Why My VPN Made Netflix Buffer Even With a 180 Mbps Speed Test

The red loading circle stopped at 25 percent for the fourth time.

My speed test said 180 Mbps.

Netflix still would not play the final episode.

I was staying in a short-term rental in Florence, with less than an hour before I had to leave for the train station. Friends at home were already discussing the finale in a group chat, so I had muted notifications and opened the laptop over breakfast.

The episode began normally.

After thirty seconds, the picture softened.

Then it froze.

The loading circle appeared, advanced to 25 percent and remained there until Netflix returned me to the episode page.

I blamed the apartment television first. Its built-in streaming app felt slow, so I moved to the laptop and connected it through HDMI.

The same thing happened.

I restarted the router, reopened Netflix and tried again. The episode reached a different scene before buffering, but it did not last much longer.

Then I turned off the VPN.

Netflix began playing immediately in sharp, stable video.

That identified the cause, but it did not provide a solution I wanted to keep. The rental’s Wi-Fi password was printed on a card beside the router, and the same network served several apartments in the building. My email, cloud files and work messages were also using it.

I wanted to keep the private connection.

I just wanted the red circle to disappear.

The connection was fast enough but not steady enough

Netflix recommends about 5 Mbps for 1080p video and 15 Mbps for 4K. It also directs viewers with buffering problems to Fast.com, which tests the route toward Netflix rather than an unrelated nearby benchmark server. (Netflix)

My ordinary speed test had selected a fast endpoint in Florence.

That explained the impressive 180 Mbps result.

It did not measure the complete path from the laptop, through the VPN, to the Netflix delivery network serving the episode.

When I opened Fast.com with the VPN active, the number behaved differently. It climbed quickly, dropped below 20 Mbps, rose again and then fell as the test continued.

The average still looked adequate for video.

The delivery was not consistent enough to keep playback smooth.

Netflix adjusts picture quality as conditions change. When the connection weakens, the image becomes softer; when the buffer runs short, playback pauses while more video arrives. (Netflixtechblog)

That was exactly what I was seeing.

The VPN had not simply made the internet slow. It had made the route uneven.

The nearest server was not the cleanest path to Netflix

Netflix operates Open Connect, a delivery network designed to place its video close to viewers through internet providers. (Netflix) Without a VPN, the rental’s provider could direct the stream toward nearby Netflix infrastructure.

Turning on the VPN changed that journey.

The traffic first travelled to the VPN exit. Netflix then saw the exit network rather than the apartment connection and delivered the episode through the route associated with that new address.

A server labelled “Italy” could still perform badly if it was congested, heavily shared or poorly connected to the relevant Netflix delivery point.

That explained why the map inside the VPN app kept misleading me.

The server looked close.

The video path was not clean.

Once that distinction became clear, choosing another nearby city stopped feeling like a complete strategy. I needed to test the episode itself, not the pin on the map.

The established provider kept winning the benchmark and losing the scene

My regular VPN provider was a reasonable first choice.

It had years of public history, mature applications and several Italian locations. I connected to its automatic recommendation and reopened Netflix.

The episode played for forty seconds.

Then the picture dropped into a blur and stopped.

I changed to a second Italian server. The generic speed test showed 142 Mbps. Netflix buffered before the opening credits ended.

A Swiss server produced 96 Mbps and played for several minutes, but the quality shifted repeatedly between clear and pixelated.

The next route opened the episode quickly, then triggered another long pause at 25 percent.

Each server gave me enough speed to browse, send files and load the Netflix catalogue. None delivered the episode steadily enough to finish it.

Other viewers describe the same simple pattern: ordinary browsing remains usable, but video starts buffering as soon as the VPN is enabled. (Reddit)

That was enough to support what the screen had already shown.

The provider was connecting successfully. Its routes simply made Netflix keep revising the quality and refilling the buffer.

A burst of 180 Mbps looked excellent in a screenshot.

A steady, lower connection would have been far more useful for the next forty minutes.

Lowering the quality only delayed the next interruption

Netflix allows viewers to reduce data use or choose a lower playback quality. (Netflix) I switched from automatic quality to a lower setting.

