VPNs: A Solution to Internet Throttling and Constant Buffering

There is great debate over the throttling of certain web sites and applications by internet service providers in the last couple of years. The most prominent one includes the data-demanding Netflix fighting ISPs like Comcast and Verizon. But is that really the case? If so, what are the solutions that the average internet user can take to get the most out of their internet connection?

According to this article, using a Virtual Private Network, (VPNs) or third party DNS service might prove to be useful for some users. These services are usually employed to protect anonymity and to evade country-specific restrictions that might exist on different websites. They effectively reroute internet traffic to go through their own servers which makes it seem that the signal is originating from a location different than the user's. Because of this extra step that the data has to take, internet packet travel time could be increased since the number of nodes it has to travel through is larger.

Theoretically, it should slow down the users' internet connection slightly while providing those services since the regular internet operates on a shortest-paths system. However many users report that streaming quality is vastly improved with such a VPN. While it's impossible to conclude why that is the case, since there are many factors that play a role in packet delivery, it's definitely worth a shot. They may simply be routing around some network congestion, or in fact bypassing the throttling actions of companies, which might or might not exist. According to countless posts on different forums from FIOS customers, the only solutions are either that or switching to a new ISP.

I drew lots of inspiration for this blog post from my own personal experience while attempting to watch PBS's Frontline about NSA surveillance over the weekend. While paying $80 for a 60 mb/s connection, I could not get the video to stop buffering at least every 15 seconds, at 234p. In my mind, this is simply outrageous. Being able to write a complete blog post during the buffering moments of a documentary really shows how little control the customers have over the service that should theoretically be supplying enough bandwidth to stream 4 4K videos with no issues.

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