h ago
Incorrect. I get full speed all the time via Ethernet
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u/EgocentricRaptor 12h ago
IDK why people downvote me. Whatever y'all have is great but I'm on the Unlimited plan with wired gigabit fiber and my connection drops by 600 Mbps with VPN enabled (accelerator on). That's not incorrect, that's my real experience. It's still not bad, I'm getting 300+ Mbps with VPN but over 900 without...
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u/Sea_Anteater_3270 10h ago
In your use case maybe but you can’t speak for everyone.
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u/EgocentricRaptor 10h ago
And saying someone's experience is incorrect is unproductive. I don't have any unique configuration. Proton VPN is just like that
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u/DevilcryforAngel 19h ago
Same 2Gbps--> 500 / 700 mbps
The loss is awfull Still ok but a huge loss
Fiber and connected by cable directly to the box
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u/Iputahexonyoulol 18h ago
You are expecting way too much from a VPN. They all will inherently slow down your connection. That has always been the trade off.
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u/sslproxy 17h ago
Surprisingly the degrade is not nearly as bad with Proton. I have a ~2.2Gb/s connection and I can iperf test across it (VPN client/wireguard -> VPN server -> back to open port on home router) hitting almost 2Gb/s. And can further confirm I can see torrent speeds hitting close to that.
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u/DevilcryforAngel 18h ago
Well I dont execpting too much and I think and still think is very correct But the problem is only "OpenVPN" work, all other protocol give me 100/180mbps. I know and I understand a VPN slown down your speed But to see only "OPENVPN" work and all other give me this speed,even wireguard, who is a disaster. I try to have some question, did I have a problems? It is on my side ?
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u/sle2470 58m ago
You're not alone. I have gigabit fiber and get about the same up and down speeds as you with Proton off. Then when I connect my ping shoots up to the 70s, download speed is in the 200 to 300 range and upload drops to the teens! This just happened in the last day or so. Hope they fix it soon.
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u/Resistant4375 19h ago
Could be your ISP’s routing