Don’t let ISP throttling slow down your Friday night.

• Have you noticed slow speeds on YouTube videos?
• Do Netflix videos take forever to load and buffer?
• Is your ISP throttling your streaming video traffic?
• Use a VPN to bypass throttling and peering conflicts.

WHAT IS ISP BANDWIDTH THROTTLING, EXACTLY?

With the rise of streaming video services like Netflix and HBO Go that  demand high bandwidth, ISPs have begun inspecting your data and  restricting your download speed if they detect packets from those  services. ISPs claim this is to reduce congestion on their networks, but  the truth is more complicated.

BANDWIDTH THROTTLING HURTS CUSTOMERS

Some ISPs already have the capability to handle the extra data but  choose to throttle content providers’ traffic because it competes with  their own streaming content libraries. Some ISPs have forced Netflix to  pay a fee to escape throttling, allowing the ISP to avoid paying for  much-needed upgrades. Lack of competition among ISPs and broadband  providers means that companies can even get away with overcharging  customers for faster internet.

WHAT IS PEERING?

Peering is  when two ISPs connect and exchange traffic. Mutually beneficial under  normal circumstances, peering causes problems when a popular streaming  service (such as Netflix) forces one ISP to exceed the agreed traffic  ratio, prompting the other one to ignore congestion and refuse to make  adjustments.

That means you could be denied the internet speeds  you paid for simply because your ISP refuses to resolve a peering  conflict with another company.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO BYPASS BANDWIDTH THROTTLING?

If your ISP is throttling your bandwidth, and switching providers is not  an option, the easiest solution is to connect through VPN. A VPN, or  virtual private network, encrypts your internet traffic,  hiding it from your service provider. It won’t be able to inspect the  data packets, so it won’t be able to throttle that traffic based on what  service you’re using. The result is pure, unrestricted streaming video.

HOW TO BYPASS PEERING CONFLICTS WITH A VPN

Using a VPN also solves the congestion caused by peering conflicts.  Instead of going through a third-party ISP to reach your content, your  traffic travels on a privately maintained network, taking the most  direct, least congested path between you and the content you love..