After some serious frustrations with ATT 1GB Fiber service, where I would literally show speeds of over 650mbps but my devices would feel like they’re running on a 56k modem, including slow load times, YouTube crashes, etc. I went with SurfShark and have the client running from my tp-link X50 router. My speeds have went drastically down but everything feels faster. Is this normal? I feel like a speed guarantee is a farce if there’s going to throttling or data caps.
It sounds like maybe AT&T is having a performance problem with their DNS server(s). The Surfshark VPN client running on your router may use different DNS servers from AT&T.
If you are using WiFi for testing speed, then the speed is determined by the radio frequency you connect with and the distance from the router. VPN will always slow down the speed due to encryption required.
Yes. OP should turn off the VPN and change their DNS in their router to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 and test.
Understood. Still using it as an average baseline. The speed at the gateway is between 930-965mbps consistently. And I understand the VPN is bouncing, encrypting and coming back adding latency and speed loss. It just seems that from a speed experience of 650mpbs with no VPN, to like 20-30mpbs with VPN, I’m surprised it “feels” faster.
You may want to try a VPN exit point closer to home. 20-30 Mbps is kind of low for SurfShark.