Most VPN providers offer both TCP and UDP connections to their VPN servers. But which of the two protocols is better for you?
Here is a comparison.
TCP VPN pros:
- a TCP connection is more reliable: after a TCP packet is sent, an ACK packet is received as a reply to confirm acknowledgement. But it’s not always the case with VPNs
- TCP connections are usually allowed in firewalled networks on common ports like 80, 443, while UDP traffic may be blocked, usually in corporate networks
TCP VPN cons:
- somestimes a TCP VPN connection is slower than UDP, so you might want to look for VPN providers offering L2TP or OpenVPN on UDP for faster connections.
UDP VPN pros:
- usually faster speeds on UDP VPN connections Vs. TCP VPNs. UDP is ideal for video/audio streaming and P2P traffic
- recommended on OpenVPN connections, especially those running over non-blocked ports such as 53/UDP (DNS)
UDP VPN cons:
- sometimes it is unreliable, as UDP protocol does not guarantee delivery of packets.
bottom line: if you use your VPN to surf the web, send emails, and want the VPN traffic to be stealthier, then a TCP VPN is right for you. If you need better speed, such as for audio & video streaming (Hulu, Netflix, Pandora etc.), an UDP VPN is what you should use.
Hi,
I don’t know much about this, my question is: are these protocols encrypted?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Marco,
All info going out of your computer (if connected by VPN) are ALWAYS encrypted at a 128 or 256 bits level (most VPN client apps will let you choose which encryption level between those 2 you prefer to use) . Just keep in mind that the higher the encryption level you use (256 bit vs 128 bit) the slower your computer gets to send the data …. i.e. more time is needed to encrypt at a high level.