Best hardware for VPN client

[Bob_Collins]

I was thinking of subscribing to one of the many VPN providers and was wanting to request opinions of what service is best at a reasonable cost? But as the title says, I want to know what is the best hardware platform to use for VPN performance?

I want to make the router the VPN client and pass ALL traffic from all devices in my home through the VPN so I don't have to bother with software installation on each PC.

My current router is the Asus RT-N66U running Merlin 26b firmware (might be upgrading to the new release soon). (I also have a Netgear WNDR3800 collecting dust since it was replaced with the RT-N66U).

I recall seeing in other threads that performance drops in half when using the router as a VPN client due to the encryption overhead on the router CPU, which is a major negative. So my question then is, are there any routers which can handle the VPN overhead with little to no speed degradation. And I am talking about running at standard/stock speeds; I have no interest in overclocking as stability is of utmost concern.

 

[RMerlin]

I was thinking of subscribing to one of the many VPN providers and was wanting to request opinions of what service is best at a reasonable cost? But as the title says, I want to know what is the best hardware platform to use for VPN performance?

I want to make the router the VPN client and pass ALL traffic from all devices in my home through the VPN so I don't have to bother with software installation on each PC.

My current router is the Asus RT-N66U running Merlin 26b firmware (might be upgrading to the new release soon). (I also have a Netgear WNDR3800 collecting dust since it was replaced with the RT-N66U).

I recall seeing in other threads that performance drops in half when using the router as a VPN client due to the encryption overhead on the router CPU, which is a major negative. So my question then is, are there any routers which can handle the VPN overhead with little to no speed degradation. And I am talking about running at standard/stock speeds; I have no interest in overclocking as stability is of utmost concern.

This is impossible to answer with certainty without knowing the speed of your Internet connection. These low-powered device will always be CPU-limited when it comes to anything involving encryption.

A 6 Mbits ADSL connection would be fine with an RT-N66U. Anything faster however will require an RT-AC56U, which would still give you at most maybe 30-40 Mbits over OpenVPN. Anything faster than this would require much more powerful hardware than a home router.

 

[CaptainSTX]

If you don't want to lose speed (20 - 30% ) then you need to look at using equipment that can handle the processing. SOHO routers don't have the processor speed or memory to handle VPN processing quickly on the fly.

I use equipment running proprietary firmware from Sabai Technology. My router is a Linksys E3000 (other models available including N66U ) with a VPN accelerator attached which handles the encryption. With my Fios internet connection I get 80 down 40 up without using the VPN. Connected to an OpenVPN server 250 miles from my home my connection speed drops to 75/35.

When I was living in the Virgin Islands with just a 5Mbps connection my Sabai VPN setup allowed me to stream high quality video from the USA without any problems

Another option is to repurpose a PC as a router using DD-WRT software. A middle of the road PC will have more than enough memory and processing speed to handle a VPN.

Once you have your hardware you need to look for a VPN provider. The best situation is if they have a server in your town or not to far away. You also need to find a vendor that can afford to pay for bandwidth.

I have used StrongVPN with good results but I am currently evaluating ipVanish because they will give me both a PPTP connection for my smart phones and an OpenVPN connection for my router and I can use them simultaneously. I have used HMA and never had good speed or support from them.

Good luck.

 

[Bob_Collins]

This is impossible to answer with certainty without knowing the speed of your Internet connection. These low-powered device will always be CPU-limited when it comes to anything involving encryption.

A 6 Mbits ADSL connection would be fine with an RT-N66U. Anything faster however will require an RT-AC56U, which would still give you at most maybe 30-40 Mbits over OpenVPN. Anything faster than this would require much more powerful hardware than a home router.

Currently I am running a rather slow 15 MB down, and 1 MB up. Would the AC68 be able to handle that, or is the AC56 the one to have?

 

[Bob_Collins]

If you don't want to lose speed (20 - 30% ) then you need to look at using equipment that can handle the processing. SOHO routers don't have the processor speed or memory to handle VPN processing quickly on the fly.

I use equipment running proprietary firmware from Sabai Technology. My router is a Linksys E3000 (other models available including N66U ) with a VPN accelerator attached which handles the encryption. With my Fios internet connection I get 80 down 40 up without using the VPN. Connected to an OpenVPN server 250 miles from my home my connection speed drops to 75/35.

