OpenVPN/Merlin vs PIA

[jjbine]

Would like your thougths on running OpenVPN/Merlin vs PIA client application. I know OpenVPN w/Merlin can give you more flexibility for configuring, but I was wondering on other major differences. Also, I couldn't get OpenVPN to work on my own, so I subscribed to PIA and now have it running using a PIA OVPN file with OPenVPN. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks

Jim

 

[CaptainSTX]

Would like your thougths on running OpenVPN/Merlin vs PIA client application. I know OpenVPN w/Merlin can give you more flexibility for configuring, but I was wondering on other major differences. Also, I couldn't get OpenVPN to work on my own, so I subscribed to PIA and now have it running using a PIA OVPN file with OPenVPN. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks

Jim

The biggest advantage is if you run the VPN on your PC is that you probably will get higher download speeds. The best I can do using Merlin on an AC1900P is 55Mbps down. Running the VPN providers app on my PC I get 170 Mbps. Not an issue if your ISP doesn't offer or you don't subscribe to a higher speed tier.

As for feature differences it will depend on your VPN's providers app. Mine has some features that Merlin's firmware doesn't have, but Merlin does offer plenty of features.

 

[olddawg117]

The biggest advantage is if you run the VPN on your PC is that you probably will get higher download speeds. The best I can do using Merlin on an AC1900P is 55Mbps down. Running the VPN providers app on my PC I get 170 Mbps. Not an issue if your ISP doesn't offer or you don't subscribe to a higher speed tier.

As for feature differences it will depend on your VPN's providers app. Mine has some features that Merlin's firmware doesn't have, but Merlin does offer plenty of features.

Best I'm able to get is 25-30Mbps on an AC1900P. I must be missing something. Is that a wired or wireless speed? I get +100Mbps without the VPN enabled on my router.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Best I'm able to get is 25-30Mbps on an ACX1900P. I must be missing something. Is that a wired or wireless speed? I get +100Mbps without the VPN enabled on my router.

That is a wired speed.

If you run the VPN app from your VPN provider on your PC what kind of speed do you get to the same server? Not all VPN providers have big pipes to all their servers so if your speeds aren't good to your PC then it is probably a bandwidth/ server issue.

 

[olddawg117]

That is a wired speed.

If you run the VPN app from your VPN provider on your PC what kind of speed do you get to the same server? Not all VPN providers have big pipes to all their servers so if your speeds aren't good to your PC then it is probably a bandwidth/ server issue.

I use PIA, Fastest speed on the server I use is 65mbps. This seems to be their fastest server.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I use PIA, Fastest speed on the server I use is 65mbps. This seems to be their fastest server.

As I previously posted I can get 170/22 running Astrill's app on my PC. Trying to get a VPN working on my new Pfsense system to see if this box can get that much speed.

 

[doczenith1]

I did some testing a while back (January 2017) that may help you with some reference numbers on throughput. These are my speeds using the OpenVPN client on two different ASUS routers. Both routers running Asuswrt-Merlin 380.64 firmware. Connecting to PIA VPN servers on port 1198.

AC3100 (1.4 Ghz dual core)
CTF (Cut Through Forwarding NAT Acceleration)
DL: 61 Mbps with core 1 at 25%, core 2 at 75%
DL :74 Mbps with core 1 at 30%, core 2 at 85% with mods*
UL: 84 Mbps with core 1 at 35%, core 2 at 100%

AC68U (1.0 Ghz dual core)
CTF enabled
DL: 44 Mbps with core 1 at 30%, core 2 at 80%
UL: 58 Mbps with core 1 at 40%, core 2 at 100%

For reference, when using the same PIA VPN server with a windows client I'm able to attain 250 Mbps down and 350 Mbps up on the same DSLReports HTML5 speed test.

The speed tests were conducted over a wired connection from the computer to the router.

Data encryption: AES-128-CBC
Data authentication: SHA1
Handshake: RSA-2048

*Adding the following lines to the custom configuration bumped the DL speeds to 74 Mbps.
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288
push "sndbuf 524288"
push "rcvbuf 524288"

Update 5/5/2017:
Did some more testing with the windows client and was seeing the same 250 Mbps down but upload speeds increased to around 450 Mbps. I got those speeds from each of the CHI, Midwest, East and NYC servers.

I would think your 1900P would get speeds close to my 3100 as they both have the 1.4 Ghz cpu.

 

[olddawg117]

Looks like your ISP connection is much faster than mine. I'm using client #1. Any advantages to the others? Sorry for the basic questions. I pretty new to this VPN thing.

 

[doczenith1]

I don't think it matters which client number you use. Are you connecting to the closest server to you location? Any of the PIA servers will be plenty fast enough. The bottleneck will be router. Look for the server with the lowest ping. The only way I know to check the ping to their servers is with the Android app.

 

[olddawg117]

I don't think it matters which client number you use. Are you connecting to the closest server to you location? Any of the PIA servers will be plenty fast enough. The bottleneck will be router. Look for the server with the lowest ping. The only way I know to check the ping to their servers is with the Android app.

I had read somewhere where OpenVPN utilized both cores better on one of the clients. Just can't find the article now. My wired speed is 60Mbps, using wireless it's 30Mpbs. I just don't understand the 50% drop. Without the VPN running I get a solid 120Mbps for both wired and wireless.

 

[doczenith1]

I am fairly certain that OpenVPN is single threaded (from knowledge gained from this website) so no help from multiple core cpu's.

 

[yorgi]

Would like your thougths on running OpenVPN/Merlin vs PIA client application. I know OpenVPN w/Merlin can give you more flexibility for configuring, but I was wondering on other major differences. Also, I couldn't get OpenVPN to work on my own, so I subscribed to PIA and now have it running using a PIA OVPN file with OPenVPN. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks

Jim

check out this guide on how to setup Pia VPN
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/h...and-other-vpn-providers-380-66_4-06-11.30851/