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VPN Bandwidth requirements

SpaceMagic

SpaceMagic

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 26, 2003
1,743
-5
Cardiff, Wales
Hi all :)

Just a quick question - I would like to set up a VPN at home, so that when I'm away I can connect through it to the internet.

With VPNs, does traffic go through the host server? Like:

MacBook -> VPN Server -> Website​

So that, say I were to stream video, would it have to go through the VPN server? OR, does the VPN Server simply encrypt the connect... use the GET command to, say YouTube, and then the MacBook itself downloads the video directly?

The reason I ask is that my home connection doesn't have a very fast UP so it wouldn't be that practical if this is the case.

Thanks in advance!
SM
 
Darwin

Darwin

macrumors 65816
Jun 2, 2003
1,082
0
round the corner
VPN traffic will go through the host, so your upload speed is going to be a bottleneck for things like video streaming. That being said for standard web browsing the slower upload isn't too big a deal when you consider the protection you gain from using VPN, not to mention the other advantages of using it.
 
W

wlh99

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2008
272
0
SpaceMagic said:
Hi all :)

Just a quick question - I would like to set up a VPN at home, so that when I'm away I can connect through it to the internet.

With VPNs, does traffic go through the host server? Like:

MacBook -> VPN Server -> Website​

So that, say I were to stream video, would it have to go through the VPN server? OR, does the VPN Server simply encrypt the connect... use the GET command to, say YouTube, and then the MacBook itself downloads the video directly?

The reason I ask is that my home connection doesn't have a very fast UP so it wouldn't be that practical if this is the case.

Thanks in advance!
SM
Click to expand...

I'm not following exacty what you want to do. Assuming that you are on the road and have a VPN to your home, then normally internet traffic will not go through the VPN, unless you specificly set it up to do so(which can easily be done). VPN sets up a virtual network adapter that will have an IP address on the same subnet as your home network. So traffic destined for that network is routed through the VPN, traffic anywhere else is not.

What is an example of what you want to accomplish?



Laptop from hotel -> VPN Virtual Adaptor(192.168.1.105) -> Internet(some IP assigned to you by the hotels DHCP) -> VPN server at home(IP assigned by your home ISP) -> Home Network(192.168.1.x)
|
-> Built in adaptor(same hotel IP as above) -> Internet(x.x.x.x)
 
E

exabytes18

macrumors 6502
Jun 14, 2006
287
0
Suburb of Chicago
I'm sure most, if not all, VPN servers are capable of compression on the fly. It doesn't help much for video streaming, but for text based stuff, you can see quite an improvement in throughput.
 
SpaceMagic

SpaceMagic

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 26, 2003
1,743
-5
Cardiff, Wales
Ah ok. I will give you an example.

There are some services in the UK which can only be viewed while in the UK due to them being paid by tax payers, etc.

For example, the most revered BBC iPlayer. As a UK national and a UK TV licence payer, I should be entitled to view the streaming TV shows. However the service is blocked to anyone not based in the UK.

When I moved abroad for a work placement a year ago, I still wanted to watch british TV (deutsches Fernsehen könnten mindestens ein bisschen besser werden, oder?) and so I connected to my University's VPN and told OSX to route everything through the VPN. BBC's iPlayer then worked perfectly and, because my uni is fibre based and a uk backbone hub, the speed was no issue.

Now. My family also has a house in italy (e se hai guardato il TV italiano... sai perché) and we stay here for the summer. Currently to watch BBC we are using iPlayer through my Uni's VPN. However, when I finish Uni I would like to be able to continue this connection.

That's where my idea of a home VPN server, so that our house in italy can connect through that to get a UK based IP. That way, we can listen to our favourite tv and radio shows and a whole host of other things which are increasingly become country specific.

Thanks!
 
W

wlh99

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2008
272
0
SpaceMagic said:
Ah ok. I will give you an example.

There are some services in the UK which can only be viewed while in the UK due to them being paid by tax payers, etc.

For example, the most revered BBC iPlayer. As a UK national and a UK TV licence payer, I should be entitled to view the streaming TV shows. However the service is blocked to anyone not based in the UK.

When I moved abroad for a work placement a year ago, I still wanted to watch british TV (deutsches Fernsehen könnten mindestens ein bisschen besser werden, oder?) and so I connected to my University's VPN and told OSX to route everything through the VPN. BBC's iPlayer then worked perfectly and, because my uni is fibre based and a uk backbone hub, the speed was no issue.

Now. My family also has a house in italy (e se hai guardato il TV italiano... sai perché) and we stay here for the summer. Currently to watch BBC we are using iPlayer through my Uni's VPN. However, when I finish Uni I would like to be able to continue this connection.

That's where my idea of a home VPN server, so that our house in italy can connect through that to get a UK based IP. That way, we can listen to our favourite tv and radio shows and a whole host of other things which are increasingly become country specific.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Gottcha. Yes VPN will work for that, and you would need to have all the traffic route through the VPN. I don't know what your ISP in the UK offers service wise, but my ISP in California allows users to VPN to it from anywhere. That way they can be sure we have secure access to their servers when we are not at the other end of the DSL.

Anyway, if your ISP offers something similar, you could avoid the upstream bandwidth limitation.
 
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