Route tips
Route tips by use case
No single route is best for everyone. Work out what you are actually doing online — streaming, meetings, AI tools or moving large files — then pick a type from the table below; it is much faster than trying routes one by one.
Everyday browsing and office work: stability first, speed second
Web pages, email and online documents are not latency-sensitive; what really shapes the experience is whether the connection drops. Prefer the closest city entry point among Direct or Relay routes — shorter path, fewer hops. If things are fine during the day but slow down noticeably at night, your ISP's cross-border routing is usually congested at peak hours; switching to an IEPL Dedicated entry in the same region makes a visible difference.
4K streaming and video: sustained bandwidth beats peak speed
4K bitrates need sustained, steady bandwidth; short peaks mean nothing — what decides the experience is whether speed drops at any point during playback. Peak hours are when streaming is most likely to struggle, and where an IEPL Dedicated route proves its value most. On region choice: first confirm the target platform's catalogue and region rules, then pick an entry point in the same region rather than routing the long way round.
AI tool sessions: long connections hate being rerouted
AI tool requests are long-lived connections with streamed responses, and a single exchange can last from tens of seconds to several minutes. A hiccup on the path shows up as an answer that stalls halfway or has to be sent again. In this kind of scenario the difference between Dedicated and Relay is more obvious than any speed test number: a dedicated path is fixed and is unlikely to be rerouted mid-session.
Online gaming: latency and packet loss first
Games are the most sensitive to round-trip latency and packet loss, and a gap of tens of milliseconds shows up directly in how the game feels. When choosing a route, prefer IEPL Dedicated and pick the entry point closest to the city where the game server sits. If the game has its own accelerator, the two can coexist: the accelerator handles the game process, the route handles all other traffic.
Large files and backups: it comes down to data budget
Uploading and downloading large files is about throughput and data cost, and latency barely matters. These tasks suit Relay routes and are best scheduled outside local peak hours. If your plan has a data cap, run heavy transfers right after the data resets so you do not burn through the allowance early in the cycle. Monthly plans reset their data on the activation date each month, and upgrading mid-cycle prorates the price difference across the remaining days.