Latest router recommendation for high speed VPN

[Makaveli]

Experiment connecting to a different VPN servers then. Local servers will give you best speeds. On a 200Mbps ISP line you should be able to get >150Mbps on UDP. ExpressVPN has some fast servers around.

I had no good experience with ExpressVPN on RT-AC86U. It was about 2 years ago though. Asuswrt-Merlin OpenVPN client was not re-connecting and auto-connecting with their servers. Looks like the things improved now.

I was testing express vpn to a local server and was doing about 215Mbps last night going to test some more. I haven't noticed any reconnecting issues but then again i've only been using them for about 5 months now.

 

[Val D.]

I haven't noticed any reconnecting issues but then again i've only been using them for about 5 months now.

That means the issues I had don’t exist anymore. Back then RT-AC86U was a brand new product, ExpressVPN were not officially supporting it, the firmware development was in early stages, etc. The good news is it is working now. Thank you!

 

[madfusker]

I've used expressVPN for right at one year now. Zero complaints and super stable. I've never achieved over 100 Mbps over my 256 encryption on my 86U. I'm not sure why if others are getting higher. I've also use PIA in the past and results are the same. If I can easily get 200 Mbps direct connected to my cable modem, any ideas what could be limiting my speed? I guess I could send my router config screen shot when I get home, but I think it's pretty straight forward. The connections I use on express VPN are Chicago, Kansas city, Dallas and LA.

 

[Val D.]

I'm not sure why if others are getting higher.

Not every server allows high speed connections. Most NordVPN servers around return 150-180Mbps, but I found a few with >200Mbps, some >250Mbps.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I'm not sure that some/any VPN providers limit the speeds intentionally, but the less than expected speeds some customers experience is they result of the providers having to many customers per server and/or not enough backbone bandwidth to support multiple customers high bandwidth connections. Time of day and the distance to the server also have an impact.

After all the providers are in business to make money and there are limits of what they can provide for $3.95 a month and still make a profit.

If speed is important then shop around. I can get download speeds of approximately 225 Mbps using either Astrill or PIA by using a server located within 300 miles and at non peak traffic times on the Internet.

 

[Phil Outram]

In looking at the RT-AX88U, having the new wifi standard support would be nice, although as indicated, the price is pretty high to get it.

If I were to get this router, does anyone here have direct experience with it running Merlin on it? Is everything stable and the radios all work well? Even with the power of the 86U, my 3 story house degrades the signal to the top floor. Would the AX88U have any more overall signal strength, or the same?

Well to put in simply, it's an absolute beast and 100% stable. My router only ever gets rebooted when a new firmware is out and runs fine for months at a time without being touched otherwise. I've pretty much got every option enabled including AI Protection, Adaptive QoS (with Freshjr script), open vpn server running, ipv6 enabled and a permanent client nord open vpn connected for torrenting traffic. I get the full speed of my connection even with the vpn enabled (70Mbps), and looking at the cpu use during heavy torrenting it doesn't even flinch and that's with AI protection enabled as well. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever seen the cpu exceed 15% use even with 30+ devices connected and all bandwidth being fully utilised.

Wifi range is good and with a ax200 wifi 6 card in my laptop it easily saturated gigabit ethernet speeds when copying a movie file from my laptop to a server that is connected via ethernet.

I highly recommend this router (and I am a senior IT consultant, if it was anything other than awesome I'd know it), it's future proof and will not disappoint.

 

[Makaveli]

I get the full speed of my connection even with the vpn enabled (70Mbps), and looking at the cpu use during heavy torrenting it doesn't even flinch and that's with AI protection enabled as well. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever seen the cpu exceed 15% use even with 30+ devices connected and all bandwidth being fully utilised.

It shouldn't tax it your Wan speed if its 70Mbps is not fast enough to cause any load on a quad core router. I doubt you would have any high load on a dual core version 86U aswell.

 

[Phil Outram]

It shouldn't tax it your Wan speed if its 70Mbps is not fast enough to cause any load on a quad core router. I double you would have any high load on a dual core version 86U aswell.

This is true of course, but when downloading at 70Mbps over the vpn with Ai on cpu use is around 5-10% on average. Therefore even if you have a connection speed of several 100Mbps I doubt it would be an issue.

