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Is Lightway protocol worth the hype? Check our detailed ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol in Australia review for answers!

ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol is known as the fastest protocol after the WireGuard. It has always been regarded to be the best VPN protocols in Australia. However, we were unsure about its performance, so we decided to test it according to our set criterion.

Lightway is considered to be the pioneering protocol introduced by ExpressVPN built to serve the always-connected world. Although it is a highly secure protocol that delivers well, it is still not the fastest service available commercially.

Overall, it reports a satisfactory performance but lacks in some areas where it requires improvement. In this post, we present a detailed ExpressVPN Lightway review to highlight the strengths and vulnerabilities of the protocol.


ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol in Australia: Pros and Cons of Lightway

Listing the pros and cons of the ExpressVPN Lightway review below:

Pros
  • Lightweight codebase
  • Strong online security
  • Reliable and fast connections
  • Trusted privacy policy
  • Active protection service
  • Lower battery consumption
  • Reduced processor load

Cons
  • Not in use by other VPN service providers
  • Lacks wide-level testing


Quick Steps: How to Setup ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol in Australia (3 Easy Steps)

Here are the 3 quick steps to setup Lightway protocol:

  1. Download ExpressVPN and install it. Launch the app and open the Options menu.
  2. Go to the Protocol tab and choose Lightway. Now close the window.
  3. Choose a server and connect. Finally, you can experience blazing-fast connections.
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What Is ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol in Australia ?

Lightway is an open-source protocol in its infancy, developed to boost the reliability and speed of a VPN service connection. After being launched by ExpressVPN officially, it is openly available and easily accessible on all platforms, such as Android, Windows, iOS, Linux, Mac, and routers.

Lightway protocol has been modeled from the ground to the top using the wolfSSL cryptography library by ExpressVPN instead of building around an existing protocol. With this idea, ExpressVPN has been able to achieve a lightweight protocol, comprising only 2000 lines of code. This count is lower than all other protocols in the market.

expressvpn-us-servers-in-Australia

ExpressVPN’s US servers are fast and efficient and bypass most streaming sites easily in Australia

A lightweight code consumes lesser processing power and leads to better performance. Contrastingly, the well-known OpenVPN has an extremely large code base that results in slow connections and delayed deliveries. Moreover, Lightway loads instantly and reflects clear performance improvement owing to the light base.

Apart from the base, Lightway can work with ChaCha20 and AES encryption standards. It also supports tunneling over UDP and TCP. Regardless of speed or security as a priority, you can select a feasible encryption combination to serve your requirements.

The open-source nature of the code allows everyone to audit the code freely for inspecting mysterious or suspicious activity.


ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol in Australia Features and Performance

ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol has shown satisfactory performance in prime areas, particularly speed and security in extensive testing. One drawback is the unavailability of the ExpressVPN lightway iOS version, but the customer support team assured us of releasing it soon. However, you can use ExpressVPN Lightway on your iOS device by setting it up on your router in Australia.


ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol: Security

Lightway protocol is generally equipped with all of the basic and standard safety features of ExpressVPN, including leak protection, military-grade 256-bit encryption, a no-logs policy, and a kill-switch option.

Lightway utilizes the expert-tested and approved cryptography library, wolfs while letting it support SSL/TLS protocols. Government officials and agencies implement the same scale of security for safeguarding websites.

Moreover, users get an option to enable ChaCha20 on their mobile phones, a three times faster service that loads pages faster and consumes device battery lesser than the standard AES-128 GSM. With ExpressVPN Lightway clients will not have to deal with high CPU power usage.

With a light code base between 1000 to 2000 lines, detecting and fixing issues is simple in case of a bug. It is easier to maintain and inspect than OpenVPN, comprising 70,000 lines of code. ExpressVPN aims to open-source Lightway’s main library to enhance its protection by making it accessible for third-party expert auditing.

Your connection never terminates in Lightway, instead, it switches to the “idle” mode. In case of an internet connection interruption, the system gets connected after you get back online. This feature ensures you stay protected on the go and don’t have to wait for several hours for reconnection.

During testing for our ExpressVPN Lightway review, the Lightway protocol reconnected us in less than 5 seconds in every test case. However, OpenVPN takes around 20 seconds to rebuild the lost connection, which is undesirable for avid users.


ExpressVPN Lightway: Speed

Lightway is much faster than OpenVPN and almost similar to WireGuard connections. It lets you connect to ExpressVPN in even a fraction of a second, which is observed by nine out of ten beta users who got connections established more quickly than in the past.

