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A double hop VPN connection, also known as a double VPN or multi-hop VPN, takes online security a step further by routing your internet traffic through multiple separate VPN servers rather than just one.

I have not tried it

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After the game I’m watching ill test it out. But it doesnt seem really needed for streaming. I’m curious what “slight impact of connect speed” means.

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Did a quick check and i didnt see it on my Nvidia. Checked for updates too. Was available on my Samsung s22 and cut the speed by about half from 1 vpn to double.

Not a scientific test at all but my early results.

FYI you cant pick the same city for both locations. So i don’t know if the first location should be closer than the second location or vice versa.

Definitely seems more for ultra security purposes. Not something i think I’ll use for streaming.

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Hi @JPM69,

Thanks for testing it out and giving you your thoughts. I was wondering if there would be a need for it when streaming. My speeds drop by 2/3 with only one vpn with IPVANISH. Lol, hate to see how much more my streaming speeds would drop using “double hop vpn”.

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The way it works is the data is first encrypted by your client app, then sent to a second VPN server where it is encrypted again then sent the rest of the way.

Two problems here that I haven’t seen clarified is does it actually use two different servers, I haven’t used it personally, there isn’t any real reason that would be required to use different servers other than the name implies it.

A trace route of the hops along with some DNS lookups would give you some timing comparisons, (yes you can trace route a VPN connection.) It will also return time between hops. Some hops might not be shown but the timing would still be accurate.

As for speed, the big hit is the users client particularly for low end streaming devices with less powerful CPU, but that’s true, double hop or not and double hop doesn’t add any more overhead for that.

However if you actually route through two different servers that increases the hop count (number of routers used, so distance traveled). So distance and the two added encryption operations are the things that would have an affect on the speed.

The increased delay is probably not all that significant in that VPN providers equipment likely use servers with encryption coprocessors as that’s common today. Even higher end virtualized servers should take advantage of encryption coprocessors.

But the truth is, not trying to start a flame war here, the only real reason to use a VPN is to hide your IP, as far as streaming is concerned and for most Internet activity VPNs are a waste of time and money, particularly in the US and Canada.

You can make a case for encrypted DNS to hide the lookups from your ISP or just use a different public DNS server (not your ISPs) but they aren’t really paying that much attention to your traffic.

There are other reasons you might use a VPN, downloading or even torrents but for general streaming… not so much.

I know some of you disagree, that fine, you don’t have to tell me, I am well aware, but I have been in the business of networking for most of my adult life, teaching networking and as a network and security administrator so I do have some knowledge about how it works. You do you, as I always say, I am not trying to change minds here.

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Sounds great! If using a VPN slows you down why not use 2? :rofl:

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@Timwort,

Thanks for the feedback. I’m not really a tech person. But, found the article interest and decided to share. I can barely manage the one vpn connection, let alone two.

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You mentioned you have been in networking a long time.
A have a question.
If your isp supplies you a connections speed of 200mb max can a VPN make your connection speed go higher than that?

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The short answer is no.

But it is possible that the packet processing can be improved so your speed appears faster than normal, where normal is what you usually see.

I currently pay for 200 Mbps, I regularly test out at around 250, depending on the day, so there is that.

But as an example of a software speed up, Solaris 11 added a feature in the IP stack that would allow multiple packets to be modified and sent in large groups, the packets had to be identical. When I say I identical I mean same header properties and pay load SIZE, but the data itself would be different.

That’s exactly the kind of traffic you see when encrypting and decrypting a stream, the processor has to handle it regardless of wether it’s inbound or outbound traffic.

That’s common for certain repetitive tasks, so when you see comments that a special mode on Proton (@Miki :wink:) increases your speed it most likely that it’s increased in efficiency. I am sure it’s very possible to do that.

The laws of physics still apply, you can’t magically increase bandwidth but it can appear to be increased.

One more disclaimer, I am not here to change anybody’s mind, if you think it’s magic, that’s fine with me.

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Interesting. I have 300 MB Fiber with AT&T but Speed Tests are always around 380-390 MB. I remember asking the tech that installed it how could that be. I forget what he said but he said it had something to do with the location of something?

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It’s what I thought and have learned from research that a VPN can’t increase bandwidth.
All the VPN’s I have tried always decreased bandwidth.
I rarely use one nowadays as I no longer download and store media.

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Where the use of a multiple hop VPN is not needed currently for streaming content, it does have particular uses especially for needing a particular end location.
Obviously anything requiring additional movement will by necessity decrease download speeds but frankly speeds exceeding 120MB/s are overkill except for gaming platforms.
Why for most this is not a necessity now, we do not know what the future will hold and it may be a requirement to avoid ACE etc… in the future

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