To measure latency between the two endpoints of the VPN, use ping to a host on the other end of the connection (or, when pinging from the client end, ping the VPN gateway). Make sure VPN traffic is appropriately prioritized in order not to be slowed down by someone else using the same Internet connection.ISPs sometimes market this as an option for online gaming, but it's also very helpful for AFP/SMB or connecting to some types of database backends. When using a DSL line, see with your ISP if you can get 'fast path' enabled (= interleaving turned off).satellite, some types of wireless providers, line aggregation. Avoid high-latency Internet uplinks (e.g.If you experience performance issues both when listing folders and when transferring files, your aim should be to reduce latency. If you are using the Finder and the issue is mostly with listing folders (but not so much when actually copying files), try turning off icons/icon previews in the Finder's View Options (Cmd-J). This is of course assuming that you already have a connection with reasonable bandwidth in between the two VPN endpoints (this can be easily verified by transferring a larger file through HTTP or FTP). With both SMB (Windows File Sharing) and AFP (Apple File Sharing), low latency connections are key to achieving good performance.