To determine and evaluate ExpressVPN speed in Australia, we considered the 3 key factors in our ExpressVPN Lightway review, including pings, download, and upload speeds.

  • Ping Rate: It’s the time taken by the web page to load the content or a game to respond when the link is clicked. Under ideal circumstances, users prefer a ping rate between 10-170 ms. Ping rate defines how quickly your data is being sent and received from the server (which is extremely important for gaming). High pings can lead to huge lags, delays, and even disconnections.
  • Download Speed: This factor tells how fast your device can download data and files from the internet. For minimum lag and buffering, the download speed should be more than 5 Mbps. If your download speed is slow, it will take more time to load video streams, load websites, open files, and save content.
  • Upload Capacity: The upload speed is important for exchanging files, sharing content, making video calls, and posting updates or media files on social media. If the upload speed is slow, you will experience issues while performing all these functions. Your upload speed must be faster than 1.5 Mbps.

ExpressVPN Lightway: International Speed

To test the international speed delivery for our ExpressVPN Lightway review, we tested servers in London for long-distance connections using OpenVPN, WireGuard, and Lightway protocol. We received unexpectedly lower ping rates with Lightway. As for the download and upload speeds, we expected both to drop for traveling long distances to reach the target international server.

Protocol Ping (Rate ms) Download Speed (Mbps) Upload Speed (Mbps)
Lightway (UK server) 110 89.42 84.64
WireGuard (UK server) 203 80.54 74.05
OpenVPN (UK server) 319 74.48 70.61

Our download speed was 38% faster with WireGuard, but the ping rate was quite low using the Lightway protocol. If the internet connection is fast enough, you won’t feel any difference. Whereas, the connection will get unstable if the internet is slower than 5 Mbps. As evident from the results, both Lightway and WireGuard were faster than OpenVPN.

Expressvpn-speed-test-on-100-mbps-in-Australia

This speed is enough to stream in high resolution in Australia

To cross-check and verify the findings, we tested the server in Frankfurt. Here, we observed a better ping rate using the Lightway protocol, but the download and upload speeds of WireGuard were faster.

Protocol Ping Rate (ms) Download Speed (Mbps) Upload Speed (Mbps)
Lightway (Frankfurt server) 153 87.54 65.54
WireGuard (Frankfurt server) 229 84.65 80.47
OpenVPN (Frankfurt server) 310 80.47 72.57

In terms of download speed, WireGuard was 67% faster, but there wasn’t a noticeable difference in upload speeds.

Lastly, we tried the Australian server. We received an exceptionally high upload speed using Lightway leaving WireGuard behind. Although WireGuard’s download speeds were faster, its ping rate slowed the delivery.

Protocol Ping Rate (ms) Download Speed (Mbps) Upload Speed (Mbps)
Lightway (Sydney server) 202 85.89 42.63
WireGuard (Sydney server) 395 73.48 31.95
OpenVPN (Sydney server) 428 60.54 49.84

ExpressVPN Lightway: Device Compatibility

ExpressVPN’s Lightway is available on all major operating systems and popular devices like Android in Australia, Windows, Linus, Mac, and routers. ExpressVPN is working on iOS version in Australia development to release it for users in the future. However, it’s still possible to connect to ExpressVPN Lightway on your iOS device via the router in your home.


ExpressVPN Lightway: Streaming

Lightway protocol is undoubtedly one of the best protocols for streaming. It has reportedly bypassed several geo-blocks without any complications. Furthermore, it has fast servers to let users stream in HD with no lagging.

To test the streaming capability, we chose the Lightway protocol on the ExpressVPN app and tried to unlock top streaming channels. Surprisingly, ExpressVPN unblocked all the platforms we tried to open, such as Disney Plus in Australia, Netflix in Australia, and 9Now. The VPN connection got established within a few seconds and we were able to stream without any disruptions or delays.

ExpressVPN-unblocking-Singapore-Netflix-in-Australia

Here we’ve unblocked Netflix SG using ExpressVPN’s servers within the country in Australia

ExpressVPN unlocks many streaming platforms using OpenVPN, but we wanted to try Lightway protocol for the streaming sites and it unblocked all of them. This makes it one of the best VPN for streaming in Australia.


ExpressVPN Lightway: Gaming

Lightway stands out as an excellent protocol catering to the gaming community, offering a seamless solution for enthusiasts to access censored or banned games within their regions. Its remarkable speed ensures swift loading and a lag-free gaming experience, particularly advantageous for gamers in Australia. Consequently, it is widely regarded as the best VPN for gaming in Australia.

The most important factor to note while gaming is the ping rate or simply the time taken by the game to respond after you clicked the button. You must have a ping rate somewhere between 10-100 ms for gaming.

