NordLynx from NordVPN: All About This Fast and Secure VPN Protocol

NordLynx from NordVPN

NordVPN is one of the most used VPN services in the world and one of the most recommended for its speed, security, anonymity and also for its price that is really competitive. The NordVPN development team has launched a new VPN protocol called NordLynx , this VPN protocol is based on the popular WireGuard protocol, one of the fastest and most secure currently available. Do you want to know why NordVPN’s VPN is so fast?

NordLynx Key Features

NordLynx is a protocol that allows us to achieve high speeds when we use the VPN service, we can make the most of our Internet connection and the VPN service because we will have a large bandwidth. Regarding security and privacy , it is one of the best that we can use, because it uses a unique encryption suite incorporating the latest symmetric encryption algorithms, asymmetric encryption and also hashing algorithms to verify the integrity of all transferred data. Due to WireGuard’s own architecture that makes use of the UDP protocol very efficiently , the performance we will achieve will clearly be much higher than the other VPN protocols that NordVPN has been using so far (OpenVPN with TCP and UDP and IPsec IKEv2). The WireGuard protocol has marked a before and after in the VPN industry, providing not only higher bandwidth but lower CPU consumption compared to other protocols, and it is very easy to implement, audit and debug thanks to because it has about 4,000 lines of code, 10 times less than other widely known protocols.

NordVPN has incorporated a double NAT system in order to be able to establish a secure VPN connection and not store any data that can identify a user within the VPN server, in this way, privacy and security when using the service will be guaranteed. The development team for this new VPN protocol at NordVPN, after some 250,000 speed tests, has concluded that this protocol is clearly faster than OpenVPN or IPsec. A very important feature of this new super fast VPN protocol is that it has been incorporated into NordVPN applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and also iOS, therefore, we can make use of this feature on any desktop operating system or for smartphones, and enjoy the maximum possible speed with the best security.

How fast does NordLynx give us compared to other protocols?

NordVPN knew that the speeds that customers would get would be really high compared to the other protocols like OpenVPN and also IPsec IKEv2 that they currently have in use, however they didn’t know how a VPN protocol affects connection speed exactly, so they have conducted in-depth tests to find out in which scenarios one VPN protocol is better than another protocol. Specifically, they conducted tests in four different scenarios:

  1. Client connected to a nearby VPN server, and the test server as close to the VPN server as possible.
  2. Client connected to a distant VPN server, and the test server as close to the VPN server as possible.
  3. Client connected to a nearby VPN server, and the test server is far away.
  4. Client connected to a distant server, and the test server is also far away.

The performance tests were carried out by putting the three quintessential VPN protocols in a Docker: OpenVPN, IPsec IKEv2 and also the new NordLynx. In this way, we will be able to compare the performance of all the protocols easily and quickly, in addition, they used servers from different providers in different cities of different countries, with the aim of carrying out many tests to rule out peering or transit problems between the different operators and Cloud servers. The NordVPN team ran a total of 8,200 speed tests per day for an entire month, and verified the performance of NordLynx and the other protocols. The reason for conducting so many tests is to rule out bottleneck problems of WiFi networks, wired networks, operators and many more factors that affect the final real speed achieved.

As you can see in the previous image, on many occasions the new VPN protocol achieved more than 500Mbps of real speed, in fact, it came to provide more than 1Gbps of real speed, something that OpenVPN or IPsec has never achieved. IKEv2. As you can see, the average throughput of OpenVPN is about 200Mbps, the average throughput of IPsec IKEv2 is about 350Mbps, and the average speed achieved by NordLynx is about 600Mbps.

Regarding the download speed achieved by each protocol based on the kilometers of physical distance with the test server, we can say that NordLynx is always better than the rest of the protocols, as you can see in the following image:

Regarding the upload speed, the graph is very similar to the previous one, the new protocol is simply better than the VPN protocols that we have been using so far. The NordVPN development team have stated that the use of this new protocol is, on average, twice as fast as OpenVPN or IPsec, and in some cases it could even be three times as fast.

How can I use NordLynx on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS?

The new protocol is now available for all desktop operating systems such as Windows, Linux and also macOS, in order to activate this new protocol, all we have to do is configure auto-connection and always choose “NordLynx” instead of using OpenVPN or IPsec IKEv2, the same would happen if you are using the official NordVPN applications for Android and iOS, you will have to select the NordLynx protocol for the connection, and you will automatically get a higher bandwidth and lower latency, since this protocol is much more efficient than the previous ones.

Settings in Windows

The configuration in Windows is really easy and fast, we will simply have to open the program, go to the “Options” section, in “Auto connection” we will have to remove the program from choosing the VPN protocol automatically, to force us to always uses the “VPN Protocol: NordLynx”.

And we would have it ready to connect to the different servers with this protocol.

Configuration in macOS

In the case of macOS, we will have to perform the same operation, we go to «Preferences», and in the «General» section we must choose the option of «VPN Protocol: NordLynx», in this way, we will always connect with this protocol .

Android and iOS Settings

If you use smartphones like Android or iOS, activation through the app is really easy. On Android you have to open the app and click on the options section, once inside you have to go to the “VPN Protocol” section and choose “NordLynx”, as you can see below:

In the case of iOS, the menu is exactly the same as in Android, you must go to the options, in the VPN Protocol section and choose “NordLynx” to always use this VPN protocol and navigate as fast as possible.

As you have seen, NordLynx based on WireGuard is clearly faster than IPsec IKEv2 and OpenVPN in all the tested scenarios, we will be able to achieve higher speed, and for this reason NordVPN’s VPN is one of the fastest that exists. Currently, in addition, we must not forget that privacy and security using this protocol is guaranteed, since it has the latest cryptographic algorithms to protect all information and provide the fundamental characteristics of cryptography: confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of the data.