Share your experiences running OpenVPN client on RT-N66U with Merlin FW

[dougruns]

Great tip! Thanks. the dual-core w/ 1.4GHz is exactly what I was hoping for at a decent price point.

No, the value right now is the Asus RT-AC1900P (a Best Buy exclusive right now). It is the latest and more powerful version of the 4 year old RT-AC68U with a 75% faster 1.4GHz processor and other upgrades too. Still has the same ram and NVRAM as the original 'AC68U, but for VPN, those faster processors are worth any premiums the RT-AC1900P may have.

In actuality though, the price is the same or lower than the original RT-AC68U. And, it still can use RMerlin's firmware too (just use the RT-AC68U firmware on it).

The RT-AC87U should not be on your shortlist if you want a stress free time with your new router (do a search, many are still having insurmountable issues with them).

 

[RMerlin]

I have a 68U and the speed is 10-12mb/s (OpenVPN AES-256-CBC) as I wrote yesterday.

Is there anything I can tune to get more speed ?

Switch to AES-128-CBC.

 

[hw1380]

Switch to AES-128-CBC.

Unfortunately my VPN provider does not offer AES-128-CBC.

I already overclocked my router from 800Mhz to 1200Mhz successfully but this did not change anything.
LAN -> Switch control -> NAT accel. is already disabled.
The CPU usage is still at max 50% during download - no matter which host I use at speedtest.net
It looks like that something is limiting the speed although there are lots of cpu cycles left.

 

[RMerlin]

Unfortunately my VPN provider does not offer AES-128-CBC.

I already overclocked my router from 800Mhz to 1200Mhz successfully but this did not change anything.
LAN -> Switch control -> NAT accel. is already disabled.
The CPU usage is still at max 50% during download - no matter which host I use at speedtest.net
It looks like that something is limiting the speed although there are lots of cpu cycles left.

Dual core CPU but OpenVPN is only single threaded - that's why you see 50%. One core at 100%, the other core is unused.

 

[hw1380]

Dual core CPU but OpenVPN is only single threaded - that's why you see 50%. One core at 100%, the other core is unused.

Sorry, for the missing detail: I checked the Overview page and core #1 is at 7% and core #2 is at 50%.

 

[RMerlin]

Sorry, for the missing detail: I checked the Overview page and core #1 is at 7% and core #2 is at 50%.

Then the bottleneck is either the server, or the ISP.

 

[yorgi]

I have a 68U and the speed is 10-12mb/s (OpenVPN AES-256-CBC) as I wrote yesterday.

Is there anything I can tune to get more speed ?

One thing people need to understand about VPN is this.
The VPN providers have servers worldwide. Depending on the countries popularity there are VPN servers that follow.
NY for example from PIA has the most servers from any other place in the world. You can be sure that if you are close to NY your bandwidth will be pretty much at its peek. So what do I mean by this. Well, if you use a a country to test your speed that has few servers then the chances of getting high speeds are close to none. even if you had the fastest router on the planet.
So to make this clear, when you test VPN servers and see your speeds are not to your liking, disconnect and reconnect to the country and get another IP address. I use the Canadian server and sometimes I get these crappy speeds. I just turn the service on and off a few times until I land on a nice fast server and I go with my business again. Some servers get over loaded and then they have no juice left.
There are countless other reasons that speeds may not be to your liking. Some ISP providers are getting smart and are starting to throttle speeds.
So it could be your VPN provider that is not good or it could be your ISP or both.
Don't blame the routers. if you followed the guides properly that are supplied in the forum, and you get connected and you don't get dropped connections, that means you are connected and the router is working. Take a look at your logs and see if there are errors.
Make sure you have all extra features that your VPN provider provides in the Custom configuration area.
use this guide as a reference to connect properly to your VPN provider.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ho...ia-and-other-vpn-providers-10-15-fixed.30851/

Also be aware PIA are having major finacial problems and maybe going belly up.
There are many VPN service providers out there http://best10vpn.com/top-5-vpns/

http://best10vpn.com/which-vpns-work-with-netflix-mid-2016-update/

Don't blame your router or your configurations. Chances are its the ISP or VPN providers.
also do a test with openVPN software instead of the router using VPN and see what speeds you get.
But as we have seen in the past, sometimes those software work better then a router, and it could all be due to PIA or ISP throttling.
VPN is a new business and many ISP providers don' t like VPN even though they may tell you that they don't throttle, they do!

