This has been an issue for over a year with other VPNs - Nord, Windscribe, Unlimited VPN, etc. Nord was notorious - seemed every time they released an ‘update’, the issue would rear it’s ugly head again!
As others have mentioned, you have to change the protocol to Open VPN (UDP). Once i did that, whatever VPN i used worked fine & there was no more issues with IPTV buffering, etc.
I had the same problem with surfshark, its the VPN.
just thought id mention this here. I picked up a year of mullvad and have their wireguard on my router…bumped speeds up dl about 80-100 faster and cut ping in half. Im testing the houston and ny servers and so far no issues.
If you have SurfShark on a PC run the speedtest within the application and find the fastest speed from your location and then select that one in the app on the Firestick. I also use one of their static IP addresses on SurfShark, the other ones are a rolling IP so you don’t know where your going to connect. I’m getting full speed with VPN on or off.
Unfortunate to see some users struggling with shark, though with any program/firmware updates, bugs are fixed while other bugs are created. It affects all apps, programs, and device firmware. Cliche, but part of life.
I figure I’d share my experience with mullvad. I tried it a year or two ago. I moved on, thinking it was a bit underwhelming for what the cost was. At the time, I was an IpV user (still am) and before also being a shark user.
MV wasn’t without bugs also during my 2 month taste test. The kill switch, which was early pilot at the time, would sometimes fail to disengage. Would need a device reboot. I believe I had some inconclusive dns cloaking inconsistency, but never had the motivation to pursue an answer though their support conduit.
Their support, BTW, wasn’t 24/7. They had limited hours of operations back then. Not sure how it is now.
They were part of that whole *eyes alliance though, if that’s an important factor for anyone. Surf Shark is also. Ipv also, but to a 5eyes, lesser degree.
Anyway - I was also not impressed by their low server count (really low - ipv has more than 2x, while shark has more than 3x). My speed tests were hit and miss, but generally lower than IpV in most cases.
Wg and Open protocols seems to work fine.
Lot of blacklisted issues with many streaming services. Except Netflix. Disney, HBO, Hulu…all had issues. Didn’t play well with Mv. Shark doesn’t have this issue (for me).
I ended my relationship after 2 months. IpV and Shark continued to work pretty well for me currently. I haven’t had some of the struggles that others have had here (yet) and enjoy the price point compared to higher tiers like Mv or Proton. Cyberghost is cheap like shark and ipv also, but they’re Romania based - may be a buzz kill for fans of *eyes alliance based services.
My 2 cents - hope everyone irons out their VPN issues with different efforts - but patience for bug fixes may be the only true recipe.
Ive had best luck with San Jose Ca.
FYI it is only available on Windows
You still have teeth?
Wondering if all the SS discounts and the recommendations from Troy (and others) are crowding their servers? Bad things can happen at capacity. Even if the capacity “circles” show availability…who knows how accurate that is… Next step…Iceland?
Its possible. IMHO it appears surfshark is the fastest growing vpn and its very possible they are not keeping up with server quantity/quality. I picked up a Mullvad subscription to try it out vs surfshark and (for me) it out performs surfshark in speed and latency(ping). Doing research you will find 99% of surfshark servers are shared with other providers and many are virtual servers. Mullvad has all dedicated servers(no sharing) and no virtual servers. Although they do rent server space around the world, they are not shared and only for mullvad customers. My speeds are blazing fast and with surfshark ive been noticing lag of sorts, although not bad it was evident. As soon as I switched to mullvad no lag and fast. Still testing…
I honestly don’t think that is the case. Maybe a few servers can get bogged down occassionally, but there are tons of good ones to choose from at each location. I posted the SS speed test on Windows, and not one person in here acknowledged they knew or didnt know it was a thing. I think it is a huge tool in helping choose the most consistent server, with the fastest speeds and lowest latency. When I first started SS, Detroit was the best and blazing for me. Now it is barely top 10 and Chicago is now the fastest. Once I changed to Chicago, most any issue went away. It is a great VPN, but we may have to do some extra leg work to make sure things aren’t switching week to week, and maybe that will change in a future update.
One is all I need.
I used that feature a while back and it is a good tool. I will run all my favorites again and see what changed. Although, I do have SS set to connect with my fastest server. Which, for me, is usually Charlotte.
I have had way better luck choosing my preferred location instead of letting it choose, and selecting Wireguard instead of Automatic. Those settings have been my sweet spot. The kicker is, you always have to know what your best one is and make sure you catch if that changes.
I agree that currently Chicago is the top server. NY seems to be over saturated currently
Maybe it seasonal? Seems like the majority of my fastest are all in the southern regions. Maybe when the snowbirds all flock down south come winter. Then maybe the northern regions will be faster?
I don’t use Windows much less own a PC anymore.
I switched to Chicago, although it sounds like it stopped working for me, as well. I’m out of the state currently, so my better-yet-less-tech-savvy-half is reporting to me
SS is working just fine for me at the moment. You are right, that for me also, choosing Wireguard or Open and not automatic choose, seems to help. Also currently using Chicago (I’m in the Midwest). I suspect and hope the problems people are having with SS will soon go away with updates and server procurements. Still seems, for me, that my iptv provider is the source for most intermittent problems.
I’ve been battling this same issue for a while. Never occurred to me it might be VPN . I use SS. I thought it might be my fire stick gone bad (it was old) so I bought an Onn. Same issues. I’ve done all the stuff they say to do when you get lagged, to no avail. After reading here, I’m convinced it’s SS. Has to be. I’ve tried everything else and thinking back, it didn’t start until I got SS. I’m going to try switching to ProtonVPN soon as I get a minute and see if it clears up.I’ll report back.
Buffalo is one of my best servers. Some of my iptv services dont want to load good with Chicago but i have no problems with Buffalo. I live in Pennsylvania and Ashburn is the closest for me… maybe because im a buffalo bills fan that server is meant for me though lol
