GL.iNet Slate: TCP vs UDP on NordVPN

salience · 2021-08-13T12:38:33.956Z

Successfully set up GL.iNet Slate with NordVPN, selected the config file TCP. Is there any advantage or disadvantage of using the UDP file instead? Can I use both?

jbro-proam · 2021-08-15T06:01:44.431Z

Speed.
Each TCP is minimum of 3 steps, basically, “I’m sending packet”, “Receiver acknowledges request”, “send packet”. If packet is larger than 1500 (bits or bytes, I can’t remember) then there’s also a sequence number because the file/stream is split - so if anything is missing, the receiver says so and the packet is re-sent.

UDP on the other hand, the sender requests a session, receiver acknowledges, and that’s it, a stream of packets goes. Receiver does not care about any missing packets.

You ever stream a movie and sometimes it glitches/pixelizes but still streams…that’s UDP. If it stops like an Adobe flash movie or some web graphics kinda slow and laggy, then that start-stop is like TCP because it waits until the whole package is downloaded before moving on to the next package.

alzhao · 2021-08-18T09:38:09.837Z

For openvpn, TCP protocol has less problems