Gaming overseas with a VPN

[RicKuRuKuS]

Hello all, just started looking at VPN services as my new job has me traveling internationally far more than domestically and I am somewhere every 10 days or so overseas and primarily use my laptop for gaming (cod, rocket league, etc.). I was looking into them and Nord specifically for now but open to suggestions. Go to places such as Asia, South America, Europe, and South Africa. Any tips to find best connection to game with friends in US from hotels while using a VPN?

Thanks in advance

 

[GotNoRice]

I would try it without the VPN in each location if possible. Only use the VPN if you really need it. Just due to the basic nature of what a VPN does, you are increasing the number of hops between your computer and the game server; potentially by a large amount. That will add latency, possibly even making multiplayer unplayable.

 

[MrGuvernment]

Nord or Proton are your best 2 choices. Most others sell your data, even some paid ones.

As said above though, try to game with out it. If you have a bad connection, a VPN wont help.

 

[Nicklebon]

I can tell you from personal experience FPS games hosted on US servers will be less than satisfying when played from Asia. Other game type will likely work better but be prepared to experiment to find ones that work well for you and your friends. I tunnel all traffic back to home when traveling. For at least the last 15 years my friends and I do a once a week game night. A buddy hosts the servers. We are local and on the same ISP and as a result my game server pings are low single digit from home. When I was traveling frequently I would join using the VPN. From Ulan Ude ping times were closer to 300ms average. FPS games resulted in just being owned. Some RTS games worked okay others worked well in the early stages and not so well as the games progressed.

 

[SamirD]

I can tell you from personal experience FPS games hosted on US servers will be less than satisfying when played from Asia. Other game type will likely work better but be prepared to experiment to find ones that work well for you and your friends. I tunnel all traffic back to home when traveling. For at least the last 15 years my friends and I do a once a week game night. A buddy hosts the servers. We are local and on the same ISP and as a result my game server pings are low single digit from home. When I was traveling frequently I would join using the VPN. From Ulan Ude ping times were closer to 300ms average. FPS games resulted in just being owned. Some RTS games worked okay others worked well in the early stages and not so well as the games progressed.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Did you see ping times drop to the server when you were tunneled back into home or where they more or the same? Just curious since a lot of clouds are all about lan speeds in the cloud and using those as on and off ramps in theory should reduce latency.

 

[Nicklebon]

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Did you see ping times drop to the server when you were tunneled back into home or where they more or the same? Just curious since a lot of clouds are all about lan speeds in the cloud and using those as on and off ramps in theory should reduce latency.

The vpn overhead and extra hops actually added a cpl ms vs direct. In my case the games were hosted on the same ISP and city as home. There was no cloud hosting involved. Locally the ping times are typically less than 3ms between us.

 

[MrGuvernment]

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. Did you see ping times drop to the server when you were tunneled back into home or where they more or the same? Just curious since a lot of clouds are all about lan speeds in the cloud and using those as on and off ramps in theory should reduce latency.

You would need a provider that uses some serious back ends like Equinox and them...which would cost more.