Express and Nord Cut My Home WiFi Speeds in Half

Discussion
1

I have a one year subscription to Express because I heard it was the fastest VPN. But it is cutting my home WiFi speeds down by 50 to 60 percent which is unbelievable.

I have a Spectrum 1 Gig internet plan with an RBK 763 Mesh Router system. Without Express running, my speeds are in the 800s. Once I connect Express, those speeds drop to the 300s. The upload speeds remain the same at 40 Mbps, whether connected or not. I’ve tried different servers, but the results are the same.

I can’t deal with those slow speeds, so I’m now on a free trial with Nord, but it only gives me slightly better speeds than Express. Still 50 to 60 percent slower.

Does anyone have suggestions to fix this? I know VPNs can slow speeds down, but most places I looked up mention only a 5 to 10 percent drop, which I could totally handle.

Thanks!

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3

Make sure you’re using the WireGuard protocol in your VPN app.

The OpenVPN protocol is heavier and often can’t handle speeds above 300 Mbps.

4

Journey said:
Make sure you’re using the WireGuard protocol in your VPN app.

The OpenVPN protocol is heavier and often can’t handle speeds above 300 Mbps.

So I’m using Express and their version of WireGuard is called Lightway. I really don’t see a big difference in speeds. Like I mentioned, I’m in the same boat and I’m just waiting for my subscription to end so I can find a new VPN service which will either be Nord or Surfshark.

5

@Jesse

I enable Express and the speeds plummet to 300s.

Is that with the WireGuard protocol or the OpenVPN protocol?

6

Journey said:
@Jesse
I enable Express and the speeds plummet to 300s.

Is that with the WireGuard protocol or the OpenVPN protocol?

Express doesn’t use WireGuard, they call theirs Lightway. I wish my speeds were at 300s. Right now on my phone I’m getting 268 up and 104 down. On my Firestick, it’s about the same, 110 up and 75 down.

7

@Jesse

Express doesn’t have WireGuard.

I’ve never used ExpressVPN, but I’m surprised they don’t offer the WireGuard protocol.

The person who posted this said they get around 800 Mbps in download speed without a VPN and only around 300 Mbps with ExpressVPN.

ExpressVPN not supporting the WireGuard protocol probably explains that huge difference. About 300 Mbps sounds very normal for the OpenVPN protocol.

It could also be due to a heavy load on the ExpressVPN server being used, but OpenVPN could never reach around 800 Mbps even with a low load on the server.

With the WireGuard protocol, the person who posted this would likely reach 700 to 750 Mbps.

8

@Journey
Yeah, my speed is way better when the VPN is off and when I’m on the automatic setting for the protocol. Using Lightway, like I said, doesn’t show a big difference, but I’m nowhere near 800 even when the VPN is off.

9

@Jesse

But nowhere near 800 even when the VPN is off.

Most folks don’t actually need 800 Mbps. You can stream HD videos just fine with only 30 Mbps for each concurrent video stream.

Unless you like to download a lot of big files, you don’t really need speeds around 800 Mbps.

10

@Journey
I get that. What I’m saying is I’ve never been near 800 Mbps but I’ve also never been at 300 Mbps.

11

Jesse said:
@Journey
I get that. What I’m saying is I’ve never been near 800 Mbps but I’ve also never been at 300 Mbps.

I’ve never been near 800 but also never been at 300.

You won’t miss it. The speeds on your phone you mentioned are pretty good.