When I was living in the Virgin Islands with just a 5Mbps connection my Sabai VPN setup allowed me to stream high quality video from the USA without any problems

Another option is to repurpose a PC as a router using DD-WRT software. A middle of the road PC will have more than enough memory and processing speed to handle a VPN.

Once you have your hardware you need to look for a VPN provider. The best situation is if they have a server in your town or not to far away. You also need to find a vendor that can afford to pay for bandwidth.

I have used StrongVPN with good results but I am currently evaluating ipVanish because they will give me both a PPTP connection for my smart phones and an OpenVPN connection for my router and I can use them simultaneously. I have used HMA and never had good speed or support from them.

Good luck.

How good is the SABAI stuff? I thought I read or heard that the Sabai stuff only worked their service as well?

Any recommendations for a VPN service in centeral Ohio?

 

[CaptainSTX]

How good is the SABAI stuff? I thought I read or heard that the Sabai stuff only worked their service as well?

Any recommendations for a VPN service in centeral Ohio?

Sabai's equipment will work with a number of VPN providers and Sabai will help you get it set up and running with any of them.

Several other VPN providers also work with companies that flash Tomato or DD-WRT onto various routers and set them up to work with a particular VPN. As far as I know, however Sabai is the only one offering an accelerator.

If you go to a VPN provider's web site they will list the cities where they have servers. I don't know if any providers have servers in Columbus so you may have to use a server in Chicago if you can't find anything closer. Location of the nearest server is only one of several factors you need to consider when selecting a VPN provider.

 

[RMerlin]

Currently I am running a rather slow 15 MB down, and 1 MB up. Would the AC68 be able to handle that, or is the AC56 the one to have?

They both have the same CPU, so VPN performance would be identical. Both should be able to max out performance on your connection, however keep in mind that OpenVPN does carry a performance penalty regardless of your CPU, as encrypted data takes is larger than straight data. So, your throughput will be slower than 15 Mbits.

 

[RMerlin]

If you go to a VPN provider's web site they will list the cities where they have servers. I don't know if any providers have servers in Columbus so you may have to use a server in Chicago if you can't find anything closer. Location of the nearest server is only one of several factors you need to consider when selecting a VPN provider.

Astrill offers a plugin specifically for Asuswrt-Merlin. No idea however if it improves performance, or is only meant to make the configuration simpler.

 

[primitivo]

Astrill offers a plugin specifically for Asuswrt-Merlin. No idea however if it improves performance, or is only meant to make the configuration simpler.

Yes, it is to make configuration simpler, however if you buy Router Pro VPN protocol which is their optimized version of OpenVPN, you will get much better speeds. Below are my results for RT-AC56U:

RouterPro UDP: stable speeds of 7MB/s - 8.5MB/s (yes, MB/s not Mbit/s)
http://i.imgur.com/QpLhfj6.png

RouterPro TCP: 7.41 MB/s was max, stable speeds of 7 MB/s
http://i.imgur.com/BfdyXKW.png

OpenVPN UDP: 1.74 MB/s stable
OpenVPN TCP: 2.00 MB/s stable

CPU was a bottleneck in all cases above.

I have been using Astrill for more than 1 month and have literally no issues. They have the best desktop software (at least for Mac OSX) which allows you to exclude certain IPs and even apps from tunneling.

Their Asuswrt applet works great with Merlin firmware, it allows you to pass through all devices or exclude certain ones. So what I do for instance is to exclude my desktop Mac Pro from tunneling and run standalone app on it as I am able to max out my ISP speeds of 200down/100up with Astrill VPN.

If you are using torrents though, PIA is probably your best best, although don't expect the same polished software and solutions.

 

[CaptainSTX]

When you are evaluating VPN providers the functionality and speed of the desk top software is im portant. I use it when you are traveling and want a secure connection on my laptop.

The speed that you get using the desktop software on a reasonably powerful laptop is probably 105% of what you can get using a hardware VPN accelerator and 130 - 150 % of what you will get running a VPN on a router.

 

[PaulC]

This post might be a little off-topic for this section, but it seems relevant to the question 'Best hardware for VPN client'.

The Ubuquiti Networks EdgeRouter Lite is worth a mention. It has high throughput, particularly for the price. It supports OpenVPN (along with the other usual suspects), though fair warning - you can't configure it from the pretty web GUI, you have to deal with the CLI (a much less pleasant experience).

