Asus RT-AC5300 with Merlin 384_2 FW: VPN settings

[Marin]

I have installed the latest Merlin firmware (384_2) in this router and I love it so far. The only thing that I am still trying to make work is the VPN section. I use ExpressVPN and the speeds that I am getting are low (15Mbps in a 80 Mbps from ISP).

I was able to set up two VPN clients but I noticed on the VPN status page this AM that both clients had been activated and were ON. I was under the impression that when one client is activated the other one is turned off. That is how it was on the original Asus firmware. I wonder what really happened here.

Also, before this I was using an Asus RT-AC87U that had the ExpressVPN app (DD-WRT) installed in it and the speeds were quite better compared to what I am getting now (30Mbps or so). I so wish I could replicate those app settings in this router too.

I have read that DNS settings in the VPN section of Asuswrt-Merlin should be set as “Exclusive” when using any VPN in general. Do any of you have any experiences with using other open DNS providers with your VPN (Google, Cloudflate, etc)? If yes, what were your DNS settings in the VPN tab set as (strict, relaxed, etc)?

I’m general, do you have any recommendations on what the best VPN settings should be (and the ones to tweak) in this router with the latest Merlin firmware in it?

Thank you very much!

 

[OMNI619]

That way I set it up on Asus and I get bit more than half of my speed is by going to WAN settings pickup L2TP connection copy and paste server address/link scroll to the bottom and input your credentials on PPP USERNAME and password

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920AZ using Tapatalk

 

[CaptainSTX]

You can have multiple VPN clients running at the same time. What may have happened, if you don't rember turning them both on, is that you have either or both clients set to start with WAN so if your router rebooted it would have started the VPN clients.

Also try this to improve your speed particularly if you have both VPN clients running be sure they are using different ports.

 

[Marin]

Thank you for the suggestion. I did select both to start with WAN and I made sure that one of them was off. I hit "Apply" and restarted the router. For some reason both of them came ON afterwards. Should I turn OFF the WAN setting first on the client that I dont want ON before switching it OFF?

 

[skeal]

Thank you for the suggestion. I did select both to start with WAN and I made sure that one of them was off. I hit "Apply" and restarted the router. For some reason both of them came ON afterwards. Should I turn OFF the WAN setting first on the client that I dont want ON before switching it OFF?

Yes.

 

[Marin]

Thank you very much! Do you have any suggestions in terms on DNS settings? In other words, using other Open DNS providers vs those of my VPN. If I used, say Google's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, what would be the most appropriate choice for the "Accept DNS configuration"? "Relaxed", "Strict" or any other choices?

Any other settings to consider tweaking as well?

 

[skeal]

Thank you very much! Do you have any suggestions in terms on DNS settings? In other words, using other Open DNS providers vs those of my VPN. If I used, say Google's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, what would be the most appropriate choice for the "Accept DNS configuration"? "Relaxed", "Strict" or any other choices?

Any other settings to consider tweaking as well?

I use dnscrypt which resolves all queries. The settings I use resolves through dnscrypt so for accept dns configuration set it to disabled.

 

[skeal]

Thank you very much! Do you have any suggestions in terms on DNS settings? In other words, using other Open DNS providers vs those of my VPN. If I used, say Google's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, what would be the most appropriate choice for the "Accept DNS configuration"? "Relaxed", "Strict" or any other choices?

Any other settings to consider tweaking as well?

Make sure Create NAT on tunnel is set to yes if you plan on using policy rules.

 

[Marin]

Yes, thank you to both!