Slow OpenVPN (server) on Asus AC68U

[Wutikorn]

I have internet speed 20Mbps speed Download/ 7Mbps upload. I'm running Asus AC68U as OpenVPN Server. I ran speed test and got a little below 1Mbps speed on both download and upload, which I think should be 5-7Mbps. I use PPPOE for WAN and I turned off NAT acceleration(might not be related to the case). I'm using the stock firmware, and when I ran speed test, the CPU usage was just 5-10%. Did I do anything wrong? What information do I need to provide more?

 

[Elvis7]

on the same subject of vpn, I too am having extremely slow speeds when enabled.


I just got into the vpn bandwagon, and am very new. Although ive spent the past 6 hours reading up on vpn settings and routers, I cannot get my download speed higher than 13Mb . my router is an asus ac68U running merlinwrt 380.58 and I am using the ca.privateinternetaccess.com server with port 1196 at aes 128 cbc . any other server gets me 4-6Mb download.

 

[L&LD]

Seems you both are at the limits of the options enabled and the server you are connecting to.

If you want closer to your full ISP speeds, you will need to use something other than the low power processors our routers have.

 

[Wutikorn]

Seems you both are at the limits of the options enabled and the server you are connecting to.

If you want closer to your full ISP speeds, you will need to use something other than the low power processors our routers have.

Asus AC68U CPU was running at 5% at the time I test OpenVPN speed. My internet speed is way too low for such a good router to have problem normally. My friend's router, Asus RT-N18U, was running OpenVPN and achieve the speed of around 3Mbps(with slower ISP speed), at least, and I believe that we all know Asus AC68U should be faster than that. 1Mbps over 7Mbps does not look normal to me and CPU was not even at 100% on either core. Moreover, I have tested using several clients which have way faster network than OpenVPN speed I supposed to get.

 

[L&LD]

Asus AC68U CPU was running at 5% at the time I test OpenVPN speed. My internet speed is way too low for such a good router to have problem normally. My friend's router, Asus RT-N18U, was running OpenVPN and achieve the speed of around 3Mbps(with slower ISP speed), at least, and I believe that we all know Asus AC68U should be faster than that. 1Mbps over 7Mbps does not look normal to me and CPU was not even at 100% on either core. Moreover, I have tested using several clients which have way faster network than OpenVPN speed I supposed to get.

That doesn't change what I said.

If you have found faster clients, why don't you use those instead?

 

[Wutikorn]

That doesn't change what I said.

If you have found faster clients, why don't you use those instead?

So you are saying that this router can only get one out of seven of ISP speed?
I mean I am running the router as OpenVPN server, and I tested to assure that the devices, clients, I used to test the router is fast enough to check the router's OpenVPN speed.

 

[L&LD]

So you are saying that this router can only get one out of seven of ISP speed?
I mean I am running the router as OpenVPN server, and I tested to assure that the devices, clients, I used to test the router is fast enough to check the router's OpenVPN speed.

No, that is not what I said. See post 3 again. The combination you are using is the results you are getting.

Use a better server. Use a better VPN. Use better hardware. Or, all three, if needed, to get the speeds you want.

 

[Wutikorn]

No, that is not what I said. See post 3 again. The combination you are using is the results you are getting.

Use a better server. Use a better VPN. Use better hardware. Or, all three, if needed, to get the speeds you want.

I still say that that was not the right speed. I was not asking for 100Mbps OpenVPN speed out of 100Mbps ISP speed using home router but just 7Mbps speed. A benchmarks shows that Asus AC68U can support up to around 40Mbps OpenVPN throughput. I also know that OpenVPN should not take up the speed more than 20% as the size of overhead is not that big, so I know for sure that I don't need to spend more money. Thanks though.

Therefore, I tried uploading the same version of firmware again to the router to check if the last installation has problems, and it turns out that after re-installing the same version of firmware, the OpenVPN speed becomes reasonable. Now it is working at the speed of at least 7Mbps(full speed of my ISP), and I don't have to spend more money buying better server or hardware.

 

[L&LD]

I still say that that was not the right speed. I was not asking for 100Mbps OpenVPN speed out of 100Mbps ISP speed using home router but just 7Mbps speed. A benchmarks shows that Asus AC68U can support up to around 40Mbps OpenVPN throughput. I also know that OpenVPN should not take up the speed more than 20% as the size of overhead is not that big, so I know for sure that I don't need to spend more money. Thanks though.

Therefore, I tried uploading the same version of firmware again to the router to check if the last installation has problems, and it turns out that after re-installing the same version of firmware, the OpenVPN speed becomes reasonable. Now it is working at the speed of at least 7Mbps(full speed of my ISP), and I don't have to spend more money buying better server or hardware.

Glad it is working as you except now.

Your reasoning though is not very logical to me and still appears flawed.

