[advice needed] I have a RT-N66U but I need more CPU for VPN client

[xed]

Hi all, first post here.

I currently have a RT-N66U running Merlin that I'm reasonably happy with. I use a VPN company and I've tested configuring the router as an OpenVPN client so that I don't have to run VPN clients on each of my home devices. This way all my traffic is encrypted by the router itself. My problem is performance. With VPN turned off I get around 57Mbps down which is expected and with VPN on i get around 8Mbps (also pretty much as expected). The CPU in the RT-N66U just can't keep up with the VPN processing to maintain more than 8Mbps down.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I would like to find another ASUS router to run Merlin on that has enough CPU power where I could expect to get 40Mbps+ out of it but I also don't want to spend $$$ and find out later that I overbought for features I don't need. I have devices using both 802.11 n and g bands at home (2.4/5 GHz). Basically all I want is a RT-N66U with a better CPU that could handle processing 40Mbps+ of OpenVPN traffic.

thank you in advance for any help and advice you can provide

 

[joegreat]

Hi,

Any ARM-CPU based router will be much faster then your good old N66U - I run OpenVPN on my AC87U with some overclocking and reach ~40 MBit downstream!

With kind regards
Joe

 

[pete y testing]

Basically all I want is a RT-N66U with a better CPU

then all you want is the rt-ac88u

dont even look at the 87u as its not got good credentials mainly because of its qualcomm wifi chipsets

I have devices using both 802.11 n and g bands at home (2.4/5 GHz)

and get rid of those wireless G devices as they are killing your wifi no end

 

[TonyH]

then all you want is the rt-ac88u

dont even look at the 87u as its not got good credentials mainly because of its qualcomm wifi chipsets



and get rid of those wireless G devices as they are killing your wifi no end

As well as RT-AC3100

 

[Xentrk]

Hi all, first post here.

I currently have a RT-N66U running Merlin that I'm reasonably happy with. I use a VPN company and I've tested configuring the router as an OpenVPN client so that I don't have to run VPN clients on each of my home devices. This way all my traffic is encrypted by the router itself. My problem is performance. With VPN turned off I get around 57Mbps down which is expected and with VPN on i get around 8Mbps (also pretty much as expected). The CPU in the RT-N66U just can't keep up with the VPN processing to maintain more than 8Mbps down.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I would like to find another ASUS router to run Merlin on that has enough CPU power where I could expect to get 40Mbps+ out of it but I also don't want to spend $$$ and find out later that I overbought for features I don't need. I have devices using both 802.11 n and g bands at home (2.4/5 GHz). Basically all I want is a RT-N66U with a better CPU that could handle processing 40Mbps+ of OpenVPN traffic.

thank you in advance for any help and advice you can provide

I am happy to share my experiences with you.

You can search the web and find many complaining about OpenVPN performance. I have seen this for myself. When it comes to VPN performance, distance is not your friend. I have done a lot of testing and found that the level of encryption will also impact performance. OpenVPN is single processor threaded so it cannot take advantage of multi-core processors. I have a quad core pfSense box and get the same download speed as my AC88U when using VPN. Since my primary purpose is streaming media, I don’t use any encryption in order to get the best streaming performance. I am primarily trying to circumvent geo-blocking. If I connect to the TorGuard server in Bangkok without encryption, I get near native line speed. The further away the server, the download speed starts to drop. I have also noticed that VPN performance can vary at different days of the week or times of the day. For the most part, I get very good to excellent streaming most of the time. The few times I have had issues, I find a power cycle of the modem and router usually will do the trick. The RT-AC88U has been working great for my OpenVPN requirements.

I currently have fiber with 100Mbps down/10Mbps up when not using VPN. I often get 120Mbps down/15Mbps up when I have tested. ISP provides a Fiberhome GPON modem/router. The router CPU and firmware are very limited. And that is saying it nicely! What you want to do is place the ISP modem/router in bridge mode. Basically, you are turning it into a modem. Take screen prints of the settings, etc before you start changing things. Turn off DHCP, the radio and other services not required. Note the PPOE userid and password as you will need this when configuring your AC88U. Your provider should have given you a piece of paper with the userid and password.

