Networks fall into a few categories that matter for VPN use. On a friendly network — most home ISPs in most countries — a VPN is just another encrypted connection. Performance is determined by physics (distance, bandwidth, congestion). You don't think about it.
On a passively unfriendly network — corporate proxies, captive Wi-Fi, some hotel networks — the network may rate-limit unfamiliar traffic shapes, throttle at peak times, or refuse certain ports. A VPN often still works, just less predictably. The fix is usually picking a different node or accepting a degraded experience.
On an actively hostile network — DPI-equipped state networks, certain enterprise networks with TLS interception, some mobile carriers with carve-outs — the network looks for VPN signatures and blocks what it finds. This is where protocol design earns its keep. A VPN that "looks like a VPN" gets identified and dropped. A protocol that doesn't expose obvious signatures has a much better chance.
Practical posture for everyday use on friendly-to-passively-unfriendly networks: pick a nearby node, leave the tunnel on for the apps you care about, don't worry about it.
Posture on actively hostile networks: expect occasional disruption. Treat reachability as something to verify on each session, not assumed. Have a node-switching habit. Test with the starter balance before paying. Don't reveal in writing — anywhere, including support tickets — which countries or which carriers you're successfully traversing; that information helps adversaries write better signatures.
A note on advice we don't give: "use these specific settings to bypass blocks in country X" or "this node is currently undetected in network Y". Publishing that information makes it less true within hours. The right tradecraft is to test what works for you, on your network, today, and treat the answer as perishable.
The starter balance is intentional here. It exists so you can test reachability on your specific network before deciding the service is worth a voucher. If the test fails, you've spent nothing.