itracks Realtime and VPN Connections

What is a VPN?

Simply speaking, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connects your computer to another so that your computer can browse the internet using that computer’s internet connection.  Traditionally, VPNs have been used to connect to a private network via a public network, so that internal resources can be securely accessed remotely.  However, inherent features of VPNs that enable anonymous browsing and bypassing geographic restrictions have made VPNs increasingly popular with the general public, especially with privacy-focused individuals. 

Realtime Video Software and VPN interactions

The Realtime product leverages standards-based technology that incorporates expertise from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Cisco, and Mozilla to ensure compatibility with the largest variety of network configurations.  This means that VPN connections should inherently work with Realtime software.  However, it is important to understand that VPNs can be configured very differently and may have an undesirable impact on Realtime experience.  For example, a VPN may interfere with the basic connectivity required by Realtime.  Or a VPN may force routing of audio and video across (sometimes much) larger distances, causing delays that affect the quality or even disconnects.  Or the VPN server or the network it uses may simply be underserved or misconfigured, causing any number of unpredictable effects on being able to access the Realtime software.  These examples and more are most likely to occur to home users, but office users are not immune.  Other VPN considerations:

• VPNs are typically not designed or configured to support real-time media.

• Some VPNs might also not support UDP (which is required for Realtime).

• VPNs also introduce an extra layer of encryption on top of media traffic that's already encrypted.

• Connectivity to Realtime might not be efficient due to hair-pinning traffic through a VPN device. 

Unfortunately, it is often impossible or very difficult to detect VPN configurations that lead to undesirable experiences.  For this reason, and the overall variability that VPNs introduce, we strongly recommend that a VPN not be used while using Realtime.