Utilities guide · 4 minute read

Compare a slow connection and a VPN route

Record your public exit address and bounded speed estimates before and after a route change without mistaking either for a diagnosis.

Reviewed September 29, 2026

Record a baseline before changing anything

On the same device and network, open IP Address Lookup and write down the observed address and whether a VPN is on. It shows one address observed by ipify, not all device addresses. Its location and ASN are database associations, not your physical position or proof of your retail ISP.

Start Internet Speed Test only if the data cost is acceptable. Keep the tab visible and avoid competing downloads. Record download and upload in Mbps and HTTP round-trip latency in ms, along with the time and network. For example, one million transferred payload bytes in one second is 8 Mbps, not 8 MB/s; this is unit arithmetic, not a predicted result.

Tools used in this section

IP Address Lookup — Record the internet exit address observed by ipify.
Internet Speed Test — Measure bounded transfers and HTTP latency to the RizzKit hosting server.

Change one route, then compare

Enable or disable your VPN (or switch Wi-Fi networks), choose Refresh on the IP page, and record the new address. Start another speed test after the cooldown, under similar device and traffic conditions. If the address changes, the observed exit route changed; it does not prove that every app uses that route. If it stays the same, the result alone cannot prove a VPN leak or a failed switch.

Compare direction and consistency across several manually started runs, not a single decimal. A lower upload estimate or higher HTTP latency on one run could reflect Wi-Fi, server load, routing, proxies, browser scheduling, or competing traffic. Neither test certifies an ISP's contracted line speed, measures ICMP ping, nor establishes the cause of a slowdown.

Record device, network, VPN state, time, observed public IP, download Mbps, upload Mbps, and HTTP latency ms.
Change only the VPN or network route, refresh the IP page, and repeat after the speed-test cooldown.
If a test is cancelled, timed out, rate-limited, or has insufficient samples, record that failure rather than comparing a partial reading; retry later.
For persistent problems, compare with an independent measurement and your router or provider diagnostics. Do not infer a person's location from IP coordinates.

Continue learning

Browse every RizzKit guide or use the linked tool pages to review exact processing details, examples, and limitations before starting.