UDP vs TCP - Which Should You Use?

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[eckomind]

I chose Torguard because of your videos. This was my first vpn and it's been a really good experience so far. Thank you!

[allankempson]

I use Surfshark as my VPN provider, and I can choose between OpenVPN UDP and TCP. I find that UDP is faster, but TCP almost always connects on wi-fi networks that block VPNs. Normally I have Surfshark set to use WireGuard as it's faster than OpenVPN UDP, if that doesn't work I use OpenVPN TCP as it gets past restrictive networks.

[saadhassan]

I started using a VPN after using this video. The VPN that I found most appropriate for my needs was Ivacy VPN.

[ahmadmurtazaasadi]

For downloading, Should we chose UDP or TCP or Wireguard?

[CA.papaBear]

Actually what you said at 1:22 is incorrect.
TCP is slower because there is more data stored within each packet because there is more overhead for the steps the packets take to reach their destination.

For example, a TCP packet not only has the destination address but it also has an ACK bit that asks the recipient if they are active. Once the recipient computer receives the ACK, it will in turn send one back, a "handshake" if you will letting eachother know that the connection is successfully established between the machines.
TCP also has a TTL, which means that if a packet is sent but nothing is received, then the machine will send a duplicate until it will receive an ACK back from the recipient.

As for UDP, UDP itself is inherently better for high throughput for data transmission because all there is to a UDP packet is the:
Source Port,
Destination Port,
IP address,
Length,
and Checksum.

which in total is 32 bits in length. low in size. But, as mentioned before (which is correct) UDP isn't as reliable (but) because of the lack of the ACK header and the headers with that.

If you want to learn more, this article can give you an overall look into the differences between TCP and UDP:

When you mentioned "TCP uses higher encryption methods that tend to slow down[...]" you are also incorrect.
The encryption is done either by the cryptography chip built-in or done solely by the CPU.

The Cryptographer being integrated is a good thing because it's a dedicated piece of hardware that will handle the encryption before it gets sent out, less stress on the CPU.
But, it's not to say that you won't have ANY encryption if you don't have a piece of hardware like that built-in, in fact the CPU can do that. Granted, it will take up a good amount of your CPU's precious cycles (CPU cycles, clockspeed).