In this article, we will address the widely discussed "tip" on the internet about using a VPN to access the Prenotami website and increase your chances of securing an appointment at the Italian Consulate.
What is a VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and its main purpose is to create a connection tunnel between you (your computer, mobile phone, etc.) and a specific server, bypassing traditional routes and simulating your presence in that location.
For example: It's common knowledge that Netflix has different catalogs of series and movies for each country, but your catalog is conditioned to the country you are physically in. So, in the early days of Netflix, it was normal for people to use VPNs to access the Euro movie catalog, for example, or vice versa in the case of people who were going to spend time in another country and wanted to access the movie catalog of their home country. Today, Netflix has tools that block this type of practice.
But what does this have to do with Prenotami?
If you've read my other article about internet connection quality, you should already know that the distance to Rome, where the Prenotami website is hosted, is a crucial factor for the site's speed. To get an idea, during low traffic times, Prenotami takes about 1/2 to 1 second just to refresh a page on the site if you're in Italy. However, if you press F5 in your browser in Brazil, Argentina, the United States, etc., this time can go up to 5 seconds because the data will have to cross the Atlantic, and this is at times when the site is not congested. And this has nothing to do with your internet speed. It has to do with the ping between countries in the Americas and Italy, and your bandwidth speed doesn't help at all in this regard.
Therefore, some people had the idea of using VPNs to simulate their presence in Italy to make the site load faster for them. This information was widely disseminated and even used by many people.
In practice, this doesn't work and even worsens your situation. You may even get an appointment, but know that you have worsened your chances of success by using VPNs.
But why doesn't it work?
Imagine the internet as a network of roads and tunnels connecting different cities (servers). When you access a website, like Prenotami in Rome, you are driving your car (data) through this network until you reach your destination.
A VPN works like a special tunnel that can divert your car's path to another location before heading to the final destination. For example, you might be in NYC and use a VPN to first go through a tunnel that takes your car to Milan before finally driving to Rome.
The Illusion of the Shortcut
The idea behind using a VPN is that by choosing a tunnel (VPN server) in a city closer to Rome, the trip would be faster. However, this is not how it works in practice.
Let's use a simple analogy to explain why. Imagine you want to travel from NYC to Rome by plane. If you take a direct flight, the path is shorter. Now, imagine you decide to first fly to Milan and then take another flight to Rome. Although Milan is closer to Rome than NYC, you just added an extra step to your trip, making it longer and more complicated.
Problems
When you use a VPN, your data first goes to the VPN server (for example, in Milan) and then continues to the final destination (Rome). This additional detour usually results in:
Longer distance to travel: Your data has to travel to the VPN server and then to the final destination, which increases the total distance traveled.
More steps along the way: Every time your data passes through a new server (node), there is a small delay (latency). More nodes mean more delays.
Possible congestion: VPN servers can be congested with many users, causing even more slowdowns.
In summary, using a VPN to try to improve the access speed to Prenotami does not work and can even worsen the situation. Instead of gaining speed, you are adding more steps to the connection process, which results in greater slowdowns. The best way to improve your connection is to ensure you have good internet quality. See our article on this topic.
I hope this article has clarified this point, and my intention is to help with tips but also to demystify false tips that will hinder you in this process.
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And if you don't have the conditions to try to make your appointment every day, due to schedule issues, infrastructure, or any other reason, contact us and we will be happy to help you.
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