GPN vs VPN for gaming: what gamers really need and when your ping drops

If you play online and struggle with a fluctuating ping or attacks on your own connection, you quickly run into two terms: GPN and VPN. Both route your game traffic through a server in between, and both promise a better gaming experience. They solve different problems, though, and neither of them lowers your ping in every case.

This guide explains what a gamer private network (GPN) actually does, what a VPN changes while gaming, when your ping drops with a server in between and when it rises, how to measure that yourself before you order, and how to hide your home IP with your own VPN server and what helps if it is already known.

What a gamer private network (GPN) is

Gamer private network, or GPN for short, is what players call a service that routes the traffic of a game through the provider's own server network to the game server. The goal is a shorter or more stable route than the one your internet provider picks. Usually only the game traffic runs through the service, while your browser, downloads and every other program keep going straight to the internet.

There is no technical standard behind the term. What a given service does exactly, whether it encrypts, which games it supports and how it picks its routes therefore differs from provider to provider.

How a GPN routes your game traffic

A program on your computer detects the game's traffic and sends it to the nearest node of the service. From there it travels through the provider's network to a node close to the game server and only then to the server itself. The game server therefore sees the address of that last node. Some services also send packets over several paths at once, so that a packet lost on one path still arrives on another.

One limit applies to every such service: no route gets shorter than the distance. In optical fiber, light needs about one millisecond for 100 kilometers there and back. A GPN can therefore only lower your ping if your internet provider's route takes a detour or is congested along the way.

What a VPN changes while gaming

A VPN builds an encrypted tunnel from your device to a VPN server. From there your traffic goes to the internet as usual, including to the game server. For players, that has three consequences.

A different IP for other players and game servers

The outside world sees the IP of the VPN server, not the IP of your connection. Game servers, other players in peer-to-peer lobbies and voice apps with direct connections only see that address as long as the traffic runs through the tunnel. With a subscription VPN service you usually share that address with many other customers, while with your own VPN server, only your server uses that static IP.

Encryption costs hardly any time

Modern VPN protocols based on WireGuard, such as AmneziaWG, which the AmneziaVPN app sets up on our VPN servers, encrypt so efficiently that the processing time on a current device is barely measurable. For your ping, almost only the route your packets take matters.

A detour via the VPN server's location

With a VPN, your packets first travel to the VPN server and from there to the game server. Whether this detour raises or lowers your ping depends on where the VPN server is located and how good your provider's direct route is. That is exactly what the section after next is about.

GPN vs VPN: a direct comparison

In short: a GPN aims to improve the route, a VPN moves the visible endpoint. Your own VPN server combines both if its location is well placed: you get your own IP and play via a short route to the game server.

Does a VPN lower your ping? When it drops and when it rises

The math is simple: with a VPN, your ping is made up of two legs, from you to the VPN server and from the VPN server to the game server. Without a VPN, only the route your internet provider picks directly counts. A VPN helps exactly when the sum of both legs is smaller than the direct route.

When a VPN can lower your ping

• Your provider takes a detour. Not every internet provider is directly connected to every network. Traffic to a game server in a neighboring country then sometimes runs via a distant hub. A VPN location with better connectivity can cut that detour short.
• Interconnects are congested in the evening. At peak times, the connection points between some networks run short of capacity, your ping fluctuates and packets get lost. A VPN location connected through other interconnects avoids that bottleneck.
• The network slows down certain kinds of traffic. Some networks, for example in hotels, dorms or on mobile carriers, block or throttle individual ports and types of traffic. Inside the tunnel, they only see encrypted VPN traffic.

When a VPN raises your ping

• The VPN location is off the route. If you and the game server are close to each other but the VPN server is far away, your packets travel the distance twice.
• The direct route is already good. If your provider is connected directly and without a bottleneck, a VPN can at best be just as good.
• The problem is at home. Weak Wi-Fi, a maxed-out upload or an overwhelmed router cause delays before the tunnel even starts. Neither a VPN nor a GPN changes that.

