Can Using a VPN While Gaming Lower Ping? (Quick Guide)

Gaming is a favorite pastime for a lot of people all over the world. It helps that there are many versions to cater to the preferences of different people. Online games, especially those that allow simultaneous multiplayer runs, are quite popular according to online gaming statistics. Some of them include CSGO, Call of Duty, Overwatch, League of Legends, Mobile Legends, and the likes. See more online statistics here

However, gaming is not just all fun. It can be an exasperating experience if some things are not right. One of the problems that routinely crop up is high pings and lags. Having delays in connection while playing reduces the fun, can make you lose and open you up to attacks.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are often marketed as effective tools to tackle high pings and lags. But, how true are the assertions? This guided review looks at how effective or not VPNs are for tackling high pings and also other matters related to gaming.

Can a VPN Lower Ping?

Ping time refers to the time it takes for your data to travel from your device to the game’s server. When there is a high ping time, your network will begin to lag. As mentioned in the introduction, this can be frustrating. Imagine running to capture a treasure only to find out that your powers aren’t working as you thought they would? Also, in multiplayer games, you could lose because of lags. When your player does not respond quickly due to lags, your opponent could take advantage of their faster speed to finish you off.

Does a VPN help here? Yes. Most people use VPNs to stay protected while using the internet. However, a VPN also has other incidental benefits, such as helping you overcome high ping while gaming. VPN providers have servers in various countries. Connecting to any of the servers gives you an IP address compatible with the server’s location. Thus, if the game server you are connected to is far from your physical location, you can bridge the gap by connecting to a VPN server closer to the gaming server.

With the distance eliminated, your ping time should be lowered, which invariably should mean that you will not experience lags. Thus, this is goodbye to a frustrating gaming experience and unnecessary losses. Your data needs to travel to the VPN server and back. If your distance from the VPN server is long, you would still experience lags. The trick is to connect to a VPN server with a good distance between the game server and your physical location.

Other Benefits of Using a VPN While Gaming

Beyond lowering your ping time, you have other benefits when you use a VPN. Here are some of them:

Keeps You Safe While You Game

A VPN’s primary job is to keep users’ safe as they use the internet. This is regardless of the activities they are carrying out online. Specifically, there are security challenges that you could experience from gaming online. A VPN helps eliminate most of them.

One such security threat is DDoS attacks. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack occurs when a person maliciously overloads an IP address, causing it to shut down. An opponent can intentionally do this to take you out. There are also the man-in-the-middle attacks. These occur when a hacker intercepts data traveling from your device to a server. This is rife when people use public networks. Such attacks can lead to the loss of personal data.

In each of the cases above, a VPN keeps you safe. It encrypts your connection, making it impossible for anyone to hack or decrypt.

Prevents Swatting

Swatting has become worrisome in recent times. Swatting refers to prank emergency calls, asking the police to send a team to an address. When this happens, innocent bystanders could get arrested and even taken into custody.

There have been reports of disgruntled opponents tracking players down using their IP addresses and then swatting them. Of course, the hacker will need more than just your IP address. To get your home address, they will typically have to hack into your social media. However, your IP address is the starting point for it.

A VPN hides your exact IP address. Instead, it replaces yours with an IP address that it provides. This throws off anyone tracking you.

Helps Evade Geo-restrictions

A VPN also comes in handy for overcoming geo-restrictions. For example, some gaming companies only make games or their features available to people in specified locations. Similarly, they could have early releases of games available in some places, neglecting others.

You can overcome this by using a VPN. You simply need to connect to a VPN server in the location you want. That way, you will be able to unblock the content restricted to that location. You can also enjoy early releases this way. However, bear in mind that some game companies may not be comfortable with this arrangement.

ISP Throttling

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) throttles your traffic in some specific instances. They do this to reduce congestions on their servers and also to make bandwidth and data available to all users. Hence, when they detect that you are using up a lot of bandwidth to game or stream content, they limit your traffic.

However, with a VPN encrypting your traffic, your ISP will be unaware of your online activities. So in that instance, they will have no reason to throttle your traffic or lower your speed.

Factors To Consider When Choosing a VPN for Low Ping

In the light of all discussed, you may be looking to cop a gaming VPN for Low. Well, that is a smart move. However, there are many providers in the market. Here are the factors to prioritize when settling for a gaming VPN:

Speedy and Stable Connection

The ideal gaming VPN should have speedy and stable connections. You do not want to be bogged down with a slow VPN while trying to escape lags while gaming. It is possible to find out how speedy the VPN connection is by running a speed check. Some VPN providers allow you to do that right on their websites.

Server Strength

Your VPN of choice should have servers in multiple locations. The number of servers the VPN has could impact its speed. This is because a large server spread will prevent user congestion.

Additionally, you may want to consider specific VPN locations. This is usually the case if you are looking to get past geo-restrictions on some platforms. In such a case, the provider you choose should have servers in those specific locations. You can confirm this by going to the provider’s website. Most VPN services typically list the regions they have servers in. You may also want to read some reviews just to be sure.

Security

A VPN should keep you safe. The provider you choose should have strong enough features to prevent the different security challenges we listed above. In that case, such a provider will have AES 256-bit encryption technology. This is the industry standard and ensures that even if anyone were to intercept your traffic, they could never be able to decrypt it or infiltrate your network. Additional security features include a kill switch, split tunneling features, obfuscated servers, dedicated IP addresses, and so on.

Price

The VPN you settle for should be affordable. It hardly makes sense to spend too much money on software like a VPN. Thus, you should always consider the offer from multiple providers. Luckily, you can find those who offer free services or those who give bonuses or discounts. Basically, whatever your budget is, you will find a VPN service that fits.

Device Compatibility

The last criterion that we check out is device compatibility. This is crucial because it’d be a waste to pay for a VPN service if it cannot work on your device. Thus, always confirm the devices that the VPN provider has native apps for. If yours is not included, then also check if the provider is compatible with routers. With routers, you can connect your devices to the VPN. It is also a reliable means to get non-traditional devices under VPN coverage. Non-traditional devices here refer to PS 4s, Ps 5s, and even Xboxes.

Top Recommended VPN Services To Reduce Ping Time

We have two VPN services guaranteed to increase your speed and eliminate any lags you experience while gaming. They are:

Conclusion

High ping time is one of the many challenges you could face while gaming online. There are several suggested ways to solve the problem, but we believe using a VPN is the best. This review tells you how to reduce ping using a VPN and the best VPNs to use.