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There are a couple of reasons your NordVPN may be slow starting. First, this VPN slows down your connection mostly when its servers are busy encrypting the data going to and from your connected device. Also, you’ll most likely experience this issue if you connect to an overcrowded server.
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Table of Contents
How slow is NordVPN?
A VPN is one of the most reliable tools that you can rely on to keep your internet service private. It offers tons of excellent benefits to us. For instance, VPN (or virtual private network) helps to bypass geo-locked content.
A reliable VPN provides safety through anonymity and helps to secure connections. One setback of most virtual private network connections, however, is that they sometimes tend to slow down network connections.
The NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN service providers out there. As reliable as it is, it also slows down internet connection speeds. According to NordVPN, you need to expect some slowdown when using the service.
The company further noted that by connecting to any of its closest servers using the OpenVPN UDP protocol, you should expect up to 30% off your internet connection speeds. Here’s a brief of what NordVPN says on its speed and bandwidth support page:
“If you are connected to the closest available server through OpenVPN UDP, you can expect around a 30% drop in speed. If that’s too slow, you can use the NordLynx protocol instead, which provides much better speed.”
The bottom line is that NordVPN isn’t the only VPN provider that slows down internet connection speeds; all VPN services do. Many factors contribute to why that’s so.
The “distance to a server” and the type of protocol used, are two of the factors that make VPN slow down the internet speed. With NordVPN; you’ll most likely achieve up to a 30% drop in your internet speeds if you connect to the closest server but make use of the OpenVPN UDP protocol. That’s exactly how slow your NordVPN can be – if you make use of a poor internet protocol.
Why is NordVPN slow starting?
Several different factors contribute to why your NordVPN could slow start. One of them is if you connect to an overcrowded NordVPN server. Yes, server load has an impressive effect on how slow or fast your internet connection will be.
Other factors that contribute to why your NordVPN may be slow starting include the distance of the server to you, the type of network protocol you’re using, encryption quality, and your ISP’s internet speed. Let’s take these factors one at a time and see how they could affect your internet connection speed.
Server load
Server load is, arguably, the most common factor that makes VPN slow start. The higher the load on a particular server you’re connected to, the slower your internet connection speeds will become.
What I’m trying to say is that if you end up connecting to an overcrowded NordVPN server, you’ll most likely experience this “slow-starting” issue. The solution to this issue is pretty simple; all you need is to change your NordVPN server to a less crowded one.
Server location
Is the NordVPN server you’re connected to the closest to you? This is one question you need to ask yourself whenever you’re experiencing a slow starting issue when connecting with your NordVPN.
The closer you are to a NordVPN server, the higher your chances of enjoying a fast internet speed and vice versa. However, there are a couple of exceptions to that anyways.
That said, the bottom line is that your proximity to the NordVPN server is another factor that causes the slow starting issue. To address this problem, all you need is to connect to a pretty close server, which has fewer people connected to it.
Encryption issue
One of the key features of all virtual private networks is encryption. With encryption, your online data will be protected and inaccessible to hackers.
NordVPN uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 256-bit keys. This is high-quality encryption, which helps to defend many governmental organizations, such as the NSA.
One thing you need to understand about NordVPN is that; once you use it, all the data going to and from your connected device will have to first go through their servers. The reason for that is to keep your internet traffic encrypted and out of hackers’ reach.
The only problem, however, is that during the process of encrypting the data, your internet connection speeds will most likely decrease because of the high quality of the encryption. This is another factor that could make you experience the NordVPN “slow-starting” issue.
Your ISP’s internet speed
Your ISP’s internet speed could be the reason why your NordVPN is slow starting. Yes, if your is low, two key things that you can suspect for the slow-starting issue are your VPN and your ISP’s internet speed.
That said, to be sure the problem isn’t directly from your NordVPN, you need to first log out the VPN. After that, confirm that your internet connection speed is okay and stable. If not, maybe the issue on the ground is directly from your ISP’s internet speed and not the NordVPN itself.
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How do you fix NordVPN stuck on connecting?
If you’re unable to connect with your NordVPN, there are several different workarounds that you can use to address this annoying issue. Let’s have a quick look at some of them below:
Consider trying other NordVPN servers
Most times, if you notice your NordVPN is stuck on connecting, maybe the NordVPN server you’re connected to is down. To address this issue, the best you can do is to try connecting to a few different servers closer to you.
Logout and login back to your NordVPN account
Another way to address the issue of NordVPN getting stuck while connecting is to log out of your account in the app. After that, consider logging in to the account again. Next, reconnect the NordVPN and try using the closest server to you.
Uninstall and install the NordVPN app again
If after trying the methods above you still notice that the connecting issue hasn’t been resolved, you can consider this approach. It requires you to uninstall your NordVPN app.
After that, reboot your connected device and install the VPN app again. Next, consider reconnecting the NordVPN app and see if the issue has been resolved.
Consider changing your internet protocol
Earlier, in this post, I mentioned that “the closer you are to a NordVPN server, the higher your chances of enjoying a fast internet speed and vice versa.” In addition to that, I also mentioned that there’s an exception to this rule.
Well, the exception is that – even if you make use of the closest NordVPN server, you can still experience a slow-start or a situation where your VPN gets stuck on connecting.
Internet protocols play an essential role in how well your VPN performs. According to NordVPN, even if you use the closest server, you could still experience a 30% decrease in your internet speed if you use the OpenVPN UDP.
That said, the bottom line is that you can always fix the issue of NordVPN getting stuck by changing your internet protocol anytime you start experiencing the problem.
Check your network
Interestingly, it could be that the issue of “your NordVPN getting stuck on connecting” is caused by your network and not the VPN itself. If after trying the above-listed methods the issue persists, the next thing you can do is to try connecting another device on the same network. This way, you can be very sure exactly where the issue is coming from.