A worked example

Say your direct ping to the game server is 48 milliseconds because your provider routes the traffic via a detour. You measure 14 milliseconds to the VPN location, and from the VPN location to the game server it is 12. Via the VPN you then end up at around 26 milliseconds. If your direct ping were 20 milliseconds instead, the same VPN location would be a detour of 6 milliseconds. These numbers are made up; you measure your real values as described in the section on measuring before you order.

Protecting your home IP from DDoS attacks

Attacks on players are almost always aimed at the connection, not the computer: a flood of packets clogs the line and the game drops. The address mostly becomes known in peer-to-peer lobbies, where every participant knows the addresses of the others, in self-hosted rounds and for streamers who are visible to many viewers. Which other ways exist and which myths are wrong is covered in the guide Protect your IP address while gaming.

With a VPN, other players and game servers see the IP of the VPN server. An attack on that address then hits the VPN server instead of your connection at home. What matters, therefore, is how well the VPN server itself is protected. At KernelHost, every VPN plan includes 3.2 Tbps DDoS protection that filters common flood attacks.

This applies to addresses that only become known after you switch. If an attacker already knows your home IP, they can keep attacking it directly, even when you have long been playing via the VPN. So get a new IP from your internet provider once after switching; with many connections, reconnecting the router is enough. Also route voice chat and other programs that connect directly to other players through the VPN.

If you are attacked in a targeted and repeated way, add Advanced DDoS Protection to the Dedicated Gaming VPN Europe or the Dedicated Basic VPN Europe in Frankfurt am Main. With protection profiles per port and protocol, it is designed for exactly these attacks. The Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN and the Dedicated High Speed Unlimited Traffic VPN have 3.2 Tbps DDoS protection at every location; if you need the best possible protection, choose the Gaming VPN in Frankfurt with Advanced DDoS Protection. How to harden a VPN server yourself, for example with a rate limit for the connection handshake, is covered in the article Protect a VPN server from DDoS.

Choosing the right VPN location

The rule of thumb: the VPN server belongs on the route between you and the game server, so close to you or close to the game server. A location far off that route almost always costs ping.

Players in Europe

Many European game servers are located at major internet hubs such as Frankfurt am Main, Amsterdam or London, and Frankfurt am Main is one of the best connected internet locations in Europe. The Dedicated Gaming VPN Europe runs there in our own network (AS6753), with a 1 Gbit/s uplink across premium carriers. For players in Germany and its neighboring countries, Frankfurt is therefore often an obvious choice.

More locations in Europe and worldwide

The Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN is available at up to 25 locations worldwide, including several more places in Europe. Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Poland and Canada come without a surcharge, while Helsinki, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Sines in Portugal, Istanbul, Washington DC, Chicago, Santa Clara, São Paulo, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, Almaty, Tashkent, Baku, Dubai, Johannesburg and Sydney carry a location surcharge. If, for example, you play in the United Kingdom or Poland, a location in London or Warsaw is closer than Frankfurt; if you play from South Korea on a server in Japan, Seoul and Tokyo are on the route. The shop shows which locations can be ordered right now and what they cost. You choose the location when you order, and changing it later is only possible with a new order. So measure first. The server location map shows every location.

Several players or high throughput

A VPN server can be used with several devices: the Gaming VPN with up to 10 devices, the Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN with up to 100 VPN profiles. For a group that also streams or downloads large games, there is the Dedicated High Speed Unlimited Traffic VPN with 2 Gbit/s and unlimited VPN profiles, in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Poland and Canada, and with the Europe option also in Italy, depending on availability. All devices then appear to the outside world with the same IP.

Measure it yourself before you order

Whether a VPN location lowers your ping can only be shown by a measurement from your own connection. For that, you need the IP of the game server. Many games show it in the server list or the console; on Windows you can also find it in Resource Monitor on the Network tab while the game is running.

