NordVPN is rolling out NordLynx, a new technology, built around the WireGuard protocol, which is considered to be “the future industry standard.” A number of tests performed by the company show that NordLynx’s speed outperforms other mainstream protocol several times. NordLynx will be available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux users.
“NordLynx is the most significant technological improvement ever introduced to our customers, and a VPN industry. It is a new-generation VPN protocol that is faster than anything we’ve seen before. To understand its impact on connection speed and the changes users can expect, we took an academic approach using statistical methods and carried out 256,886 speed tests,” says Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN.
Through a number of tests, NordLynx consistently outperformed in combinations where the tests were conclusive. When a user connects to a nearby VPN server and downloads content that’s served from a content delivery network (CDN) within a few thousand miles/kilometres, they can expect up to twice higher download and upload speed.
NordLynx is based on the WireGuard protocol created by Jason A. Donenfeld, which uses state-of-the-art cryptography and is the result of a lengthy and thoroughly considered academic process. It is faster than the current leading VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN and IPSec.
NordLynx combines WireGuard’s high speeds and NordVPN’s custom double Network Address Translation (NAT) system to protect users’ privacy. NordVPN’s double NAT system allows establishing a secure VPN connection without storing any identifiable data on a server. Dynamic local IP addresses remain assigned only while the session is active. Meanwhile, user authentication is done with the help of a secure external database.
“We are proud that NordVPN is the first VPN provider to implement WireGuard on such a scale. For more than a year, we have worked to make NordLynx available for everyone, spent hundreds of hours polishing it, and solved complex obstacles when preparing the infrastructure for scaling. Now we have the fastest VPN protocol existing today,” says Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN. “It has elegant cryptographic design and provides unprecedented speed.”
Last year NordVPN significantly expanded its R&D team, which focuses on the research and implementation of new technologies that could benefit online security and privacy. Recently NordVPN announced the release of three new tools: NordPass — a new-generation password manager; NordLocker — a powerful file encryption tool; and NordVPN Teams — a VPN service for businesses and remote teams.
To switch to NordLynx, users need to update their NordVPN app to the latest version. The NordLynx protocol can be chosen manually from the Settings menu. The updates are released gradually, so it might not be available for all users right away.
At the moment, NordVPN utilizes three different VPN protocols: IKEv2/IPsec, OpenVPN, and NordLynx.