Use yorgi’s awesome VPN client set up guide over in the VPN forum combined with instructions from your provider. I also included the following in the Additional Config section to further tune my settings.

persist-key
persist-tun
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288
push "sndbuf 524288"
push "rcvbuf 524288"
tun-mtu 1500
mssfix 1450
nobind
mtu-disc yes
pull
fast-io
auth-nocache

I have two AC88U connected to the ISP modem/router. Router A is set “All” for Redirect Internet Traffic and router B is set to “Policy Rules”. I primarily use Router A as I want all of my devices to connect to USA. Another family member lives next door. I set up Router B for their use. All of their devices use the native WAN. But their Roku player goes through their VPN connection. This allows me to change VPN servers if I need to without impacting them.

 

[alecmascot]

I hit the same bottleneck a little while ago.
I went to PFSense on a mini-itx celeron mobo as the router and the N66U is running as an access point.
The ISP router is setup as a modem.
I easily max out my ISP speeds of 150/10 with an OpenVPN client at AES256.

 

[heysoundude]

If I turn my N66u into strictly an AP with routing handled elsewhere, can I still run AB-solution with pixelserv on it or is that better handled at the router?

 

[tomsk]

If I turn my N66u into strictly an AP with routing handled elsewhere, can I still run AB-solution with pixelserv on it or is that better handled at the router?

DNSmasq (which AB solution works with to perform ad blocking) does not run by default when the N66U is used as an AP. AB should be installed on the router that is using DNSmasq as the LANs DNS.

 

[heysoundude]

Ok, cool beans. Thank you. my picture is getting clearer...

 

[xed]

and get rid of those wireless G devices as they are killing your wifi no end

Good point but it got me thinking "Do i actually still have anything that's G?" I've always had G turned on because for years I've always had something that needed wireless access. However i looked around and i don't think i've got anything left so I've gone ahead and flipped the 2.4 and 5 to N only. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[xed]

Thanks everyone for their advice. With what I've learned here and digging around a bit more I discovered that ASUS has a "best buy" exclusive router that contains the same ARM 1.4 dual CPU as in the RT-AC88u/RT-AC3100, it's the RT-AC1900P (snb has a review on it as well). I've gotten along fine with the 4 ports on my RT-N66R so I didn't "need" the 8 ports on the RT-AC88u. The cost on the RT-AC1900P is about $100 less than the RT-AC88u and about $60 less than the RT-AC3100 so I figured I would save the money and order a RT-AC1900P.

Once I get it in I'll set up the OpenVPN client and do some enable/disable throughput testing and post results back here. I think I'll also repurpose my RT-N66R as an access point downstairs which will take the place of my old apple airport express.

 

[Xentrk]

Hi xed,

Check out the VPN forum when you have a chance. Yorgi has written some helpful setup guides and is quick to offer advice when needed, as well as others. If you intend to use VPN to stream Hulu and Netflix, there are only a few remaining that are able to get around their VPN blocks. If you try other VPN services, I suggest checking out their return policy. Most will return your money within 30 days.

I saw someone complaining that the USB 3.0 hub impacted their wireless performance on the ac1900. So you may want to test that out right away. I saw this on this forum and in the Amazon review. The only time my AC88U takes advantage of the 512RAM is when my laptop is backing up to the WD drive connected to the USB 3.0 port.

While you are at it, buy yourself a powered USB 2.0 hub and two USB 2.0 thumb drives (2 And/or 4GB good enough) so you can install entware and AB-Solution 3. Your ad free eyes and other users on your network will thank you!

Happy Holidays!

 

[bbunge]

How about the RT-AC66U_B1? About the same as an AC68U, dual core processor, USB 3 in the front. After Asus rebate I paid $99.99 for mine!

