OpenVPN Speed

[skilledone]

Greetings all,

I know this question has been asked before so I, of course, did some searching around threads to collect different things users have tried.

Right now I'm running an AC88U Router w/ a 1Gbit symmetrical connection. Firmware:380.66_4

I'm trying to figure out why my VPN speeds are so abysmal when I'm on a 150/150 connection when away from home. Speeds improved slightly when I changed some settings, so here are my current settings. If there is anything you think I should change, your input is welcomed. Prior to the below settings, I was getting below 1Mbps/1Mbps . I just want at least 15/15, jeez, especially on my FAT pipe1


VPN Speed Test - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6371815475
Non VPN Speed Test - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6371824273
VPN Settings - Data encryption: AES-128
Data authentication: SHA1
Handshake: RSA-2048
LZO: Disabled

Custom Configuration Settings:
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288
push "sndbuf 524288"
push "rcvbuf 524288"

 

[CaptainSTX]

Greetings all,

I know this question has been asked before so I, of course, did some searching around threads to collect different things users have tried.

Right now I'm running an AC88U Router w/ a 1Gbit symmetrical connection. Firmware:380.66_4

I'm trying to figure out why my VPN speeds are so abysmal when I'm on a 150/150 connection when away from home. Speeds improved slightly when I changed some settings, so here are my current settings. If there is anything you think I should change, your input is welcomed. Prior to the below settings, I was getting below 1Mbps/1Mbps . I just want at least 15/15, jeez, especially on my FAT pipe1


VPN Speed Test - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6371815475
Non VPN Speed Test - http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6371824273
VPN Settings - Data encryption: AES-128
Data authentication: SHA1
Handshake: RSA-2048
LZO: Disabled

Custom Configuration Settings:
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288
push "sndbuf 524288"
push "rcvbuf 524288"

First thing you should do is test what speeds you can get if you run the VPN client on your PC and the PC is connected directly to your router with an Ethernet cable. Test to several servers both near and far. This will give you a base case of how much bandwidth your VPN provider can/will give you for your $8 a month.

Also based on my own personal experience when I doubled my speed from the ISP to 150/22 my VPN throughput decreased from 75 Mbps - 55 Mbps. My supposition is that SOHO routers don't have the processing power to handle both a high speed WAN connection and a VPN. I ended up purchasing a mini PC with an I7 processor with Turbo Boost to a 3 Ghz clock speed. With my new setup I can get VPN throughput in the 145/22 range.

Previous threads related to this topic have speculated that to get speeds over 100Mbps you would need at least an I5 with 2.4 Ghz clock speed. No real empirical data yet as few people have gigabyte connections and a Pfsense or other type router with a robust processor. Perhaps in the future on this web site some testing can be done using higher powered hardware connected over a gigbyte LAN connection to see what it really takes hardware wise to get a very fast VPN connection.

PS. Testing to see what speeds your VPN provider offers is key. On my PC I can get 170/22 from Astrill. With StrongVPN it is only 95/22. For what they charge there is a financial limit on how big a pipe they can buy as well as the processing power of the hardware at their end.

 

[Zirescu]

I think @skilledone is using the Server on the AC88U and not the client. I suggest testing with http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest as I find it more consistent than Speedtest.net. On an RT-N66U default settings I can get 10/5 with it so you should be able to do much better. You didn't specify which client you were using to connect to the server. Are you connecting using UDP or TCP?

 

[skilledone]

I think @skilledone is using the Server on the AC88U and not the client. I suggest testing with http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest as I find it more consistent than Speedtest.net. On an RT-N66U default settings I can get 10/5 with it so you should be able to do much better. You didn't specify which client you were using to connect to the server. Are you connecting using UDP or TCP?

@Zirescu is correct. I'm running an OpenVPN Server at home from my router. On my Mac, I'm using tunnelblick and on my phone (iOS), I'm using OpenVPN client. And I'm connecting using UDP.

Here is my test result from DSLReports.
Test #1 - http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/16779588

Seems pretty crappy, eh?!

 

[CaptainSTX]

@Zirescu is correct. I'm running an OpenVPN Server at home from my router. On my Mac, I'm using tunnelblick and on my phone (iOS), I'm using OpenVPN client. And I'm connecting using UDP.

Here is my test result from DSLReports.
Test #1 - http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/16779588

Seems pretty crappy, eh?!

Sorry about the confusion on my part but processor power at both ends is your issue. The router still has to decrypt the incoming traffice as well as handle the other network functions. On the other end your I-Phone and PC have to do their own lifting.

As for network speed remember most connections are not symetrical so the speed that your remote clients can send at is limited to some percentage of the available upload speed on their end which is probably not a gig.

 

[skilledone]

Sorry about the confusion on my part but processor power at both ends is your issue. The router still has to decrypt the incoming traffice as well as handle the other network functions. On the other end your I-Phone and PC have to do their own lifting.

As for network speed remember most connections are not symetrical so the speed that your remote clients can send at is limited to some percentage of the available upload speed on their end which is probably not a gig.

Not tracking here --- I use other VPNs on my Mac and the speeds are just fine. Are you suggesting my Core i7 is the issue?

My connection when not running several servers is consistently 900/900+, so my 1Gig line is generally being delivered as promised. At work, I'm on a Gig connection as well and I connect to other VPN servers just fine w/ good speeds so I'm failing to see what you're getting at. Also, consider I'm using the suggested VPN Server settings for some bit of security but also leaving the ability to get some decent speed. @CaptainSTX

 

[CaptainSTX]

Not tracking here --- I use other VPNs on my Mac and the speeds are just fine. Are you suggesting my Core i7 is the issue?

My connection when not running several servers is consistently 900/900+, so my 1Gig line is generally being delivered as promised. At work, I'm on a Gig connection as well and I connect to other VPN servers just fine w/ good speeds so I'm failing to see what you're getting at. Also, consider I'm using the suggested VPN Server settings for some bit of security but also leaving the ability to get some decent speed. @CaptainSTX

Are you running a VPN server on your AC88? If you are my point is that between handling a 1 Gig connection and a VPN it doesn't have enough power. The faster your connection the fewer cycles are available to decrypt a VPN packet.

If you are running the VPN on your MAC with an I7 you have lots more power and should be able to get well over 100Mbps. On my PC with an I7 I have gotten as high as 170 but I only have an ISP connection that maxes out around 180/23.

 

[Zirescu]

@Zirescu is correct. I'm running an OpenVPN Server at home from my router. On my Mac, I'm using tunnelblick and on my phone (iOS), I'm using OpenVPN client. And I'm connecting using UDP.

Here is my test result from DSLReports.
Test #1 - http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/16779588

Seems pretty crappy, eh?!

Yeah, that doesn't seem right that it's that poor. I don't have a fast enough connection to test it on my 87U, but when I connect in from outside I'm able to max out at 30/5 which is what I have here.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Yeah, that doesn't seem right that it's that poor. I don't have a fast enough connection to test it on my 87U, but when I connect in from outside I'm able to max out at 30/5 which is what I have here.

IMHO the problem is that when you have a very fast (100+ Mbps connection ) and run a VPN server/client the router doesn't have enough processing power to handle both tasks at maximum. Hopefully someone with the right equipment can run tests in a lab setting and test to see at a WAN speed of X you can expect a VPN speed of Y and establish a correlation. Once people had an idea of what a particular router is capable of in a lab setting then if their throughput doesn't come close to that number they can look for the reasons.