Another VPN question

[TheLyppardMan]

I have OpenVPN set up as a server on my RT-AX88U, but I also have Surfshark set up as a client, with my entire LAN set to use it, apart from my router and my Synology Diskstation which use the WAN (so that I can access the NAS remotely via the VPN if needed). My question is, what would be my options for when I next visit my favourite 5-star hotel in Cali, Colombia, when connected to the hotel's Wi-Fi? Could I use the OpenVPN app on my laptop/mobile to connect to the server on my RT-AX88U and thence to my own Internet service back in the UK and/or content stored on my NAS or could I only use a Surfshark app on my laptop/mobile for surfing using the hotel's Internet connection? If both situations are possible, which would be likely to give the best results, assuming a decent Wi-Fi/Internet service at the hotel?

 

[elorimer]

If you connect directly through the hotel wifi, your download speed will be limited to its download speed. If you connect to the internet through your AX88U OpenVPN server, your download speed will be limited to the upload speed of your AX88U internet connection, or the download speed of the hotel connection, whichever is less (assuming the processing power of your laptop is sufficient to maintain those speeds). For a hotel (never mind Cali) I would prefer to go the OpenVPN route.

Two things to consider. One is getting a little travel router to take along. You connect the travel router to the hotel wifi, and all your devices to the travel router. If you choose, the travel router makes the openvpn connection to your home server. It is a tremendous convenience to only deal with making the one connection and might save some $$$ with the hotel. The downside is that this WISP connection halves the wifi speed, and the processing power of some of these gizmos will limit you to around 12mpbs over OpenVPN (with throughput being roughly 3x over wireguard).

Second, you might leave a PC in sleep at home and connect to it via RDP over the OpenVPN connection. That way you get your full speed since RDP is only sending pictures and keystrokes back and forth over your hotel wifi.

 

[Catalinus]

I have OpenVPN set up as a server on my RT-AX88U, but I also have Surfshark set up as a client, with my entire LAN set to use it, apart from my router and my Synology Diskstation which use the WAN (so that I can access the NAS remotely via the VPN if needed). My question is, what would be my options for when I next visit my favourite 5-star hotel in Cali, Colombia, when connected to the hotel's Wi-Fi? Could I use the OpenVPN app on my laptop/mobile to connect to the server on my RT-AX88U and thence to my own Internet service back in the UK and/or content stored on my NAS or could I only use a Surfshark app on my laptop/mobile for surfing using the hotel's Internet connection? If both situations are possible, which would be likely to give the best results, assuming a decent Wi-Fi/Internet service at the hotel?

You can probably use either one of the two options, differences might be in protocols and ports used. You should absolutely check first that everything works with your OpenVPN from some network other than your normal ISP. You should also check in advance how to setup things so that ALL traffic on the clients goes through the tunnel ("always-on VPN" + "block connections without VPN" on Android, similar stuff on other OSs). You should also check in advance what kind of power consumption change will you see from stuff like "always-on VPN" - it might be a very small one or a larger one depending on program and device.

Final observation will be about internet speed - AX88U can do up to about 200 Mbps over OpenVPN but even if your AX88U is on a super-fast gigabit optical link the final performance will depend more on the speed and latency on the client side, if latency is very big then performance will drop a lot. Also note that most of the smaller "travel router" devices can only do about 20 Mbps (EDIT: over VPN that is).

 

[TheLyppardMan]

Thanks Guys - some things to think about then. I have done some testing, by tethering my mobile phone and using it's own Internet connection to make sure everything works, but I'll run more tests closer to the travel date. This is how I currently have the Client VPN configured on the RT-AX88U:

 

[elorimer]

I misunderstood, so forget everything I said. I thought we were talking about how best to connect to the AX88U and didn't realize you were asking how best to be going back out to some other server.

Deep in my own world.