For the Gaming VPN and the Basic VPN in Frankfurt

Two measurements help here. First, measure the ping from your computer to our network in Frankfurt, on Windows like this:

ping -n 20 lg.kernelhost.com

On Linux and macOS the command is:

ping -c 20 lg.kernelhost.com

Then use ping, traceroute or MTR in the Looking Glass to measure the route from Frankfurt to the IP of the game server. The sum of both values roughly equals your ping via the VPN. If it is below the ping your game shows without a VPN, the route via Frankfurt pays off. The Looking Glass is free and needs no account, see the page Test server and Looking Glass for details.

For the Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN and the High Speed VPN

There is no Looking Glass for the locations of the Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN and the Dedicated High Speed Unlimited Traffic VPN, not even in Germany: neither runs in our own network, so the Frankfurt values do not carry over. Request a test IP for the location you want via a ticket and measure from your own connection, with MTR on Linux and macOS and with pathping on Windows:

mtr -rwc 50 203.0.113.50
pathping 203.0.113.50

Here, 203.0.113.50 stands for the test IP. You estimate the second leg of the route from the geography: if the game server is in the same city or region as the VPN location, that leg is short.

Compare with and without the VPN after ordering

The most meaningful comparison happens in the game itself: the same server, once with and once without the VPN, ideally also at peak time in the evening. KernelHost's VPN plans are PrePaid with no minimum term, so one month is enough for an honest test.

The limits of a VPN for gaming

• Anti-cheat and VPN blocks. Some games and anti-cheat systems classify addresses from data centers as VPN across the board and reject them. One example is the "ISP Blocked" message Rust uses to turn such connections away. A static IP used only by your server stands out less often than the shared addresses of large VPN services, but nobody can promise it: whether a game accepts the address is decided by the game alone.
• Game rules. Some games prohibit switching regions via a VPN. Read your game's terms of use before you choose a location in another region.
• No fix for problems at home. Wi-Fi dropouts, a maxed-out upload or an overwhelmed router remain with a VPN.
• No anonymity. A VPN only shifts who sees your traffic. The trade-off between a VPN service and your own server is covered in the article Own VPN server vs. VPN service.

Your own VPN server instead of a subscription: the plans at KernelHost

Your own VPN server differs from a subscription in one fundamental point: the IP other players see is used only by your server, and you have full root access. You set it up with the free AmneziaVPN app and the root login from your welcome email, with no VPN knowledge needed; the app installs the WireGuard-based AmneziaWG protocol on its own. If you prefer plain WireGuard or OpenVPN, you install it yourself, as described in Set up a WireGuard VPN server.

Every plan comes with a static IPv4 that is never shared with other customers, DNS protection against ads, trackers and known malicious sites, port forwarding and full root access. Basic and Gaming also include a /64 IPv6 subnet and a firewall panel in the customer area, the Dedicated High Speed Unlimited Traffic VPN has one IPv6 address, and the Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN offers IPv6 depending on the location. All plans are PrePaid with no minimum term, and the page Private VPN server shows the current prices.

How much traffic gaming needs

Game traffic itself is small: most online games only transfer a few dozen to a few hundred megabytes per hour. Large volumes come from game downloads, updates and voice and video streams. If all of that runs through the VPN, a plan with unlimited traffic is the more relaxed choice; for pure gaming, the fair use volume of Gaming and Basic is usually plenty.

Summary

• A gamer private network (GPN) usually routes only the game traffic through a provider's network and aims to shorten the route to the game server.
• A VPN moves the visible endpoint: other players and game servers see the IP of the VPN server instead of your home IP.
• Both only lower your ping if the route via the server in between is shorter or less congested than the direct route. Otherwise it rises.
• The VPN location belongs on the route between you and the game server. Measure first: with the Looking Glass for the Gaming and Basic VPN, and with a test IP via a ticket for every location of the Dedicated Unlimited Traffic VPN and the High Speed VPN.
• With your own VPN server, you get a static IP used only by your server. Attacks on that IP hit the VPN server with its 3.2 Tbps DDoS protection instead of your connection. If your home IP is already known, get a new one once after switching. For the best possible protection, Advanced DDoS Protection is available for the Gaming and Basic VPN.
• Some games block addresses from data centers. Whether a game accepts the address is up to the game.

You will find all plans, locations and current prices on the page Private VPN server.