Why do VPNs suck on Netflix or other VOD services?

[Priapus]

Recently, I got Netflix, which works great on my 10mb ADSL line. Hardly ever buffers and plays in HD. So, I decided to get a VPN account to access the US categories. However, the VPN drops my line speed by as much as 50%. When doing a speed test on Netflix app on my Xbox One S, it reports it as 3~4mb. Turn the VPN off, and line speed get reported as 8~9mb. :erm:

I tried a ExpressVPN as they offer the DNS approach (Much like UnoTelly did) - and also tried a few others, who I found out don't do that and only offer their services via apps, which I cannot run on my Xbox or ADSL router.

Anyone have any insight to this issue?

 

[quovadis]

Generally with no VPN = Netflix data hosted at local peering point in SA (Your connection doesn't leave the country)
With VPN = Your connection is routed via a VPN host (usually internationally) and then onto Netflix's US peer/host local to that provider. ie. You are using purely international bandwidth which is generally expensive and highly contended plus obviously the VPN provider will also experience heavy networking congestion etc during peak times.

 

[Priapus]

Generally with no VPN = Netflix data hosted at local peering point in SA (Your connection doesn't leave the country)
With VPN = Your connection is routed via a VPN host (usually internationally) and then onto Netflix's US peer/host local to that provider. ie. You are using purely international bandwidth which is generally expensive and highly contended plus obviously the VPN provider will also experience heavy networking congestion etc during peak times.

Whilst I understand the technical aspects of it, I never had this issue before with the likes of Unotelly (Who, btw don't support Netflix anymore) - VPNs should not be significantly slower than your connection speed.

 

[maumau]

I thought Netflix blocked all VPNs.

We certainly can't use ours.

EDIT: Tander beat me to it.

 

[Sinbad]

Whilst I understand the technical aspects of it, I never had this issue before with the likes of Unotelly (Who, btw don't support Netflix anymore) - VPNs should not be significantly slower than your connection speed.

Unotelly did not route video traffic, only authentication traffic. So you still got the stream from a local CDN.

 

[Priapus]

Unotelly did not route video traffic, only authentication traffic. So you still got the stream from a local CDN.

OH!.. So, all current VPNs can only reroute the actual traffic and not the authentication? If thats the case, then yeah, I get why the speed is affected. Thanks, Steven.