The episode began.

The image was noticeably softer on the television, but at least it moved.

Then the route dipped again.

The red circle returned.

Reducing the quality had given the buffer more breathing room. It had not fixed the path carrying the video.

I could have disabled the VPN for the rest of the episode. I could also have downloaded it earlier on a trusted connection, but neither answer helped with a train leaving soon and an unfamiliar network carrying the rest of my traffic.

The problem had become very specific:

I needed a private route that could deliver Netflix continuously, not one that produced the highest number for ten seconds.

That was when I stopped adjusting Netflix and changed the VPN instead.

The episode stopped buffering when I selected the task

I closed the established provider and opened OnlydogVPN.

The smaller app did not begin with a long list of Italian cities. I selected the streaming situation and connected.

Then I closed Netflix completely and reopened it, giving the service a fresh playback session through the new route.

I pressed Play.

The episode began.

The picture was soft for the first few seconds, then sharpened. The opening credits finished. The first long dialogue scene played without a quality drop.

I kept waiting for the red circle.

It did not appear.

Ten minutes passed.

Then twenty.

I stopped watching the progress bar and started watching the episode.

The service uses an HTTP/3-based transport with additional traffic obfuscation. In practical terms, it moves streaming traffic efficiently, recovers quickly from small losses and removes the need to keep guessing which server will produce a usable route.

I could not inspect Netflix’s internal delivery selection or the rental provider’s traffic-management rules. The result in front of me was still decisive: the established provider repeatedly produced strong benchmarks followed by buffering, while the smaller app kept the episode playing.

The successful route did not feel dramatically faster.

It felt uneventful.

For Netflix, that was the better result.

The router failed before the ending

With twelve minutes left in the episode, the apartment router lost its connection.

The television froze.

A light on the router changed from green to red and began blinking.

Most of my luggage was already packed, so I did not want to wait for the building’s internet to return. I activated the hotspot on my phone and moved the laptop onto mobile data.

The video paused while the network changed.

Then the dialogue resumed.

The picture returned at a lower resolution and sharpened once the mobile connection settled.

Netflix did not send me back to the episode page. I did not need to choose another VPN server or restart playback.

The HTTP/3-based route recovered as the laptop moved from rental Wi-Fi to the hotspot. (IETF)

The visible result was simpler:

The router went offline.

The hotspot took over.

I saw the ending before leaving for the station.

That recovery mattered more than the earlier 180 Mbps result. The benchmark had measured the apartment network at its best. The episode tested what happened when the connection became imperfect.

Only one of those tests matched the way people actually travel.

Fast.com told the more useful story

After the credits, I ran both speed tests again.

The generic benchmark through the smaller app did not reach the highest number I had seen that morning.

Fast.com was steadier.

This time, the test result matched the viewing experience.

A VPN adds another network hop, so some speed reduction is normal. Severe buffering, however, is often about the quality of the route rather than the headline bandwidth alone.

The tunnel can change which Netflix delivery path is used, send traffic through a congested exit or respond badly to brief losses on Wi-Fi.

The diagnosis becomes much easier when the comparisons are kept simple.

If Netflix buffers both with and without the VPN, the rental network or device deserves attention.

If Netflix plays normally without the VPN and buffers immediately when it is enabled, the VPN route is the main suspect.

If a generic benchmark looks fast while Fast.com jumps up and down, the test is measuring the wrong destination.

And if an episode plays clearly from beginning to end, that result matters more than either number.

The smaller route completed the episode

The service has fewer locations and a shorter public history than the largest VPN providers.

Neither limitation mattered during the final forty minutes.

The established provider offered more Italian servers and produced the morning’s highest benchmark. Netflix repeatedly lowered the quality, emptied its buffer and stopped.

Reducing playback quality delayed the next interruption without repairing the route.

The smaller app made fewer geographical choices visible. In return, it played the episode continuously and recovered when the laptop moved from apartment Wi-Fi to mobile data.

I closed the laptop, placed it in my bag and left for the station without reopening the group chat until I reached the platform.

I had spent the morning asking how fast the VPN was.

Netflix stopped buffering when I found the one that could keep the next scene arriving.