Which router for NordVPN

[GrandM1961]

You never set all your devices to go through VPN by default. You are missing 192.168.1.0/24 VPN rule. All devices go through WAN by default and you don’t have to list specific ones one by one. Read Merlin instructions for Policy Rules.

I don’t know how to tell you that what you believe in is simply technically impossible with your hardware. I’m an electronic engineer and I know what’s inside of your devices and how it works. If you don’t believe me, ask RMerlin. He knows both the hardware and software of RT-AC87U.

Your right about that i missed that rule and i just edited it into the asus VPN section. Yet the result is still the same, and all i have to do it take out the ones for VPN, because some devices DON’t need the VPN and stay on WAN. Nevertheless i still get the same speeds, so please enlighten me how that is possible.


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[Val D.]

Nevertheless i still get the same speeds, so please enlighten me how that is possible.

Few possibilities:
- the device you are running speed test on goes through WAN
- your VPN tunnel encryption is disabled for some reason
- speed test is giving you wrong measurements
- VPN client software is running on a local machine

Data goes around your VPN tunnel, even if it’s set properly. Router’s CPU can’t encrypt/decrypt data 500/500. Also, OpenVPN uses single core of the CPU only. If you provide your full configuration, we can find what’s going on with your connection. What you see is not realistic.

Biggest concern here is all your data is visible to other companies and you only think it goes through properly secured VPN tunnel. VPN encryption requires CPU processing and I don’t see that part happening on your router.

 

[GrandM1961]

Few possibilities:
- the device you are running speed test on goes through WAN
- your VPN tunnel encryption is disabled for some reason
- speed test is giving you wrong measurements
- VPN client software is running on a local machine

Data goes around your VPN tunnel, even if it’s set properly. Router’s CPU can’t encrypt/decrypt data 500/500. Also, OpenVPN uses single core of the CPU only. If you provide your full configuration, we can find what’s going on with your connection. What you see is not realistic.

Biggest concern here is all your data is visible to other companies and you only think it goes through properly secured VPN tunnel.

So what your saying is that the instructions given and followed by NordVPN are not the right instructions? I followed it exactly except for that one rule you mentioned before. I checked the logs and see nowhere an error, and yet the speed stays the same. I even put the Policy Rules on Strict and also the dns configuration on Strict, but yet the speed stays the same. I think NordVPN knows what they are doing when making a manual for merlins firmware, might be the older firmware but the setup stays the same. The .OPVN file is pre configured so nothing for me to change that, and on my iMac speedtest is saying that i use a VPN and even my real IP is disguised. Also you mentioned VPN is running on a local device, but it is installed in the router. Do you have your VPN over TCP or UDP???


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[L&LD]

I too am curious to see this outcome. The certainty is that the RT-AC87U is not doing 500Mbps up/down via VPN with any sort of encryption or tunnel established just on the router itself.

 

[Val D.]

So what your saying is that the instructions given and followed by NordVPN are not the right instructions?

What I’m saying is your router can’t do more than 40-70Mbps on OpenVPN with proper AES-256/AES-128 encryption due to CPU limitations. Not on TCP, nor on UDP.

What you’re saying is your Opel Astra with 70hp engine suddenly become 500hp with no explanation and you made a video doing 600km/h on Autobahn.

 

[GrandM1961]

@RMerlin can you help out here, are the instructions of NordVPN wrong as described on
https://nordvpn.com/tutorials/asustwrt-merlin/openvpn/ and is it possible to still get high speeds with these settings? I see no errors in the log files but maybe i see something wrong. Here is my logfile
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3aaw7gd8wzsorgu/logfile.txt?dl=0


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[GrandM1961]

What I’m saying is your router can’t do more than 40-70Mbps on OpenVPN with proper AES-256/AES-128 encryption due to CPU limitations. Not on TCP, nor on UDP.

What you’re saying is your Opel Astra with 70hp engine suddenly become 500hp with no explanation and you made a video doing 600km/h on Autobahn.

No your actually saying that the speeds cannot be right, but what if they really are the right speeds and you got your config wrong??? The logfile says something different and so is NordVPN, and i have also read that sometimes when you have the right server location the speed may increase instead of decrease. Well you go through my logfile and come back whats wrong, instead of making stupid remarks. Proof to me where it is wrong, otherwise come with some good remarks instead of those stupid ones. You can’t explain it, and you haven’t seen the config at all.


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[Grisu]

Really - I build a perpetual motion machine (Perpetuum mobile) and nobody believes me.
I am not Einstein, but found the only correct instruction how to do and it works for me, for none others in the world but hey, they all must have done something wrong, I see its working ...

 

[Ro berto]

@GrandM1961 where did you buy your router? I want one.

EDIT: not interested anymore

 

[GrandM1961]

Really - I build a perpetual motion machine (Perpetuum mobile) and nobody believes me.
I am not Einstein, but found the only correct instruction how to do and it works for me, for none others in the world but hey, they all must have done something wrong, I see its working ...

Childish but he, perhaps i deserve that or maybe somebody could explain what is wrong with the tutorial of NordVPN. By the way if i don’t use it on the router but on my computer the app only, i still get the same speeds. So i guess there is something wrong with all my devices that get those speeds when using a app individually. Mock me i don’t care, but no one has an answer or a proper tutorial which i could use. But Mocking they can do good, no one has looked at the logfile or even bothered with it. Yeah thats very mature......


