What Speeds Can I Expect From AC68U As An OpenVPN Client?

[Dr.Derp]

Looking into getting the ASUS RT-AC68U to setup as a OpenVPN Client using PIA.

My ISP Speed is 60Mbps/10Mbps
PIA VPN Client on PC is about the same rate.

What Speeds Can I Expect From the AC68U As An OpenVPN Client using Merlin FW at stock or OC'd CPU/MEM?

 

[Sky1111]

Looking into getting the ASUS RT-AC68U to setup as a OpenVPN Client using PIA.

My ISP Speed is 60Mbps/10Mbps
PIA VPN Client on PC is about the same rate.

What Speeds Can I Expect From the AC68U As An OpenVPN Client using Merlin FW at stock or OC'd CPU/MEM?

I have OC-ed AC56U which is very close in performance to your AC68, and my internet connection is ~45/10. The problem I discovered that PIA itself is not fast enough to measure the performance!

First step: install PIA Windows client on a relatively fast system and establish a baseline - max VPN speed you can possibly get. Then you can easily configure VPN on the router, uninstall VPN client from that system (you will have to fix network connection - I think PIA uninstall leaves DHCP disabled) and measure the speed using the same methodology.

I spent a lot of time trying to improve PIA speed on PC, and I did not get anywhere close to 40... last time I measured I was maxing out 25-28 on both PC and the router, with the router being slightly faster(!)

 

[Dr.Derp]

are there any significant advantages of the AC68U over the AC56U at all hardware or spec wise that would allow the AC68U to outperform the AC56U as a OpenVPN client?

I already installed the PIA Windows client on my PC and was able to get relatively the same speeds I was getting without the VPN Client, around 60/10Mbps.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Hope for 40 but don't be surprised if the best you can get is 30.

SOHO routers alone don't have enough processing power or memory to do much better.

 

[Sky1111]

are there any significant advantages of the AC68U over the AC56U at all hardware or spec wise that would allow the AC68U to outperform the AC56U as a OpenVPN client?

I already installed the PIA Windows client on my PC and was able to get relatively the same speeds I was getting without the VPN Client, around 60/10Mbps.

IMHO the only advantage AC68 has it much better wifi; the CPU, RAM is the same which made me really disappointed.

If you are running 1200/800, it is hard to predict what is your ceiling. Really need to try - and try under heavy load to see CPU usage spikes. And please share your finding - I am very curious

BTW, what PIA server are you using that you are getting close to 60?

 

[teh_g]

I had struggles running the VPN on the router, and just stick to using it in my PC. I get great speeds with PIA

 

[Sky1111]

I had struggles running the VPN on the router, and just stick to using it in my PC. I get great speeds with PIA

What kind of speed? i.e. what is your "naked" internet and what is your PC-based VPN speed? which PIA server are you using?

 

[Dr.Derp]

IMHO the only advantage AC68 has it much better wifi; the CPU, RAM is the same which made me really disappointed.

If you are running 1200/800, it is hard to predict what is your ceiling. Really need to try - and try under heavy load to see CPU usage spikes. And please share your finding - I am very curious

BTW, what PIA server are you using that you are getting close to 60?

Haven't got the router yet, but will share results when I do.

So should I just get the AC56U instead of the AC68U then since you said they both have the same CPU/MEM and the only real major difference is the AC68U has better WiFi Speeds.
I dont even use WiFi at all, so will the OpenVPN performance be pretty much the same between the AC56U and the AC68U?
Or is there any other SOHO router out right now with better CPU/MEM that would allow better OpenVPN performance?

What kinda VPN speeds can you get on your AC56U without overclocking its CPU/MEM?
Are you using stock FW or Merlins?
Any significant OpenVPN Client performance differences between stock FW or Merlins?

I can pretty much get close to 60/10Mbps on all USA PIA VPN servers with the PC PIA VPN Client.

 

[Sky1111]

Haven't got the router yet, but will share results when I do.

So should I just get the AC56U instead of the AC68U then since you said they both have the same CPU/MEM and the only real major difference is the AC68U has better WiFi Speeds.
I dont even use WiFi at all, so will the OpenVPN performance be pretty much the same between the AC56U and the AC68U?
Or is there any other SOHO router out right now with better CPU/MEM that would allow better OpenVPN performance?

