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OpenVPN performance of the RT-AC86U

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Hi Merlin. Thank you for a quick answer. Any change that you can try Open VPN Client. That would be more then a deal breaker to hear the download values and CPU values with Client connected and running.

I really want to get My while house protected by hooking up this routers Open VPN Client to my VPN-Company.

I have fiber 250/100. I'm not into building my own router with pfsense.
I really waited a long time for the CPU's in commercial routers to deliver speed enough.

Thank you so much for your work/time/effort.

As soon as I (hopefully, depending on Speed of course) buying this router I will give you a donation. You're certainly worth that

Hi Henrik,
What VPN-Company will you be using?
What speed do you get if you download using your own computer as a client?

Friendly greetings,
Demesmaeker
 
Any change that you can try Open VPN Client.

I can't do any reliable test, sorry. My Internet connection is only 30 Mbps, and setting up an OpenVPN server on my LAN for test purposes would require a fair amount of work, and would still not provide necessarily accurate results versus those you would get over the Internet with a specific tunnel provider.

Best you check what other users have posted. I believe one of them did post a 200 Mbps test result, I don't remember however which tunnel provider he used, and whether it was with such a provider or as a server.
 
I can't do any reliable test, sorry. My Internet connection is only 30 Mbps, and setting up an OpenVPN server on my LAN for test purposes would require a fair amount of work, and would still not provide necessarily accurate results versus those you would get over the Internet with a specific tunnel provider.

Best you check what other users have posted. I believe one of them did post a 200 Mbps test result, I don't remember however which tunnel provider he used, and whether it was with such a provider or as a server.
Hi Merlin,

I have running OpenVPN server on my ASUS AC86U with asuswrt firmware.
I have stable tunnel speed around 60 mpbs/60 mpbs with ISP service 200 mpbs/120 mpbs. What do you think about this speed, can the router achieve more with the stock firmware or i should change to merlin beta firmware?

One more outstanding question i have.

When i SSh to the router how to save a new iptable route to the router config?
Everytime i reboot the router the entries are gone!

I have added:

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o br0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o tun0 -j MASQUERADE
 
I have running OpenVPN server on my ASUS AC86U with asuswrt firmware.
I have stable tunnel speed around 60 mpbs/60 mpbs with ISP service 200 mpbs/120 mpbs. What do you think about this speed, can the router achieve more with the stock firmware or i should change to merlin beta firmware?

OpenVPN is more optimized in my firmware, however it shouldn't make a big difference. Your speed limitation might be from your tunnel provider rather than your router's CPU.

When i SSh to the router how to save a new iptable route to the router config?

Can't be done with the stock firmware, you need my firmware and a firewall-start or a nat-start custom script.
 
OpenVPN is more optimized in my firmware, however it shouldn't make a big difference. Your speed limitation might be from your tunnel provider rather than your router's CPU.



Can't be done with the stock firmware, you need my firmware and a firewall-start or a nat-start custom script.

Ok so i will upload your firmware and than can you explain what i need to do in order to save the iptable rules.

thank you
 
Ok so i will upload your firmware and than can you explain what i need to do in order to save the iptable rules.

thank you
Please post back how you get on as when I tried Beta1 it did not produce a valid OPVN file - I think that was fixed in Beta2 but I am holding off so would really be interested how you get on as you have a similar setup and requirement.
 
I'm more then interested in this matter as well. My broadband speed is 250/100. If I could get around 100 mbit it would be awseome.

https://www.ovpn.com/en

I get very high speeds when using my laptop (i-7 gen 4)
No bootleneck with that old laptop.

But I'm still dreaming (almost every day) to turn all traffic in my whole house encrypted through the routers OPENVPN-client mode.

My Openvpn company sells their own router (360 dollar) But the hardware is pretty old compared to the router we discuss in this thread.

https://www.ovpn.com/en/box

Also I wanna run Merlin build for many other reasons.
 