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[AndreiV]

Childish but he, perhaps i deserve that or maybe somebody could explain what is wrong with the tutorial of NordVPN. By the way if i don’t use it on the router but on my computer the app only, i still get the same speeds. So i guess there is something wrong with all my devices that get those speeds when using a app individually. Mock me i don’t care, but no one has an answer or a proper tutorial which i could use. But Mocking they can do good, no one has looked at the logfile or even bothered with it. Yeah thats very mature......


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You need to learn the difference between a VPN on a PC (or browser app) and a VPN on a router.

Using the VPN server on your router turns that device into a gateway which drastically reduces throughput .

It is NOT possible to obtain the same speeds on PC and router as you state.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/why-setup-vpn-on-router/

 

[Martineau]

@RMerlin can you help out here, are the instructions of NordVPN wrong as described on
https://nordvpn.com/tutorials/asustwrt-merlin/openvpn/ and is it possible to still get high speeds with these settings? I see no errors in the log files but maybe i see something wrong.

Whilst not 100% accurate, can you post the output of

curl --interface tun1X -o /dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

where X is the VPN Client ID e.g. 1 thru 5

If you can perform the test several times i.e. morning/evening etc. this may provide substantiating evidence of your VPN speed.

 

[GrandM1961]

You need to learn the difference between a VPN on a PC (or browser app) and a VPN on a router.

Using the VPN server on your router turns that device into a gateway which drastically reduces throughput .

It is NOT possible to obtain the same speeds on PC and router as you state.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/why-setup-vpn-on-router/

Nice article, but tell me what is wrong with the manual given by NordVPN? No answer to that question obviously, when i setup things i read the manual carefully and follow the instructions. And yet i need to understand how things work, really!!!

Please explain to me while i still get those speeds, when installed only on the computer and not the router and vice versa? Mocking is easy but giving me facts or a tutorial on how to do it and follow it by the letter that’s apparently not done.

Hmmmm, i thought somebody would be helpfull and give me pointers to look at. Like i said before, this isn’t the first VPN i tried also on the router and yet with only trying the app of any of those VPN providers gives me the same speeds. But thats not possible i hear you lot say, so it has to be me doing something not right. But if a app provided by those VPN providers give me those speeds than obviously the app is not right too. I can go with all of that, but like the tutorial of Merlin. When following it by the letter, it can’t be wrong can it? Go through my logfile and than come back to point whats wrong withit. Or even tell and explain whats wrong with the tutorial of NordVPN, help would be appreciated and if you feel the urge to only mocking than your not worth talking too.


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[GrandM1961]

And i only use the VPN client and not the server, two different things.



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[ColinTaylor]

Here is my logfile
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3aaw7gd8wzsorgu/logfile.txt?dl=0

Try turning off IPv6 on your router and testing again. I don't think the router's OpenVPN client supports IPv6. IPv6 is not routed so I suspect your clients are bypassing the OpenVPN client completely.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hmmmm, i thought somebody would be helpfull and give me pointers to look at.

You are getting a lot of help and pointers. I'm learning from this discussion as you discover what is going on with your VPN install.

OE

 

[GrandM1961]

Try turning off IPv6 on your router and testing again. I don't think the router's OpenVPN client supports IPv6. IPv6 is not routed so I suspect your clients are bypassing the OpenVPN client completely.

Thnx, and you earn a big applause from me. This does reduce the speed significant and you helped me. This could have been said before by others, but mocking is so much easier. So a big thnx from me by helping me out [emoji1360][emoji108]


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[GrandM1961]

Whilst not 100% accurate, can you post the output of

curl --interface tun1X -o /dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

where X is the VPN Client ID e.g. 1 thru 5

If you can perform the test several times i.e. morning/evening etc. this may provide substantiating evidence of your VPN speed.

I will try that one later, i also saw that ipv6 is available for openvpn so maybe do some further digging. Turning off ipv6 drops the speed dramatically, so i don’t know what is now right or wrong. So many options and questions and from some so little help.


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[royarcher]

Thnx, and you earn a big applause from me. This does reduce the speed significant and you helped me. This could have been said before by others, but mocking is so much easier. So a big thnx from me by helping me out [emoji1360][emoji108]


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I don't know if I dare ask a question here it seems to be getting a bit hot and heavy but I am intrigued by the speeds being achieved here.I have an rt ac 88 u with Merlin firmware 13 and I use express VPN ( open) .My plan is 50 mbs on HFC and whilst I get very close to the max speed (46 mbs) while not through the VPN but only about 10 mbs while using the VPN. Is this normal for express VPN compared to Nord ? I use a Roku device to stream and that is how I am measuring both speeds although I have checked it on speed.net and Okla. I think it's called.if it's not normal what am I doing wrong?

 

[OzarkEdge]

I will try that one later, i also saw that ipv6 is available for openvpn so maybe do some further digging. Turning off ipv6 drops the speed dramatically, so i don’t know what is now right or wrong. So many options and questions and from some so little help.


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One of the helpful pointers you got earlier in this thread is that your router hardware is only capable of processing VPN encryption to a certain speed limit (which you refused to entertain). From this you can conclude that no amount of software configuration is going to dramatically change this hard router VPN processing speed limit.

OE