NordVpn speed test 75% slower

[peanstein]

Disclosure, new to VPN world as well as custom fw's.
Did search the Google but nothing specific to my issue that I could find.

Just installed 388.2b1 on a tester & m&m'd RT-AX86s router.
Working fine for 2 days so went ahead and installed Diversion lite using the Adguard family DNS option in WAN section. Also did 2GB swap on USB following L&LD's instructions on installing AMTM before it was built in to router.
All good for 24 hrs or so and decided to install nordvpn.
Before nordvpn installed my download rate was about 470 Mbps.
I installed nordvpn (UDP) and selected a server close to me and when VPN is enabled my download speeds slow down to about 70mbps.
Disabling it boosts my speeds back up to normal.
Tried nord's custom DNS in DNS values in WAN area with no luck.( Nord DNS confirmed protection on their site, other obviously Adguard DNS obviously did not)

Any ideas what might be slowing it down that much when enabled?

These are custom settings using for Nord:

resolv-retry infinite
remote-cert-tls server
remote-random
nobind
tun-mtu 1500
tun-mtu-extra 32
mssfix 1450
ping 15
ping-restart 0
ping-timer-rem
verify-x509-name CN=us10007.nordvpn.com
pull
fast-io
cipher AES-256-CBC
#log /tmp/vpn.log

Thanks for any tips!

 

[Tech9]

This router can do about 160-180Mbps max on OpenVPN limited by the CPU. No home router can do 500Mbps on OpenVPN.

 

[peanstein]

This router can do about 160-180Mbps max on OpenVPN limited by the CPU. No home router can do 500Mbps on OpenVPN.

Thanks for the reply.
I had read that in another thread and was hoping I'd get more than 70ish. I'll try some configs from posts I've seen and see if any help improve it a tad. I'll report back if anything improves.

 

[peanstein]

I changed config settings and not much difference noted.

SPeedtest using the following DNS with tunnel ON using 2 different DNS's

~70mbps
NORDVPN DNS of 103.86.96.100 & 103.86.99.100
~210mbps
AdGuard Family DNS of 94.140.14.15 & 94.140.14.16


I believe from what I've read is that I do not need to go through NORDS DNS and can use AdGuard's DNS.

What I'd like to learn is having the active tunnel and not use NORD's DNS still give me security and simply use a different address to resolve?


Using NORDVPN DNS

Using AdGuard DNS

 

[Tech9]

This popular public VPN service doesn't give you much "security". You just slow down your connection, increase the latency, create authentication issues, some sites will refuse services to well known public VPN exit nodes, you transfer your browsing history to another company and on top of everything you're paying for all self inflicted inconveniences. Run VPN on devices and only when you need it instead. Don't apply your "security" ideas to your family members. Not needed and they may not like it. You'll have complaints soon about it. Applies to all DNS/IP blocking "security" ideas as well.