Why people use VPNs
Customers often use a VPN for privacy, regional routing, or network consistency. It can also help identify whether a local ISP path is causing playback issues.
When a VPN can slow things down
Some VPN endpoints add latency or reduce throughput. If performance drops after enabling a VPN, test a closer server or briefly compare playback without it.
Troubleshooting sequence
Test the same channel with and without the VPN, then compare a second device on the same network. This tells you whether the issue is app-specific, device-specific, or route-specific.