OS 10.12.6

I have unlimited bandwidth at the moment but that is about to change. Question: when you are downloading using VPN, does the server know how much bandwidth you are using?

jaybass

Pardon my diatribe on abuse of technical terminology, but please read my reply carefully and completely for full understanding.

Given that bandwidth is technically defined as "the maximum RATE of data transfer across a given path" (ie. MB/s - Mega Bytes per second or Mb/s Mega bits per second) the term "unlimited bandwidth" is a technical non-sequitur. Network bandwidth is determined by the speed of the slowest device in the entire data path beginning with the server providing the data to the WiFi or ethernet connection to our computer or device, which can vary from millisecond to millisecond. Regardless of its technical definition, the term is often misused abused in marketing to mean the provider is not putting a limit on the AMOUNT of data you can send or receive in a given billing period without penalty of one kind or another. Data servers and network servers know how MUCH data they are sending or receiving but have no knowledge of the RATE at which you are receiving or sending that data and generally little concern about the bandwidth per. se. VPN charges are typically by time (hour, week, month, year) so they have no particular concerns with bandwidth so long as they have enough bandwidth to satisfy customer requirements. My experience has been that VPN encryption may slightly increase the AMOUNT of data but will reduce the bandwidth (Ie. slows the data RATE) by 30% or more. But that has negligible impact on the billable AMOUNT of data going through the network provider's server.

Joe, thanks for the clarification. The bottom line is my server is aware of the amount of data being used.

jaybass

Your conclusion may be true, but joemikeb said: "But that has negligible impact on the billable AMOUNT of data going through the network provider's server." So I would ask: if you are using a VPN are you going through your network provider's server?

Because your provider is your gateway to the internet all of your incoming and outgoing traffic flows THROUGH the network provider's servers and could be billable. So as in using a VPN on a your iPhone connected via a cellular data network you pay for both the data and the VPN services.

My question is, "why are you using a VPN?"

Ira,

Forgive my ignorance, but when I use VPN, where else could the data go? Is there an alternative?


jaybass

Well that was my question. Wikipedia says "A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated circuits or with tunneling protocols over existing networks." So my thought was that the point-to-point connection may bypass your local ISP's servers. In his post above joemikeb says that is not the case.

The answer is they use tunneling protocols and the tunneling protocol message packets are data. Just because your provider does not know the content of those packets, what their final destination is or where they came from, they are still data that passes through their servers and count against any data limits.

NOTE: With a common VPN there is typically only one jump so even though you are in say Fort Worth, TX it could appear you are in London, UK. While it can be difficult to trace such a message packet to the actual point of origin, it is still feasible and not much of a trick to know you are using a VPN.. With "onion routing" the packet may go through three or more servers between source and destination making it far more difficult to backtrack. But even "onion" routing does not prevent the source from being identifiable based on unique characteristics created by each device that are carried in the message packets. That does not mean your actual name and address, but your computer's unique signature based on make, model, OS, browser, installed software, etc.. There are browsers that can turn off or disguise the signature, but in the process it can make all but the simplest web sites inaccessible or unusable. Marketeers, and others, more and more depend on that signature to track where you, or at least your computer, goes on the internet and what you look at and arguably reduce the efficacy of VPNs.