VPN for Steam Deck (SteamOS 3.0) - random thought

[retrogunner]

Given SteamOS is Linux based, we'll have a variety of options around VPNs when using Public WiFi and other network protective measures (and impacted response times will be important too.)

As a community, we'll likely want to start thinking about what VPNs will work the easiest with SteamOS on the Steam Deck & what VPNs to trust our valued Steam Decks to talk across.

There's potentially a premium niche-market for low-latency trusted VPN for gaming. And possibly with a user/gamertag verification.

The VPN would be for secure connection. The user verification for a layer of Identity Trust much like a PGP fingerprint -- which is important for competitive (Pro or Amateur) gaming. It won't necessarily help you with cheaters in public spaces, but could be helpful for identifying players who are genuine wanting a good game/fair fight in that trusted community. maybe even better response if the packets are within the secure VPN network infrastructure. (just some "spaghetti on the wall" ideas, likely not worthwhile.)

Anyway, in the meantime, it is worthwhile to point out this article (despite their slam on whistle-blower Snowden):

ZDNet: Trust, but verify: An in-depth analysis of ExpressVPN's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/trust-but-verify-an-in-depth-analysis-of-expressvpns-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-week/

Turns out, the VPNs: CyberGhost, ZenMate, Private Internet Access and now ExpressVPN -- are all owned by the same shady Kape Technologies (a rebranded Ad-malware company once called Crossrider.) Not to mention ExpressVPN CIO Daniel Gericke is fined by US DoJ for spying & hacking US Citizens for the UAE.

[AD]

Technically there is also wireguard, which is a free and open source VPN that has great Linux integration (infact I think the Linux kernel itself has wireguard support). The main downside is that it's not a service like the others, it's just a technology and by itself it doesn't have infrastructure. But since it's free and open source I think you can set it up yourself, so maybe there is room for a gaming VPN for Steam Deck users constructed with it.

[Balderick]

We must not under estimate how much Valve have tried to provide networking solutions that help gamers; even before Valve provided the Steam client they were collaborating with Cisco on a way to provide routers with better firmware to give end users more management options to optimise local network traffic for gaming. And tried to provide better routing from gamer to pc game server.
ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation#PowerPlay

Interestingly, PowerPLay was a way for Valve and other service providers to become ISPs - which would be an amzing thing to provide for gamers. i.e. a pc gaming optimised internet connection hooked up to game servers through servers managed by Valve Really like the idea of Valve being ISP with first tier peering partners

My point is the ISP you choose and how that ISP manages gaming traffic (i.e. how that traffic is routed) is really more relative to trying to use VPN for gaming.

WTFast is a networking solution that helps optimise route taken to game servers that can help reduce latency in games but only windows pc is supported. WTFast is a not a VPN and does not change or hide your IP address, it really just manages and optimises the route taken between you and game server.
https://www.wtfast.com/en/

VPNs are not as safe or as reliable as what most folks think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x1BJCKwqpI

VPNs really bring a whole new set of security related risks and is just yet another company/subscription that you "trust" with your personal info and user data.

Would love to see Valve become an ISP , like they intended in 2000 providing gamer optimised networking solutions.

Additionally, with the arrival and adoption of cloud gaming services in the gaming industry there i smuch effort being made to ensure games can not be played by people not in same region as what game is licenced for. So VPNs are not encouraged or recommended by cloud gaming services due to copyright/permitted use legislation.

Due to cloud gaming i think Valves PowerPLay proviidng networking solutions and more options of ISPs for gamers has never made as much sense as it does today afaiu 5G and Ultrafast (fibre) is intended to make it far easier for service providers like Valve to become ISPs..

We really just need better gaming optimised ISPs who can also provide first tier peering partners to manage route between end user and game server through ISP backbone (i.e. trusted servers).

[retrogunner]

This is a good conversation to have. I know the VPNs are not a panacea. Pretty much only good for protecting you when using Public WiFi from local kiddies say when trying to game in the coffee-shop or airport between flights. And I do wish there were more VPNs using WireGuard (total agreement there).

I didn't know about the PowerPlay. But something like WTFast is exactly what I was asking about. Unfortunately it's specifically for Windows (not Linux or Consoles). And, I understand why it's not encrypted as its optimized tunnel/proxy routing to game servers over their private server network.

I just wish there was an OpenStandards equivalent of WTFast we gamers could be leveraging (with optional encryption if playing on a public network.)

And your right, the ISPs are just a general purpose connection. It would in their interest to offer a genuine Gaming Tier with a WTFast feature and not just promote their "Fastest tiers" as a "Gaming" tier. It all just comes down to routing for them. (We'd probably need a client to let them know what game we're playing so they could reshape our optimized route.)

I also think the AAA title companies would invest in it being a competitive advantage. Something like -- "our AAA title/company has a GPN to enhance your gaming experience with higher responsiveness than the competition". That's something they could bake into launchers/front-ends.

I can completely understand the PowerPlay wouldn't necessarily be limited to any single AAA but for all gaming client<>server connections. It appears WTFast is filling that gap. And if you take your AAA multiplayer games seriously, it might be worthwhile to pay nearly $10/m to WTFast for a competitive advantage to lower your network latency.

[Chryseus]

I really don't see the problem, latency should be low unless you have a poor quality ISP or live far from the server, I easily get 3-30ms to most servers in Europe, and most games with decent lag compensation usually won't have problems below 100ms.

A VPN is completely not designed for gaming, while you can get an acceptable latency and throughput with them, you will almost always be worse off than using your own connection, few people care about privacy when gaming and you run into other issues such as VPN servers being banned (which is far from unusual), also many games with analytics implemented do not use an IP address but a hardware ID instead so your VPN would be useless for privacy.