When you are going to play online, it is essential that you have a good connection. If the speed is poor or there are interruptions, you may have difficulty accessing a game. That means you have to check very carefully what may be going wrong. Now, is there anything wrong with using a VPN and play online? We are going to explain why having this program activated can be a problem and what you can do to solve it.
Please note that when using a VPN, the Internet connection may start to get worse. It tends to be slower, since the entire connection will go through an intermediary. You may even have difficulty using certain services that may be blocked, depending on the IP address you are using.
VPN can affect games
Yes, the truth is that having a VPN activated at play online, can cause problems. This is because you could be connected to a server in a distant country. When you start a game, you could experience very high latency and this will affect other members who are going to participate in that game.
You may need a VPN to improve security when connecting to public Wi-Fi or bypass geoblocks when streaming content, which can happen if you’re traveling in another country. But it could also have the unwanted effect of affecting your online gaming.
Exactly, what can happen is that the ping or latency increase considerably. It needs to be as low as possible to play online or make a video call, for example. It is the time, measured in milliseconds, that it takes for a packet to arrive on the network, from one device to another. If you are going to play with a person who is thousands of kilometers away, that ping will be higher than if you play with someone who is in the same country.
Therefore, our advice is that if you notice that you are having problems when playing online, disconnect the VPN. This will allow you to browse directly without going through an intermediary server, which will lower latency and have fewer errors.
Change server
An option that you also have available is to change to another server. If you use a good VPN, such as Surfshark or NordVPN, you will have multiple servers available that you can connect to. Ideally, you should choose one that is close to your location, so that it works as best as possible.
For example, if you’re traveling through Asia and need to connect to a VPN, you’re better off using a server in Japan or Hong Kong, to name a few, than connecting to one in Europe or America. The connection will work better and you will have fewer problems that could put the stability of the network at risk.
Therefore, as you can see, it is important to keep in mind that games can start to go wrong if you are connected to a VPN. You may even have problems with the VPN connected but without Internet, since the connection could slow down and prevent you from entering a game.
