"Best" Asus Router for VPN

[FlyByWire]

Hi,
Right now I'm running a AC-RT86U. Enabling VPN Client significantly reduces the speed. Is there (meanwhile) a more powerful Asus Router for VPN?

 

[Sobster88]

The ac86, ax88, and ax86 are all close in openvpn performance. They all should be able to achieve around 200 Mbps. If you are way below this with your ac86, it could be that your vpn provider doesn’t have very fast servers or possibly you are using a server very far away, degrading performance.

Try switching server locations to see if that makes any changes.

 

[FlyByWire]

200 Mbps is the usual speed I can achieve with running the VPN client on my PC (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X). Enabling it on router for the same server it's dropping to 30-60 MBbps.

 

[L&LD]

What settings are you enabling on the router VPN past defaults?

What are your ISP speeds up/down? How consistent are they (Fibre, DSL, cable, satellite, etc.)?

Have you tried using the second or third, or fourth/fifth VPN slot to test with?

 

[FlyByWire]

1- Nothing I guess, just the settings I got from my VPN Provider
2- 400/400 Mbts, very stable, Fibre
3- Yes, I did. No change.

 

[L&LD]

1- ???

What other changes past defaults have you made on your router? What options/features or scripts are you using?

What firmware are you using? When was that firmware last set to full factory defaults?

If using scripts, was the USB drive inserted 'used', or was it formatted on a PC in NTFS format first before cleanly installing the scripts you use again?

Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

 

[FlyByWire]

sorry, misunderstood that. As I had to do a factory reset today (384.18) I will check the performance again. No USB Stick.

 

[L&LD]

The RMerlin 386.1_0 release final firmware is suggested (highly). No sense fixing this on such an old firmware today.

Flash to the 386.1 codebase and reset your network and router as suggested in the link below.

Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

 

[FlyByWire]

I'll do. Upgrade from 384.18 to 386.1 worked this time. I guess I'll do a hard reset again to make sure everything is fine.

 

[doczenith1]

200 Mbps is the usual speed I can achieve with running the VPN client on my PC (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X). Enabling it on router for the same server it's dropping to 30-60 MBbps.

Is the VPN client on your PC using openvpn or wireguard?

 

[FlyByWire]

It's OVPN.

 

[Sobster88]

Which provider do you use?

What are their crypto settings, specifically tls control channel and auth digest. I’m wondering if your provider is using an extra strong encryption which is slowing the router down?

 

[Grimm]

Hi,
Right now I'm running a AC-RT86U. Enabling VPN Client significantly reduces the speed. Is there (meanwhile) a more powerful Asus Router for VPN?

did you flash it with the merlin firmwear, i have the same router as you and with its firmwear updated you/ i get almost the same speed with or without the VPN. i should also point out when you have updated it, to change its DNS servers from the new drop down list and select "cloud 9" for the DNS servers, both in Wan and Lan has 2 boxes for it, if your not having all your devices connect to the VPN

hope it helps, and no you dont loose your warranty.

Asuswrt-Merlin - Browse /RT-AC86U at SourceForge.net

Alternative firmware for Asus wireless routers

sourceforge.net

RT-AC86U_386.9_0.zip

oops, didnt see other posts

 

[Tech9]

i get almost the same speed with or without the VPN

RT-AC86U can do about 160Mbps on OpenVPN with 386 firmware. If you see way more - check for IPv6 leaks.

 

[Grimm]

zzzzz

 

[Ice9]

sorry, misunderstood that. As I had to do a factory reset today (384.18) I will check the performance again. No USB Stick.

Since factory reset was brought up, I just wanted to ask, should you always do a factory reset when upgrading to these firmwares (should you also do it before or after upgrading to Merlin)? Also, what is the correct way to do a factory reset? With the official Asuswrt firmware updates, I just usually do it within the Router's UI "Factory Default" with "Initialize all the settings" checked. Is this an effective way to do it, or not really?

 

[Tech9]

In current messy transition between 386->388 firmware I would always start fresh when changing from Asuswrt to Asuswrt-Merlin and vice versa. WebUI reset factory default + initialize is doing the same as WPS hard reset with the buttons - both reset the router and clear the stored data.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Since factory reset was brought up, I just wanted to ask, should you always do a factory reset when upgrading to these firmwares (should you also do it before or after upgrading to Merlin)? Also, what is the correct way to do a factory reset? With the official Asuswrt firmware updates, I just usually do it within the Router's UI "Factory Default" with "Initialize all the settings" checked. Is this an effective way to do it, or not really?

Yes... and then if you want to restore a saved configuration, it should be of the same model and firmware version; otherwise, configure from scratch.

If you can't access the webUI, you can use the button options. Some reading:

Reset FAQ
Reset button/webUI Restore/node removal - clears settings in NVRAM; reboot restores fw defaults from CFE (fw defaults)
Hard Reset via WPS button/webUI Restore+Initialize - also clears data logged in /jffs partition (fw defaults+clear data)
Rescue Mode

Given my basic usage and the work-in-progress nature of residential router firmware, I prefer always hard resetting firmware upgrades via webUI Restore+Initialize, and then configuring from scratch... seems to yield best results/least troubleshooting.

OE

 

[Tech9]

@Ice9, before you update to whatever version new firmware read the release threads and decide if you want to update or not. Firmware is indeed in perpetual work in progress state and newer doesn’t always mean better. If everything you need is working well for you on the firmware you currently use - wait for feedback before updating.

 

[doczenith1]

(should you also do it before or after upgrading to Merlin)?

I didn't see an answer to this question so... always do the reset after installing the new firmware.