What kinda VPN speeds can you get on your AC56U without overclocking its CPU/MEM?
Are you using stock FW or Merlins?
Any significant OpenVPN Client performance differences between stock FW or Merlins?

I can pretty much get close to 60/10Mbps on all USA PIA VPN servers with the PC PIA VPN Client.

I estimate (as I cannot test from my location with my current VPN speeds in general) that non-OC AC56/AC68 should max out at ~23 or less, but your results may vary.

The problem is that testmy.net does not measure speeds correctly anymore - used to work much better than speedtest.net - and as a result, it is very hard to reliably measure VPN speeds... right now now on some PIA servers sometimes I see VPN speeds on PC maxing out at 72 while my real world connection does not exceed 50 - and that's measured by speedtest.net.

Saying that - I suggest to definitely stay with AC68U. Your needs may and probably will change tomorrow, and you may need good wifi later on. Besides, I sense that AC68 may get longer and better support than AC56...

The only router which can beat daylights out of overclocked AC68U is overclocked Netgear R7000 - but that one does not come with Merlin's support, and personally I am slightly allergic to DD-WRT builds - but that's just me . (since the day AC68U was born I was questioning the sanity of ASUS's decision of using slower-than-competition parts for their top-of-the-line router - and after much thought, I came to a conclusion that most likely ASUS decided to do cost saving/margin maximization path on AC68 with understanding that for the vast majority of the customers stock performance of Broadcom 4708 is good enough - they never thought of us!!!)

 

[ezomac]

I can tell you that my RT-N66 could only muster about ~10meg at best running VPN with PIA. I would expect the AC series to be able to do better but I highly doubt you will be able to utilize your entire 60meg...

My PC client is able to max my 50/10 connection however.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I can tell you that my RT-N66 could only muster about ~10meg at best running VPN with PIA. I would expect the AC series to be able to do better but I highly doubt you will be able to utilize your entire 60meg...

My PC client is able to max my 50/10 connection however.

You may want to look at another VPN provider.

I can get better than that on my old 54G to a nearby VPN server. I do however only use PPTP as with this setup I am only interested in preventing geo blocking and not signal security.

 

[balcy24]

I just did a quick Ookla Speedtest of my AC68 (running Merlins 374.39 build) using my Charter 30/3Mb service. Naked was 34.12 down, 3.07 up. Using PIA from the PC and connecting to their midwest server which is closest to me, I got 86.46 down, 2.76 up (really weird). Using PIA OpenVPN thru the router to the same server I could only manage 18.34 down, 2.76 up so there was a definite loss.

For some reason running OpenVPN on the PC more than doubles my ISP downloads. I know its accurate as I can hear it hammering the hard drive with data. I also did several runs with only minor variances each time.

 

[Sky1111]

I just did a quick Ookla Speedtest of my AC68 (running Merlins 374.39 build) using my Charter 30/3Mb service. Naked was 34.12 down, 3.07 up. Using PIA from the PC and connecting to their midwest server which is closest to me, I got 86.46 down, 2.76 up (really weird). Using PIA OpenVPN thru the router to the same server I could only manage 18.34 down, 2.76 up so there was a definite loss.

For some reason running OpenVPN on the PC more than doubles my ISP downloads. I know its accurate as I can hear it hammering the hard drive with data. I also did several runs with only minor variances each time.

I am getting the same crazy variance of speed when measured with VPN up. The truth it we cannot possibly get faster than naked speed. What is shows is the limitation of speedtest.net - it calculates wrong.

Please do try testmy.net with naked, VPN on PC and VPN on the router - you will see a completely different picture...

 

[balcy24]

I just ran 2 naked tests and got 5.4Mbps down using testmy.net. Then running naked on Speedtest I got 24Mbps down so I'm not sure why the difference. I do lose some speed in the evening because of the neighbors but not that much!

Immediately running PIA OpenVPN on the PC I got 6.1Mbps on testmy.net and 17.6Mbps on Speedtest. Still a major difference.

Then running OpenVPN thru the AC68 router I got 4.4Mbps on testmy.net and 14.5Mbps on Speedtest.

What I see is testmy.net is really low no matter what I try!!! Also OpenVPN is slower thru the router than it is thru the PC too.

 

[Dr.Derp]

Hey guys, try checking your download speeds using this method mentioned at PIA forums and share your results: Naked, VPN on PC, VPN on Router.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/10570#Comment_10570