You may have heard all those telltale about ISP throttling, and one of the reasons why you’re here is simply because you’re experiencing one of these signs. You get frustrated from slow connection when downloading files, torrenting, streaming your favorite TV series or buffering into low resolutions, and somehow, excessive lagging when you’re in the middle of your game.
If you believe that you’re not enjoying the most of your internet subscription plan and it’s slower than what it should be, chances are, your ISP might control your internet speed. So the real question is how to skip this dilemma and enjoy high-speed and safe connectivity?
Internet Throttling: What You Need To Know
Traffic-shaping or data throttling is a way to limit the internet speed at a given time for certain services, websites, or data types like streaming videos, to manage network congestion. To provide you with detailed information about why it happens, you can read here and find the best ways to prevent it from happening to you. Throttling affects higher-data activities such as file-sharing, online games, or streaming videos and sites.
Internet throttling is when the internet service provider (ISP) intentionally slows down the connection due to network congestion; your data limit has already reached, or delinquent bill payments. Even when you sign up for unlimited data, which is the nature of digital entertainment, most ISPs cannot uphold their promises, and in the end, tend to throttle bandwidth instead.
Whether you’re on a higher plan or not, your ISP can throttle your internet. While the common excuse is to provide an appropriate level for all users, preventing network congestion or bandwidth throttling is still possible. There are various yet effective ways to control your ISP, from limiting your internet speed to make the most of it.
In case you notice that your connectivity slows down, you may want to check your consumption to see if you’re near your data limit. However, if you’re into an unlimited subscription, better fit for cheap alternatives to prevent data throttling and get the most of your internet speed subscription.
- Throttling is done to manage network congestion, especially when its peak hours
- For traffic optimization and prioritization
- To enforce excessive data transfer restrictions
- To prevent DDoS attacks or threats
How To Prevent Bandwidth Throttling
While there has been speculation and myths about why ISPs are throttling your internet speed, finding alternatives and workarounds helps you save from frustrations of lags and buffering. Masking your online activity can prevent ISPs from deliberately limiting internet speed.
Whether you are sharing large files on the internet, streaming websites or videos, playing online games, and all, you would want your connection to staying on top and at high-speed. However, with technology and innovation, ISPs are progressively working out to adopt and detect multi-faceted processes to analyze traffic flows and classify data policies.
While it can be scary at times, especially when dealing with digital privacy, there are effective ways to protect your online activities and save yourself from frustrations due to data throttling. Here’s what you can do.
Proxy Servers To Prevent Throttling
Proxies are one of the best ways to prevent your ISP from deliberately reducing your internet speed. it’s routing your computer’s connectivity to a third-party gateway. It’s like a middleman when transferring or receiving data and files. By using a proxy, it hides actual data or traffic destination and ports numbers that are involved in the procedure.
One of the setbacks of using proxies is security through encryption. If your internet service provider uses state-of-the-art technologies and procedures, they can detect proxy encryptions as one of the most effective measures for throttling data. That way, generated traffic on your end is still identified, read, and they’ll act based on your online activities.
VPN is More Effective and Secured
While using proxies can be useful, at some point, with the emerging technology, ISPs can now detect the encryptions that they provide, and the best (most effective) way to hide your online activities is by using a VPN. A virtual private network is an effective way to encrypt all transferred data, both sent and received, into a robust virtual tunnel for your traffic to securely flow through.
ISPs cannot detect, classify, nor read your traffic. Your ISP can only see the data summary and destination of the server. Hence, your ISP cannot throttle traffic from your digital activities unless your ISP can limit your traffic with the subscription plan that you have. However, VPN is your best option for both speed and security if you’re on an unlimited subscription.
While most VPN can provide the best options, there are a few essential factors you should reconsider, like the following:
- No Logs Policy
- Server Selection
- VPN Protocols
- Server performance
- Kill Switch
- Torrenting and P2P Support
Conclusion
While you’ve heard tons of telltale about internet throttling and its effects on your connection, understanding it and finding alternative yet significant turnarounds can help you prevent its gruesome effects. Whether you want to retain high-speed connectivity and want to have security with your online activities, finding the right solution, whether using a VPN or proxies, can help you get the most of your subscription plan without compromising privacy and speed.