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If anyone could test client-mode down/Up Speed I would be more then grateful

Hi,

It maxes out my line on Merlin beta2. I get a consistent 100/27 Mbit on openvpn udp AES-256-CBC to a server 600 km away.
I get 117/27 without vpn. It's on about 60% CPU usage, so it can properly do better, but I don't know anyone nearby with fiber, so I cannot test it on a faster line.

Its more than enough for me. I don't want to run settop boxes, net radios and VoIP over the VPN. I only use it for PC's and phones/tablets.

/Tom
 
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question for @RMerlin

if AC86U and OpenVPN is single-threaded getting round-about 200Mbps on VPN

it means you could run two OpenVPN Servers within AC86U (with Merlin FW) and probably saturate 2x 200Mbps clients (due to CPU - VPN affinity - odd/even VPN on different cores)

I didn't tried that, but I guess it should be possible, if yes, then AC86U router is a VPN beast that will be on the wish-list of many home-networking enthusiasts
 
question for @RMerlin

if AC86U and OpenVPN is single-threaded getting round-about 200Mbps on VPN

it means you could run two OpenVPN Servers within AC86U (with Merlin FW) and probably saturate 2x 200Mbps clients (due to CPU - VPN affinity - odd/even VPN on different cores)

I didn't tried that, but I guess it should be possible, if yes, then AC86U router is a VPN beast that will be on the wish-list of many home-networking enthusiasts

You'd get less than that.. Remember that beside the crypto, the router still has to handle things like routing. Right now, I devised things so the first OpenVPN server uses the second CPU core, while the routing is done on the first core. If you also run a server on the first core, it will have to compete with routing on CPU time.
 
On the standard firmware it seems to launch two OpenVPN Server processes
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %VSZ CPU %CPU COMMAND
1182 1 admin S 6104 1.3 0 0.0 /etc/openvpn/vpnserver1 --cd /etc/openvpn/server1 --config config.ovpn
1179 1 admin S 5836 1.3 0 0.0 /etc/openvpn/vpnserver1 --cd /etc/openvpn/server1 --config config.ovpn

During file transfer over the VPN only one process seems to use any CPU - the other stays idle - and the active process switches between CPU0 and CPU1 as if it is load balancing:
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %VSZ CPU %CPU COMMAND
1182 1 admin S 6104 1.3 0 5.8 /etc/openvpn/vpnserver1 --cd /etc/openvpn/server1 --config config.ovpn
1182 1 admin S 6104 1.3 1 6.9 /etc/openvpn/vpnserver1 --cd /etc/openvpn/server1 --config config.ovpn
 
On the standard firmware it seems to launch two OpenVPN Server processes

It's two separate threads of the same instance. I believe the first one is only to set everything up, and the second one is the one to which clients get connected, and which does all the work.
 
Ah OK :)
Well that second thread moves between CPU0 and CPU1 as I am putting load on the VPN Server link.

Transferring a big file:
PID CPU %CPU COMMAND
1182 0 5.8 /etc/openvpn/vpnserver1...
Start on CPU0 then a few second later changes to CPU1
1182 1 6.9 /etc/openvpn/vpnserver1...
and this swapping CPU's continues as the file is transferred over the VPN Server link.
 
You'd get less than that.. Remember that beside the crypto, the router still has to handle things like routing. Right now, I devised things so the first OpenVPN server uses the second CPU core, while the routing is done on the first core. If you also run a server on the first core, it will have to compete with routing on CPU time.

So in My case with a 250/100 connection I would 't get near 200Mbit?
When running this router in client mode
 
So in My case with a 250/100 connection I would 't get near 200Mbit?
When running this router in client mode
See my test results for a reference.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
Hi and once again big Up to you!!!!

If you mean the test results in your first post i believe they are server speed test results?

Sorry just want to be sure.

Shouldn't make any sizable difference, it's still encrypting and decrypting depending on the traffic direction.
 
Ok thank you for a quick answer. I really want to put everything in my house behind a VPN client that runs on My router.
We're talking about 5 conputers , three smartphones, 3 Chromecast and One Nvidia Shields tv. Besides of that I'm having plenty of smart lamps and security cams
 

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