It was about 3 AM in mid-November in Bangkok, and the only light in my studio apartment came from the laptop screen and the faint blue-ish tint of the city’s skyline through the humidity. I was hunched over a half-eaten plate of pad krapow, desperately trying to catch up on a stream while my partner was in the other room on a client call. Every time he spoke, the Wi-Fi seemed to groan, and every time a new ad tried to load on my screen, the video just... died. It was that specific, painful kind of lag where the audio keeps going but the picture freezes on a presenter’s mid-sneeze face.
Before we go any further, I should probably mention that I’m a bit of a VPN hoarder. This site uses affiliate links, and if you sign up for a service through them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I’ve personally paid for and used every single one of these during my three years of bouncing between Lisbon, Bangkok, and Mexico City—mostly because I have an irrational fear of missing the latest episode of University Challenge. You can check out my full transparency policy here.
The Night the Ads Broke the Internet
That night in Bangkok was the breaking point. I’ve lived the nomad life since 2022, and I’ve developed a 'two-VPN' rule: one for the polished, easy-to-use stuff, and one for when things get weird. Private Internet Access (PIA) is my 'utility player.' It’s not always the prettiest app in the world—it can feel a bit like looking at a car engine when you just wanted to turn the key—but it has some hidden gears that have saved my sanity in places like Chiang Mai and Porto.
The problem wasn’t just the speed; it was the 'noise.' Most streaming sites that aren't the big-name paid ones (and even some that are) are absolutely crawling with trackers and scripts. On a fast London fiber connection, you don't notice. On a shared hotel Wi-Fi that’s struggling to breathe, those ads are the equivalent of trying to run a marathon while someone keeps throwing bricks at your feet. That’s when I finally bothered to look into a setting I’d been ignoring for months: MACE.
Wait, What Actually is MACE?
I’m not a network engineer—I’m a designer who just wants things to work—but the way I understand it is through a bit of a 'Butler' analogy. Usually, when you go to a website, your computer asks a Domain Name System (DNS) for the address. It’s like a phonebook. A normal VPN just looks up the address for you. But MACE acts like a very protective butler. Before it hands you the phonebook, it goes through and rips out the pages for every known advertiser, tracker, and malware site.
Because Private Internet Access [Privacy-First] blocks these at the 'phonebook' level, the ads never even try to download. They don't just get hidden; they never exist as far as your browser is concerned. This is a massive deal when you're in a high-latency location where every single request your computer makes takes a split second longer to travel across the ocean. By cutting out those hundred tiny ad requests, you’re freeing up all that bandwidth just for your video stream.
The Customization Learning Curve
I’ll be honest: I once spent forty minutes trying to 'fix' my router in a Porto Airbnb last February, convinced the local ISP was throttling me, before realizing I’d just forgotten to toggle the protocol from OpenVPN to WireGuard in the PIA settings. PIA is highly customizable, which is great, but it means you can occasionally trip over your own feet if you like to tinker. But once I got it right, the difference was night and day. If you're struggling with similar issues, you might want to check out my guide on How to Fix Buffering on Firestick While Using a Travel VPN.
Porto, February, and the Shaky Connection
One humid evening last February, we were staying in a beautiful old building in Porto where the walls were thick enough to stop a tank but apparently also blocked 90% of the Wi-Fi signal. My partner was doing video calls all day, and he has this very specific, audible sigh of relief when the Wi-Fi stops 'chugging.' You know the sound—the one that means the spinning wheel of death has finally disappeared.
I turned on PIA with MACE enabled, and suddenly, the background 'noise' of the internet just stopped. It wasn’t just that the ads were gone; the whole browsing experience felt snappier. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to a 'magic button' for bad internet. For those of us who travel with a partner who needs every bit of bandwidth for work, being able to stream a show without slowing down their Zoom call is basically a relationship-saver.
If you're traveling as a couple and find yourself constantly arguing over who gets the 'good' Wi-Fi spot, you might find that Surfshark [Unlimited Devices] is also a solid contender since it allows unlimited connections, but for the raw power of ad-blocking, PIA’s MACE is hard to beat. You can read more about that in my post on Why Surfshark is the Best VPN for Travel with Multiple Devices.
The University Challenge Final in Mexico City
By late March, during our move to Mexico City, I’d become a total MACE convert. We were in a temporary apartment with a captive portal—you know, those annoying login screens that make you 'agree' to terms every six hours. These portals often hate VPNs because they try to inject their own ads or tracking into your session. Standard VPN ad-blocking can sometimes conflict with these, but because MACE works at that DNS level, it usually manages to sidestep the drama.
The stakes were high in May. It was the University Challenge final. For the uninitiated, there are 37 episodes per series, and I had watched 36 of them without fail. I was not about to let a Mexican ISP’s ad-injection script ruin the moment I found out if Imperial or UCL took the trophy. I remember that sharp, familiar spike of adrenaline when the iPlayer loading bar hit 99% and then paused for three seconds too long. My heart actually stopped. But then, thanks to the lack of ad-clutter, it snapped into life. Crystal clear. No buffering. No 'this content is not available.' Just pure, academic nerdery.
Why I Keep PIA in My Travel Bag
While I often use NordVPN [Best Value] for its specialty servers when I'm in a rush, or ExpressVPN [Editor's Pick] when I need something that just 'works' on my phone, PIA remains my go-to for the long haul. It has servers in 91 countries, which is more than enough to find a fast connection no matter where we end up next. Plus, they offer unlimited simultaneous device connections now, which is a massive upgrade from when I first started using them.
If you’re someone who finds themselves in high-latency remote locations—the kind of places where the internet feels like it’s being delivered by a very tired pigeon—standard ad-blockers might not be enough. You need something that stops the data from ever leaving the server in the first place. That’s what MACE does. It makes the internet 'leaner,' and when you’re three time zones away from home, lean is exactly what you need.
If you're tired of fighting with your hotel Wi-Fi just to watch a bit of home telly, I really can't recommend the 'MACE' approach enough. It’s not just about avoiding annoying commercials; it’s about making sure your connection actually has the space to do what you want it to do. For those specifically trying to get around the dreaded 'proxy error' on other services, have a look at Best Ways to Watch Hulu Outside US Without Constant Buffering for more tips on keeping your streams smooth.
Anyway, I’m currently looking at flights for our next move, and you can bet the first thing I’ll be checking—even before the shower pressure—is whether the Wi-Fi can handle my VPN settings. If you’re ready to stop the buffering and just watch your shows, you can grab a deal on Private Internet Access here. It might take a minute to get the settings exactly how you like them, but your bandwidth (and your partner’s patience) will thank you.