In our case, we had a ping around 23 ms after connecting to a nearby server. Whereas on connecting to international servers, it reached between 132-202 ms. Therefore, we never recommend Lightway protocol for playing games on international servers.

Overall, Lightway was fast to play without lags and we were able to play World of Tanks with no long waiting or loading times.

Interested in playing Xbox with ExpressVPN? Check out our detailed guide to help you set up ExpressVPN on Xbox in Australia in no time.


How We Tested the Lightway Protocol

It was almost impossible to test both protocols together without using separate devices. Moreover, having different devices for testing meant having skewed results. Therefore, we shortlisted some factors to compile the results in our ExpressVPN Lightway review. We tested the Lightway protocol against the following criteria:

  • High Performance: We selected two other protocols and tested Lightway against OpenVPN and WireGuard. The former is most commonly used in the industry, whereas the WireGuard is a tough competitor with almost similar performance. By comparing and evaluating the three protocols, we could measure Lightway’s performance and single out the best.
  • Fast Speeds: We used Ookla’s speed test tool to get the accurate speed of every connection.
  • Streaming Abilities: We tried to access and unblock almost all major and popular streaming platforms to check Lightway’s streaming capabilities.
  • Reliability: We tested the same protocols by connecting to the same servers at the same time over the course of 3 days. With this practice, we were able to judge Lightway’s connection reliability.

ExpressVPN’s Lightway Protocols vs NordVPN’s NordLynx

NordVPN’s NordLynx is taking place in the market quickly. Just as the Lightway protocol stands as ExpressVPN’s achievement, NordLynx holds an almost similar position.

NordLynx was launched by NordVPN in 2020 with enhanced speed and consistency. This new product pushed NordVPN to surpass ExpressVPN as the fastest VPN in the industry in Australia. Two years later, ExpressVPN came up with the Lightway protocol to rank up again as the best VPN service provider.

Both NordLynx and Lightway have some developments in line, but the two exhibit some similarities. The common traits are the light code base, improved server speed, reliability, and quick connections. For detailed analysis, check our NordVPN vs ExpressVPN in Australia.

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Differences Between NordLynx and ExpressVPN Lightway

Here’s a comparison between NordLynx and Lightway ExpressVPN protocol:

Feature Lightway NordLynx
Availability of Source Code Lightway is open-source NordLynx is not publicly open-source yet
Encryption Standard Lightway supports both AES and ChaCha 20 NordLynx only supports ChaCha 20 encryption standard
Internal Framework Lightway uses wolfSSL cryptographic library NordLynx uses noise protocol
Tunneling Protocols Lightway supports UDP and TCP tunneling protocols NordLynx only supports UDP
Allocation of IP Allocates a unique IP address to every user when they try to connect Creates two local networks using Network Address Translation (NAT)
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FAQs – ExpressVPN Lightway Protocol in Australia Review

Yes, ExpressVPN’s Lightway is completely secure in Australia, as it uses wolfSSL cryptographic library, which is tested and approved by top third-party auditors. In case of any suspicious activities, the open-source code can be inspected to trace any issues.

ExpressVPN Lightway protocol in Australia is a new protocol built to boost the speed and reliability of a VPN network connection. Lightway promises fast connections for bypassing geo-restrictions and streaming popular sites. It has a lean code base with only 1000-2000 lines of code, making it extremely easy to maintain. Also, it is open-source and approved by third-party auditors.

No, ExpressVPN Lightway is not built on WireGuard. The Lightway by ExpressVPN has been formed from the ground level to the top, incorporating the security, privacy, and performance requirements of common users. After developing this protocol, ExpressVPN will not offer WireGuard in the list of VPN protocols in Australia.

Lightway protocol is a safe, secure, fast, and reliable solution for active online protection. It’s highly suitable for streaming and gaming as it connects within a few seconds and unblocks all major streaming sites in Australia. The connections are stable and secure.


Conclusion

ExpressVPN Lightway protocol in Australia is the leading solution in the modern VPN industry. It can transform your VPN experience with fast speeds and reliable connections. Being open-source and lean, the code can be easily configured and maintained,

In our ExpressVPN Lightway review, we assessed Lightway’s performance from different aspects and found it great in most of the fields. Lightway protocol unblocked rigid geo-restrictions and bans. It is ideal for gaming and streaming due to uninterrupted delivery and exceptional performance.

ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol excels in speed, reliability, and unblocking geo-restrictions, making it ideal for gaming and streaming. Our review of ExpressVPN recommends it as a top choice for a secure and efficient VPN experience in Australia.