Forgive me if this question sounds idiotic, for I am woefully inexperienced with networking. But would using a VPN like Windscribe assist with a less strict NAT type?
I tether from a mobile phone when playing Online Games, leading to strict NAT, thus making it difficult to connect to groups on games like Destiny2 or Warframe. The possible increase in ping isn’t really an issue for me since I live in South Africa and get 200+ ping to European players regardless.
Or are NAT types and VPNs completely unrelated and I am a complete idiot for asking?
Unrelated, but I also get throttled download speeds because south African IPs are scummy (low as 500kbps on LTE). I’m already considering getting a pro account, but if Wind scribe could help with these issues, it would definitely tip me me over.
–UPDATE 15/02/2020
After some testing, connecting to a server in Netherlands gives me a Moderate NAT type as opposed to Strict NAT. I suffer a ping increase of about 10-15. But that doesn’t make much of a difference considering I get 215± ping on a normal basis. I’ll definitely be using windscribe on Peer-to-peer games. Makes connecting to a host easier for some reason. Also, thanks for the gold ^^
NAT stands for Network Address Translation, which is more to do with the routing of the packets for example when connected to a Wi-Fi, so the correct packets go to the correct device on the network.
I think what you’re asking is more about whether there is a faster protocol. The standard is OpenVPN these days, but Wireguard is starting to become popular as it is much more efficient code. Unfortunately Windscribe hasn’t implemented that protocol just yet. But I digress… I think the best approach may be to find exactly where the servers are, local to the video game you wish to play, and try and connect to a location near there. Also, some factors to consider may be what time of day or night it is. For example, you want to play a game of Destiny 2… I believe their servers are in Las Vegas, Nevada. What I would do is check the times. If it is 2am in Las Vegas, then I would connect to a server in Las Vegas as there is less likely to be as many people using the VPN server. If it is 2am where you are, then I would try a local vpn Server.
Getting back to the protocol or mode, all I can suggest is you try them and see… connect to the default IKEv2 which should be the fastest. Run a speedtest.net. Connect to UDP, Speedetst, TCP, Speedtest… go through them all to a local server and compare the results. You may find that your provider is throttling your traffic and stealth mode may help fix that issue.
Hope this helps
the only other thing that I can think of is looking in the phone’s hotspot settings and make sure upnp is turned on.
Curious as to why you need a vpn to game as it can potentially cause extra latency/lag.
I don’t think it’s about protocol. Everytime I connect on windscribe with any protocol I always get strict NAT. This prevents me to play some online multiplayer games, some of them are simply won’t connect to server with strict NAT and only works on open NAT. The only way for me to play is to disconnect windscribe while playing. I’m using windscribe PC client though, not tethering from phone.