 

[VanRaiks]

Have a silly question. After each restart of router (RT-N66U) OpenVPN client goes off. Is there any workaround for this? Could not find setting. Merlin's firmware: 378.56_2

 

[Chuckles67]

Have a silly question. After each restart of router (RT-N66U) OpenVPN client goes off. Is there any workaround for this? Could not find setting. Merlin's firmware: 378.56_2

Try this - in OpenVPN client settings > basic settings > make "Start with WAN" = Yes, then click Apply. This fixed the same issue on RT-AC66U B1

 

[VanRaiks]

make "Start with WAN" = Yes

Thank you a lot. It works. Very wierd formulation of this function - could not figure out.

 

[fidesachates]

A Zoltac mini PC would be the same price as the VPN accelerator, and provide you with more.

Also, something a bit disturbing about SabaiOS: they use Tomato, yet they have never provided any source code back to honor the GPL licence. Luckily for them, there is no officially appointed maintainer for the Tomato code to file a complain.

You're trying to do realtime encryption of data on a 600 MHz MIPS CPU. Those speed are perfectly normal for this class of CPU - it will never compete with a full-blown desktop CPU.

I've always said that the N66/AC66 can hit about 15-20 Mbps max, while the AC68U can hit about 50 Mbps max. Beyond that, you need a specialized device that has hardware-based AES encryption.

Hi, I've rolled out my own vpn server to a service in AWS (anyone interested, see https://github.com/jlund/streisand). I have experienced the same speed decrease.

Paid for speed: 100 Mbps / 100 Mbps
Native speed without VPN: 110 Mbps / 90 Mbps
Speed with openVpn client on desktop: 100 Mbps / 70 Mbps
Speed with openVpn client on RT-N66U: 10 Mbps / 10 Mbps

I've read through this entire thread looking for some hope and I've found these posts I quoted above. I'm looking now for guidance on device to purchase for the purpose of running the vpn client. I assume the idea is to route the device between my modem (or whatever it's called in fios land) and my rt-n66u. The goal is to get something close to 100 Mbps / 70 Mbps.

1. Can someone recommend a device that should suit this purpose? I found this on newegg: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N842C5186
2. If there's no recommendation, what specs should I be looking for?
* 2 ethernet ports?
* CPU processor should support AES NI?
* What is the minimum processing speed I should look for?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Hi, I've rolled out my own vpn server to a service in AWS (anyone interested, see https://github.com/jlund/streisand). I have experienced the same speed decrease.

Paid for speed: 100 Mbps / 100 Mbps
Native speed without VPN: 110 Mbps / 90 Mbps
Speed with openVpn client on desktop: 100 Mbps / 70 Mbps
Speed with openVpn client on RT-N66U: 10 Mbps / 10 Mbps

I've read through this entire thread looking for some hope and I've found these posts I quoted above. I'm looking now for guidance on device to purchase for the purpose of running the vpn client. I assume the idea is to route the device between my modem (or whatever it's called in fios land) and my rt-n66u. The goal is to get something close to 100 Mbps / 70 Mbps.

1. Can someone recommend a device that should suit this purpose? I found this on newegg: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N842C5186
2. If there's no recommendation, what specs should I be looking for?
* 2 ethernet ports?
* CPU processor should support AES NI?
* What is the minimum processing speed I should look for?

In previous discussions on this board, the opinion seems to be that you will need a fairly powerful processor with at least 2.4 Ghz clock speed.

I'm considering a mini PC with the specs shown in the attached link. Besides the money for the unit I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the time learning Pfsense and setting it up. I don't want most of the features of Pfsense provides above and beyond what I get from Merlin, I just need a router software that will allow me to get 100+Mbps downloads using a VPN client. Running the VPN on a PC I get 170Mbps vs. 180 Mbps connecting to my local ISP.


https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...32799048185.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.PeG5uO

 

[fidesachates]

In previous discussions on this board, the opinion seems to be that you will need a fairly powerful processor with at least 2.4 Ghz clock speed.

I'm considering a mini PC with the specs shown in the attached link. Besides the money for the unit I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the time learning Pfsense and setting it up. I don't want most of the features of Pfsense provides above and beyond what I get from Merlin, I just need a router software that will allow me to get 100+Mbps downloads using a VPN client. Running the VPN on a PC I get 170Mbps vs. 180 Mbps connecting to my local ISP.


https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...32799048185.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.PeG5uO

Thanks for the response. Was I correct regarding the setup of having that box between your router and the modem? And it seems your pick has a processor that supports AES NI, was that on purpose?

Also, I just found this one. There's a thread on a different forum website that seems to indicate it works well for pfsense and openvpn. I think I'll be going with this one.