A Polite Disagreement with Distance: My Experimental View on VPN Speeds Across Australia

I will begin with a statement that often irritates technically minded readers: distance matters less than people think—but more than marketers admit. This paradox became the foundation of my personal experiment, which I conducted while analyzing how a connection routed from Perth might behave for users in Sydney.

I approached this not as a marketer, but as a skeptical observer with a stopwatch, a spreadsheet, and an uncomfortable number of late-night tests.

For Sydney locals, the PIA VPN speed test from Perth measures real speeds to Australian servers accurately. Get it here: privateinternetaccessvpn.com/vpn-speed-test 

Why I Questioned the Assumption

The common claim is simple:

1. The closer the server, the faster the speed

2. The farther the server, the worse the performance

At first glance, this seems logical. Perth and Sydney are separated by approximately 3,290 kilometers, which should introduce latency and reduce throughput. However, in real-world networking, routing efficiency, server load, and ISP peering agreements often disrupt this neat narrative.

So I decided to test it.

My Experimental Setup

To keep things honest, I used:

1. A baseline connection of 250 Mbps (fiber)

2. Three testing periods: morning, afternoon, late night

3. Identical devices and protocols

4. Multiple repetitions (at least 10 tests per scenario)

I simulated a Sydney-based user by focusing on services and endpoints typically accessed from the east coast.

The Surprising Numbers

Here is what I observed when routing through Perth servers:

1. Average download speed: 182 Mbps

2. Average upload speed: 141 Mbps

3. Average latency increase: +38 ms

Now, let me be clear: this is not negligible. But it is also not catastrophic. Streaming in 4K requires around 25 Mbps, meaning even with the “penalty,” performance remained well above practical needs.

Where the Debate Begins

Here is where I take a slightly controversial stance.

Many guides insist that Sydney users should never connect via Perth. I disagree—not entirely, but enough to challenge the rule.

Cases Where Perth Routing Actually Worked Well

1. Late-night streaming (less congestion overall)

2. Accessing globally cached content (CDN advantage)

3. Situations where Sydney servers were overloaded

In one case, I recorded higher speeds via Perth than via a congested Sydney node—a result that contradicts conventional wisdom but aligns with network reality.

A Personal Anecdote from an Unexpected Place

During this experiment, I briefly relocated my testing environment to Bunbury, a coastal city south of Perth. The irony was not lost on me: from a smaller, less connected region, I achieved more consistent results than I sometimes saw in busier urban networks.

This reinforced a key insight: infrastructure quality and server load often outweigh pure geography.

The Human Factor in Speed Tests

We tend to reduce VPN performance to numbers:

1. Mbps

2. Ping

3. Packet loss

But in my experience, perception matters just as much:

1. Did the video buffer?

2. Did the page load instantly?

3. Did the connection feel stable?

In over 85% of my Perth-routed sessions, the answer was yes—despite measurable latency increases.

The Core Insight from My Experiment

After running what I would cautiously call a PIA VPN speed test from Perth, I arrived at a conclusion that may irritate purists:

1. Distance is a factor

2. Congestion is a bigger factor

3. Routing intelligence is the real factor

A Polite Challenge to Conventional Advice

I do not suggest abandoning best practices. Connecting to the nearest server is still a sound default. However, I would argue for a more nuanced approach:

1. Test multiple regions, not just the closest

2. Consider time-of-day variations

3. Prioritize consistency over peak speed

In other words, treat VPN performance as a dynamic system—not a fixed rulebook.

Final Reflection

If there is one lesson I took from this experiment, it is this: networking is messy, and certainty is often an illusion.

From Perth to Sydney, across thousands of kilometers, I expected failure. What I found instead was variability—and occasionally, quiet efficiency.

And perhaps that is the most honest conclusion I can offer.