 

[Xentrk]

How about the RT-AC66U_B1? About the same as an AC68U, dual core processor, USB 3 in the front. After Asus rebate I paid $99.99 for mine!

Looking at the specs and reviews I think you will be fine. It has similar specs as the D-Link I used to run OpenVPN client on. Key is that it has a dual core processor. You will need to experiment with the vpn server location and different encryption protocols to determine the best performance for your needs e.g. AES 128, AES 256 or none

 

[xed]

Hi xed,

Check out the VPN forum when you have a chance. Yorgi has written some helpful setup guides and is quick to offer advice when needed, as well as others. If you intend to use VPN to stream Hulu and Netflix, there are only a few remaining that are able to get around their VPN blocks. If you try other VPN services, I suggest checking out their return policy. Most will return your money within 30 days.

I saw someone complaining that the USB 3.0 hub impacted their wireless performance on the ac1900. So you may want to test that out right away. I saw this on this forum and in the Amazon review. The only time my AC88U takes advantage of the 512RAM is when my laptop is backing up to the WD drive connected to the USB 3.0 port.

While you are at it, buy yourself a powered USB 2.0 hub and two USB 2.0 thumb drives (2 And/or 4GB good enough) so you can install entware and AB-Solution 3. Your ad free eyes and other users on your network will thank you!

Happy Holidays!

Thanks Xentrk,

Nope no Hulu/Netflix streaming for me, just web traffic over VPN. Yeah, there's apparently an issue with the USB 3.0 shielding on some of the ASUS routers so when it was active it interfered with the wireless. I'm looking VERY forward to installing ab-solution on the new router.

 

[xed]

[UPDATE]
My new RT-AC1900P router was delivered today. First thing I did was to flash to the latest Merlin.

I configured the OpenVPN client on the router exactly as on my old RT-N66U and reran the tests. Here are my results from running each permutation twice. I am VERY happy.

RT-N66U - OpenVPN client disabled
44.0 Mbps down
5.42 Mbps up
57.4 Mbps down
5.41 Mbps up

RT-N66U - OpenVPN client enabled (ouch!)
7.69 Mbps down
4.25 Mbps up
7.19 Mbps down
4.74 Mbps up

RT-AC1900P - OpenVPN client disabled (as expected, same as RT-N66U without VPN)
56.9 Mbps down
4.79 Mbps up
57.7 Mbps down
5.81 Mbps up

RT-AC1900P - OpenVPN client enabled (woo hoo!)
54.0 Mbps down
5.42 Mbps up
54.1 Mbps down
5.42 Mbps up

 

[Xentrk]

[UPDATE]
My new RT-AC1900P router was delivered today. First thing I did was to flash to the latest Merlin.

I configured the OpenVPN client on the router exactly as on my old RT-N66U and reran the tests. Here are my results from running each permutation twice. I am VERY happy.

RT-N66U - OpenVPN client disabled
44.0 Mbps down
5.42 Mbps up
57.4 Mbps down
5.41 Mbps up

RT-N66U - OpenVPN client enabled (ouch!)
7.69 Mbps down
4.25 Mbps up
7.19 Mbps down
4.74 Mbps up

RT-AC1900P - OpenVPN client disabled (as expected, same as RT-N66U without VPN)
56.9 Mbps down
4.79 Mbps up
57.7 Mbps down
5.81 Mbps up

RT-AC1900P - OpenVPN client enabled (woo hoo!)
54.0 Mbps down
5.42 Mbps up
54.1 Mbps down
5.42 Mbps up

I am very happy for you! Woo Hoo!

What level of encryption are you using? I assume you are connecting to a VPN server geographically close by you? If you have time, try a VPN server half way across the world and see how that impacts your down/up speeds. I am curious s to see if they drop. At least that is my experience. The farther away, the more latency there is. I seem to average around 12Mbps down/up. But it varies. I can at least watch 4K video and sports in USA with no blurring or buffering. For me, that is good enough. Especially during college football bowl season. I think the processor on the Roku 4 player helps as well.