There are a multitude of online debates raging about the use of gaming vpns like the big E/L/M
Anecdotally I want to say they work but whenever I say this in a public forum I get clowned on by 'networking' gurus who know so much more than me.
I'm no expert but from chatgpt/google/online articles I have surmised the below.
Those vpns dont lower your physical ping across x distance. What they can/claim to do is perhaps make your ping better by efficient routing IF you have ASS routing to begin with. (assume your physical hardware is not the bottleneck)
E.g Aus to Japan has a MINIMUM ping of ~100ms due to raw distance. In some instances, your ISP maybe taking a longer route from you to Jpn and you might get a ping of 180. A paid vpn in this case would reduce your ping to closer to 100, since they'd be using better infrastructure OR less physical hops to the destination i.e not sure maybe a less cogested underwater cable through the oceans?
The feedback I've gotten is:
-you're dumb ass no ISP would take a shit route as its against their quality of service
-stfu gaming vpns dont work
-All tech takes the best path vpns dont help at all
I've also been reading about the BGP and understand it automatically takes the best route (I.E should be the shortest path/best path to your destination anyway) BUT your ISP still may have parameters that inhibit this thus the higher ping and non consistent ping across diffrent ISP's
To test this (and yes its not the best method) I've been using RIPEatlas to find probes for some local isps and tracert some non oce game servers/locations to see the difference between them but obviously this is very flawed since not all probes are direct from the ISP and can severely be limited by local factors.
I've also spent time literally swapping ISPs to check in real time from my system and can see ping vary between games where the server is overseas.
I used jpn as the reference as i googled non oce games to check in real time and came across the below games to test - Throne and Liberty and a recent game Aion 2 whos closest servers to OCE are Jpn.
Most shit ISPs i tried gave me pings of around 180-200+
My main ISP got me 103-106.
- Don't want to advertise any VPN but of the the ones i tried (the main big ones) got the shit ISPs down to 110-130 and made a physical difference to gameplay responsiveness - anecdote i know, sue me.
-did not make a difference that i could see for my main ISP that was already on the near max of 103 ping - which makes sense given my explanation above.
Recently, one of those games had an update, im not sure of the mechanism but people were claiming it caused OCE to route differently to the local jpn servers, so my main ISP ping rose dramatically to 200-300 making it unplayable but as before, the VPNsi tried, brought it down to 120, and got back to responsive play.
Noone wants to have a conversation about this with me, theyre all just anti gaming VPN and i must be regarded to consider one so here I am hoping for some clarity online.
No i dont want to ignore the haters and play - i want to understand the tech and be able to support my arguments. List any further resources you might have that i can read