It's pretty affordable (circa $100 when I last looked) though it is almost certainly overkill for a 15 Mbps connection.

- Paul
(I have no financial interest in Ubiquiti, just a happy customer)

 

[primitivo]

Astrill offers a plugin specifically for Asuswrt-Merlin. No idea however if it improves performance, or is only meant to make the configuration simpler.

One more update in this regards. I was able to beat my previous results using Astrill VPN without doing any OC on my RT-AC56U. With their RouterVPN protocol designed for routers, I was able to hit 112Mbps down / 88Mbps up.

I know that they are working on a new router VPN which will use kernel driver and it supposed to deliver even better performance. I am not affiliated with this company in any way, just a happy customer. I think they are going beyond the competition due to unique solutions.

 

[Sky1111]

One more update in this regards. I was able to beat my previous results using Astrill VPN without doing any OC on my RT-AC56U. With their RouterVPN protocol designed for routers, I was able to hit 112Mbps down / 88Mbps up.

I know that they are working on a new router VPN which will use kernel driver and it supposed to deliver even better performance. I am not affiliated with this company in any way, just a happy customer. I think they are going beyond the competition due to unique solutions.

Wow! Can you please run few security test such as geolocation, DNS leaks, traceroot, whatever else you can think of - just to make sure that the performance gains are not coming at the expense of compromises...

Now I am thinking about challenging my provider - PIA - to come up with a similar plugin

 

[primitivo]

Wow! Can you please run few security test such as geolocation, DNS leaks, traceroot, whatever else you can think of - just to make sure that the performance gains are not coming at the expense of compromises...

Now I am thinking about challenging my provider - PIA - to come up with a similar plugin

All works great. As for DNS leak I think setting fixed DNS IP (e.g. Google) on the router WAN settings should solve DNS leak issues on any VPN. No DNS leaks according to http://ipleak.net

Remember also the plugin is one thing and optimized OpenVPN protocol is another. I do agree though that it would be great if more VPN providers would make similar to Astrill router plugins.

 

[admiral2145]

One more update in this regards. I was able to beat my previous results using Astrill VPN without doing any OC on my RT-AC56U. With their RouterVPN protocol designed for routers, I was able to hit 112Mbps down / 88Mbps up.

I know that they are working on a new router VPN which will use kernel driver and it supposed to deliver even better performance. I am not affiliated with this company in any way, just a happy customer. I think they are going beyond the competition due to unique solutions.

im running the 68u what are the settings to get over 100 mbit down? I also am using the routervpn protocal with astrill vpn

 

[CaptainSTX]

I an interested in seeing the settings also because even running Astrill in OpenVPN mode on my PC I haven't been able to do better than 50% of my download speed or about 40 Mbps on a 75/35 connection which will speedtest to 80Mbps on a good day.

 

[primitivo]

On RT-AC56U I am using RotuerPro VPN UDP protocol with "accelerator" disabled (Astrill told me to disable it). However according to my experience, I am only able to hit 112Mbps via the router if I connect to the closest (same country) server.

On desktop Astrill app on my Mac using OpenVPN protocol I am actually maxing out my 300/300Mbps symetrical. I am connecting to Singapore 1 (USA) server.

 

[admiral2145]

On RT-AC56U I am using RotuerPro VPN UDP protocol with "accelerator" disabled (Astrill told me to disable it). However according to my experience, I am only able to hit 112Mbps via the router if I connect to the closest (same country) server.

On desktop Astrill app on my Mac using OpenVPN protocol I am actually maxing out my 300/300Mbps symetrical. I am connecting to Singapore 1 (USA) server.

I have to disable the acceleration when i bet home... Your talking about the phone acceleration? I only have 125 down and 25 up so the router is great... How much do you pay a month?

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[primitivo]

I have to disable the acceleration when i bet home... Your talking about the phone acceleration? I only have 125 down and 25 up so the router is great... How much do you pay a month?

Yes, the accelerator thing on the Astrill's applet is supposed to be turned off. Check built in speedtest to find the closest server (usually the one if the lowest ping). I pay US$50/month for 300/300Mbps.

 

[admiral2145]

Yes, the accelerator thing on the Astrill's applet is supposed to be turned off. Check built in speedtest to find the closest server (usually the one if the lowest ping). I pay US$50/month for 300/300Mbps.

I have a sever in my city so ill use that... Real low pings(10-20).
How much is it for the astrill service per month with your setup?

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