I think you may have done more than just re-flash the same firmware though? What other steps, if any, were done?

 

[Wutikorn]

Glad it is working as you except now.

Your reasoning though is not very logical to me and still appears flawed.

I think you may have done more than just re-flash the same firmware though? What other steps, if any, were done?

That was all I have done. It's weird that it fixes the problem. I didn't even have to reset the router. I normally do the same thing to fix Windows; I download media creation tools to update the Windows of the same version, and sometimes it fixes some problem.

 

[L&LD]

There have been reports that re-flashing the same firmware version is needed for some cases.

Keep this in mind for your future firmware upgrades.

 

[Wutikorn]

There have been reports that re-flashing the same firmware version is needed for some cases.

Keep this in mind for your future firmware upgrades.

I just remember that I did one more thing after the firmware upgrade. I manually reboot the router as it said to do so. I tried rebooting from web interface before and it still was not working. So my solution is either update firmware or manually reboot or both.

 

[Elvis7]

I ran another speed test and both the router's cores hover at around 30%. I get 14Mbps/65 down and 10Mbps/10 upload. How do I get the router to handle more? It's rated to be able to get to 40Mbps.

 

[Wutikorn]

I ran another speed test and both the router's cores hover at around 30%. I get 14Mbps/65 down and 10Mbps/10 upload. How do I get the router to handle more? It's rated to be able to get to 40Mbps.

Is your ISP speed 14Mbps for upload and 65Mbps speed for download? In that case, the maximum speed for OpenVPN will be 14Mbps speed for both download and upload(If you use router as OpenVPN Server). I wonder if you are running the newest firmware or not. I just have a problem after the newest firmware update that it slows OpenVPN speed down completely.

Edit: Are you running your router as client or server?

 

[Elvis7]

I'm running my router as a client. but good news is, since updating to the latest marlin build 380.59 , I am now downloading at 42mbs (4.5MB) . I can live with 42/60.

 

[unclebuk]

I have internet speed 20Mbps speed Download/ 7Mbps upload. I'm running Asus AC68U as OpenVPN Server. I ran speed test and got a little below 1Mbps speed on both download and upload, which I think should be 5-7Mbps. I use PPPOE for WAN and I turned off NAT acceleration(might not be related to the case). I'm using the stock firmware, and when I ran speed test, the CPU usage was just 5-10%. Did I do anything wrong? What information do I need to provide more?

I have the same router configured with expressVPN client connected to a USA server and average approximately 20 to 25 Mbs download and 15Mbs upload on 35/15 Mbs ToT fiber internet service. The speeds vary depending which server location I connect to. The fastest vpn servers have been Pakistan, Phillippines and Singapore. Most USA, Canada, UK, all european servers seem to lag in download speeds. Also, I use UDP protocol which is supposed to afford higher speeds than TCP protocol. Try UDP or even L2TP protocols and you may experience speed improvements.

 

[Wutikorn]

I have the same router configured with expressVPN client connected to a USA server and average approximately 20 to 25 Mbs download and 15Mbs upload on 35/15 Mbs ToT fiber internet service. The speeds vary depending which server location I connect to. The fastest vpn servers have been Pakistan, Phillippines and Singapore. Most USA, Canada, UK, all european servers seem to lag in download speeds. Also, I use UDP protocol which is supposed to afford higher speeds than TCP protocol. Try UDP or even L2TP protocols and you may experience speed improvements.

I was running my router as OpenVPN server not client, but thanks for a reply, I got it working some time ago, probably by either updating client or router firmware and do some setting. Now I am using Sinet which is 50/20Mbps download, upload, and I get full speed on my phone from outside home network, which is ~20/20Mbps

 

[netware5]

Turn the LZO compression off on both server and client. This will increase the speed. I am running OpenVPN server on my RT-N66U since 2013 and this is a proven solution. With LZO off you will have the maximum possible with your hardware and internet connection.

 

[dr_lucas]

I have the same router configured with expressVPN client connected to a USA server and average approximately 20 to 25 Mbs download and 15Mbs upload on 35/15 Mbs ToT fiber internet service. The speeds vary depending which server location I connect to. The fastest vpn servers have been Pakistan, Phillippines and Singapore. Most USA, Canada, UK, all european servers seem to lag in download speeds. Also, I use UDP protocol which is supposed to afford higher speeds than TCP protocol. Try UDP or even L2TP protocols and you may experience speed improvements.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but TOT Fiber currently throttles/blocks/messes-around with L2TP and unencrypted PPTP, right? (OpenVPN and 128Bit PPTP work fine tho)
I have been trying to connect to several L2TP and PPTP servers from my AC87U router and I either don't get any Internet connection or browsing is very very laggy with many websites not loading at all.
Switched the connection to TRUE Docsis and everything works fine.
Anybody else experience this?