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MacBook internet connection and speed problem - NordVPN

I have been a fan of NordVPN for some years now... and then two unrelated things happened.


  1. The first was that they were hacked in 2017. This didn't come to light until 2019. My issue is they never told their customers. I don't know about you but I really want to know about issues like this so I can find out the facts and make decisions. A lack of transparency is an issue.
  2. The second issue is one I hadn't realised I had for some time. I have a Mac Book and i move around a fair bit, from home, to the universities I work in and the office, cafes etc (hence the need for a VPN) Anyway months ago I started having problems connecting to wifi points. It got to the stage where I had to restart my MacBook every time I moved from one access point to another. I assumed my network adapter was on it's way out. Eventually this week I found completely by accident others on a forum having the same problem and nothing appeared to be fixing the problem. One of the people listed their apps and there was NordVPN. 
I then saw somewhere else about software conflicts can cause internet connection problems so i got to thinking...

Also my home access point had been really slow recently, or so I thought. I have Google Mesh at home as I have a very old rambling house with 2.5' thick walls. When I tested it the mesh app kept saying I had 200+ MBPS. My network logger app (Network Logger Pro) was showing speeds in KBPS. 

So I uninstalled NordVPN and blam! 250MBPS. I reinstalled NordVPN and even without starting the app the speed fell off a cliff. I tried both their apps (Nord IPKE and OpenVPN) with exactly the same result. 


The moment installed the NordVPN app the network speed dropped and continued to drop even without opening it.

I then tried ExpressVPN as a test and installing that had no effect on the connection speed. When I fired it up the speed increased!

I have no idea whats going on or why not have I any connection with either service. 

If anyone else is having connection speed problems and have NordVPN, try uninstalling it and see if it helps. 

I hope this helps someone - I have been pulling my hair out about this for months. Back to fast internet  again and I am looking forward to not having to restart my MacBook every time I move location (about 10 times a day).



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