Surfshark fixes broken post-quantum VPN protocol after TechRadar investigation

Date:
Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:35:13 +0000

Description:
The new protocol now works and it's faster than WireGuard!

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
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your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Following tests by TechRadar, Surfshark has issued a patch to its new, proprietary VPN protocol, ' Dausos .' The update ensures the protocol now functions correctly on specific residential fiber connections, which were previously unable to handle the protocols packet overhead.

Earlier this week, we published an article that revealed Surfshark's post-quantum protocol was too bulky for the residential fiber lines we tested it on. That meant we could only access small, non-encrypted HTTP web pages not ideal for a modern privacy protocol . After sharing our technical data with Surfshark, the provider fast-tracked a fix. With the release of version 4.27.1, the protocol is fully functional and our initial speed tests have yielded some surprising results. You may like Meet Dausos, Surfshark's 'paradise' VPN protocol that seeks to raise the bar for speed and security Surfshark's post-quantum 'Dausos' promises up to 30% faster speeds I
couldn't even load a speed test Surfshark adds post-quantum encryption on
Mac, Linux, and Android more support coming soon What went wrong? When I
went to test the new protocol earlier this week, I found I could only access small, unencrypted HTTP web pages and use existing connections (Google
Sheets, WhatsApp, etc).

The culprit was a lack of optimization for

oE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) connections. This specific configuration is the standard for millions of residential broadband users, particularly across the UK.

When we reached out to the company they acknowledged the issue, saying: "You seem to have an edge ISP case that our global teams havent caught." Our tests were conducted using a BT/EE connection a group that serves more than 30 million customers and is the largest ISP in the UK.

The protocol has now been patched and works well even on these "edge" UK cases. So I finally could get on with what I had wanted to do all along and test the protocol's speeds. Speed test analysis In our initial tests, Dausos performed 5.8% faster than WireGuard . That's a notable achievement given the heavy computational overhead associated with post-quantum encryption. While
it falls short of the 30% boost Surfshark initially claimed, it is a strong start for a protocol still in its infancy

While both protocols resulted in a 20-25% dip in raw download speeds compared to an unprotected line, the impact on upload speeds, latency , and jitter was negligible. On a high-speed fiber connection, this translates to a seamless experience where streaming and browsing remain almost indistinguishable from
a non-VPN connection.

These impressive speeds serve to show why Surfshark performed the best in our more controlled speed tests where it was crowned the fastest VPN we've
tested. Swipe to scroll horizontally Surfshark speed tests

Protocol

Avg Download (Mbps)

Speed Difference

Avg Upload (Mbps)

Avg Latency (ms)

Avg Jitter (ms)

No VPN

807.8



102.60

26.76

10.47

WireGuard

600.4

-25.67%

100.74

26.34

8.51

Dausos

635.2

-21.37%

99.56

29.88

11.60 Speed test methodology I used Cloudflare's speed test tool. from my
home setup, connecting over Wi-Fi to a high-speed fiber connection. I ran
each of the settings (No VPN, WireGuard and Dausos) five times sequentially and connected to the same Surfshark server each time. Any obvious outliers were discarded.

It is important to note that these figures represent a snapshot of
performance at a specific moment. Network congestion and server load mean
that results can fluctuate day-to-day, and users running these tests on different hardware or ISPs will see varying figures.

Despite these caveats, the results show a useful comparison between each protocol setting and as it's such a new tool, I'm sure we can expect even
more impressive speeds in the future.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-services/surfshark-fixes-broken-post-quantum -vpn-protocol-after-techradar-investigation


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