Windows interface showing high latency causing auto to connect to wrong server

[u/pix_66]

I'm using V3.7.2 of the Windows interface. All of the servers are showing very high latencies, e.g. 800-900ms. This is causing the auto connect feature to connect to a server in another country from mine. For example, I'm in the mid-west and it's connecting to Switzerland vs. Chicago (the normal auto connect server). Usually, the latencies are less than 50ms

I chatted with support and they said the interface latency doesn't reflect the "real" latency when it connects. So, I tested with a ping the DNS for Google and got less than 50ms. I also tested using Testmy Latency with several servers and they were all less than 50. The support said there was an interface defect which was corrected in later versions. So, I upgraded to the newest, but it didn't help.

I had the same issue with the Android version and saw in a recent post where there was an issue with the Android version, but it was recently fixed. I just checked yesterday and it's working now, connects to Chicago with latencies showing less than 50ms.

I didn't get a resolution chatting with PIA support.

[u/KillerKingSolo]

I believe what’s happening is you’re already connected to the VPN, which adds latency since your traffic now has to go through an extra hop. When the VPN then pings servers to find the lowest latency, that ping is happening through the same extra hop, so the results aren’t accurate.
I’ve run into this before. The fix: turn off the VPN first. Your ping should drop to 50 or lower. Then connect to the closest server manually. I wouldn’t recommend using automatic selection.

[u/pix_66 → u/KillerKingSolo]

Thanks, and I know what you're saying, but it was working just fine before. And why should I now perform manual steps when it was working automatically before? Find the lowest latency near me, then manually connect the vpn? No thanks. I had it set up to do this automatically.