 

[Val D.]

This is true of course, but when downloading at 70Mbps over the vpn with Ai on cpu use is around 5-10% on average.

One of the cores must be on around 30% at 70Mbps, the one your OpenVPN client works on.

Therefore even if you have a connection speed of several 100Mbps I doubt it would be an issue.

CPU core load reaches 100% at around 250-270Mbps. Can't go faster than this for now with current OpenVPN software.

 

[Phil Outram]

One of the cores must be on around 30% at 70Mbps, the one your OpenVPN client works on.



CPU core load reaches 100% at around 250-270Mbps. Can't go faster than this for now with current OpenVPN software.

I just ran a test by downloading SQL server iso direct from Microsoft (1.2GB file). You're right, one of the cores did reach 30% or so although not constantly and seemed to fluctuate between 20-30%. The others were on around 5% with an occasional spike to 10%.

 

[Mikeyy]

At what encryption settings?

AES128 AES256?

AES256

 

[abc5]

surprised no discussion here for months. im still fully happy with my RT-AC68U, except with its vpn usage w/ openvpn. w/ my vpn desktop app from my provider, i get about 60 Mbps. non vpn speed test is about upper 60s to near 70Mbps.

using vpn through this asus, its about 25Mbps, tested 5 connections within my locality.

not sure i want to buy backward in time for a ac86, while i dont play games nor have 12 wifi devices half streaming movies etc, that i would fully utilize the features of a nice wifi 6, asus AX88U.

i would say heck with it, just continue using my desktop vpn app... but i cant change the dns servers when their app is running, i have to use theirs.

i have my own DNS, via pihole w/ unbound

 

[abc5]

just came across this company a moment ago... https://www.vilfo.com/ european and seems like they make routers focused on VPN... hmm curious about this.

 

[Makaveli]

surprised no discussion here for months. im still fully happy with my RT-AC68U, except with its vpn usage w/ openvpn. w/ my vpn desktop app from my provider, i get about 60 Mbps. non vpn speed test is about upper 60s to near 70Mbps.

using vpn through this asus, its about 25Mbps, tested 5 connections within my locality.

not sure i want to buy backward in time for a ac86, while i dont play games nor have 12 wifi devices half streaming movies etc, that i would fully utilize the features of a nice wifi 6, asus AX88U.

i would say heck with it, just continue using my desktop vpn app... but i cant change the dns servers when their app is running, i have to use theirs.

i have my own DNS, via pihole w/ unbound

You don't have to go back you can look at the AX86U however is has no Merlin support currently if you are fine using Stock firmware.

 

[eibgrad]

surprised no discussion here for months. im still fully happy with my RT-AC68U, except with its vpn usage w/ openvpn. w/ my vpn desktop app from my provider, i get about 60 Mbps. non vpn speed test is about upper 60s to near 70Mbps.

using vpn through this asus, its about 25Mbps, tested 5 connections within my locality.

not sure i want to buy backward in time for a ac86, while i dont play games nor have 12 wifi devices half streaming movies etc, that i would fully utilize the features of a nice wifi 6, asus AX88U.

i would say heck with it, just continue using my desktop vpn app... but i cant change the dns servers when their app is running, i have to use theirs.

i have my own DNS, via pihole w/ unbound

As I've explained many times in this forum, this is well understood.

(Asus AC86u / Merlin 384.18) OpenVPN performance improvement

Hi all, I have 2 Router AC86U with the last Merlin firmware. I configured a site to site vpn network, I have a gigabit symmetric connection but the performance is limited to 160/200 mbits The cpu usage is under 80% my configuration: I found this guide: Optimizing performance on gigabit...

www.snbforums.com

I have the same router (ASUS RT-AC68U) and get similar results. I eventually offloaded the OpenVPN client to a small form-factor PC (just some old hardware I had lying around and otherwise collecting dust, nothing special (1GHz, SOC, microATX board, only pulling 18 watts)) and couldn't be happier. My ISP delivers ~160Mbps, and assuming the VPN provider isn't the limiting factor, I've seen speeds as high as ~140Mbps. Given the limitations of my ISP, I don't really know it's upper limit. It sure beats the heck out anything the router can do.