Share your experiences running OpenVPN client on RT-N66U with Merlin FW

[Sky1111]

Last night I managed to get OpenVPN client working on my RT-N66U (many thanks to Merlin for make this possible!!!). I am using Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN and was wondering what other people who have done it already experience:

- What performance drop are you seeing?
- naked (no VPN) internet speed (mine 25.x MB/s down, 9.x up)
- internet speed with VPN client running on a reasonable PC (~15-20 down)
- internet speed with VPN client running on the router (connecting to the same VPN server) (~11)

Overall I see download speed to be less than half (25.x MB/s has become ~11MB/s), but internet browsing has become painful - quite sluggish - too slow for that speed. Netflix seems still to work fine (and more content showing up

- Will upgrading internet to faster improve experience?
- for example, if I go from 25MB to 50MB Internet - will I get 25MB with VPN or the CPU on the router will become the bottleneck?

- Are there any routers there which can handle running VPN client better than RT-N66U?
(I am still within return policy on my router )

- Can you overclock the router if extra cooling provided - and will it improve the performance running VPN Client?

Thanks for your replies!

 

[RMerlin]

Overall I see download speed to be less than half (25.x MB/s has become ~11MB/s), but internet browsing has become painful - quite sluggish - too slow for that speed. Netflix seems still to work fine (and more content showing up

In my benchmarks I was getting 20 MB/s top with OpenVPN. This was with AES-128-CBC and a 1024 bits key - results may vary based on what your provider uses.

This router only has a MIPS 600 MHz CPU. The CPU is the bottleneck.

- Are there any routers there which can handle running VPN client better than RT-N66U?
(I am still within return policy on my router )

My RT-AC56U was able to achieve 60 MB/s using the same settings as the RT-AC66U.

- Can you overclock the router if extra cooling provided - and will it improve the performance running VPN Client?

Can't overclock the RT-N66U, unless you start messing with the CFE (and even then, you would only get very marginal improvements).

 

[rescapind]

Last night I managed to get OpenVPN client working on my RT-N66U (many thanks to Merlin for make this possible!!!). I am using Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN and was wondering what other people who have done it already experience:

- What performance drop are you seeing?
- naked (no VPN) internet speed (mine 25.x MB/s down, 9.x up)
- internet speed with VPN client running on a reasonable PC (~15-20 down)
- internet speed with VPN client running on the router (connecting to the same VPN server) (~11)

Overall I see download speed to be less than half (25.x MB/s has become ~11MB/s), but internet browsing has become painful - quite sluggish - too slow for that speed. Netflix seems still to work fine (and more content showing up

- Will upgrading internet to faster improve experience?
- for example, if I go from 25MB to 50MB Internet - will I get 25MB with VPN or the CPU on the router will become the bottleneck?

- Are there any routers there which can handle running VPN client better than RT-N66U?
(I am still within return policy on my router )

- Can you overclock the router if extra cooling provided - and will it improve the performance running VPN Client?

Thanks for your replies!

I offloaded both server and client to my PCs (i7-3770K and i7-920) and I can hit my 100Mbps connection limit.
Looking into making pfsense build now.

 

[Sky1111]

In my benchmarks I was getting 20 MB/s top with OpenVPN. This was with AES-128-CBC and a 1024 bits key - results may vary based on what your provider uses.

This router only has a MIPS 600 MHz CPU. The CPU is the bottleneck.



My RT-AC56U was able to achieve 60 MB/s using the same settings as the RT-AC66U.



Can't overclock the RT-N66U, unless you start messing with the CFE (and even then, you would only get very marginal improvements).

Bingo!!! Merlin - I was about to ask your opinion on RT-AC56U as I discovered that it is has much faster CPU - dual core 800MHz - AND IT IS OVERCLOCKABLE - LOL

I found a very interesting performance comparison table here:
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?30444-Сравнение-производительности-процессоров-роутеров

With RT-AC68U still being a big unknown, would AC56 be the fastest router to run VPN client?

 

[Sky1111]

sorry forgot to ask - Merlin - you achieved 60 on VPN running on AC56U, what is your "naked" speed like?

 

[Sky1111]

some filtered data points from the link in my earlier post:

Vendor, Model, Version Memory bench [secs] Computation of pi [secs] Computation of e [secs] Float bench [secs] Total time [secs]
Asus RT-AC56U @1000MHz* 1.51 5.32 4.19 0.04 11.1
Asus RT-AC56U @800MHz (default) 1.62 6.64 5.22 0.05 13.5
Asus RT-AC66U @600MHz (default) 1.99 5.28 4.27 2.14 13.7
Asus RT-AC66U @662MHz* 1.81 4.75 3.84 1.92 12.3
Asus RT-N66U B1 @600MHz (default) 1.98 5.23 4.23 2.11 13.6

Now I need to find out how do you overclock the damn thing...I don't think Merlin's firmware allows it via UI...

 

[Sky1111]

and I found Merlin's comments on AC56U:
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=11380

and this: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=769956

Sounds like I have a solution for my needs.

Good thing is ASUS itself gave me a perfect reason to return my recently bought RT-N66U - 5GHz issue on the latest firmware

 

[RMerlin]

sorry forgot to ask - Merlin - you achieved 60 on VPN running on AC56U, what is your "naked" speed like?

I didn't test it with a VPN provider, but with a tunnel running between my laptop and the router, and iperf running from my laptop to a computer connected on the WAN side, on the other side of the tunnel (the RT-AC56U was sitting inside my LAN for this test, rather than as my main router).

Max WAN to LAN throughput was 240 Mbits (without HW acceleration), and over 700 Mbits (with HW acceleration - bottleneck might have been the Atom used at the other end of the iperf test in that case).

 

[RMerlin]

Bingo!!! Merlin - I was about to ask your opinion on RT-AC56U as I discovered that it is has much faster CPU - dual core 800MHz - AND IT IS OVERCLOCKABLE - LOL

Note that I haven't done any stability test while overclocked, so I cannot guarantee that it would be stable enough to use overclocked. I merely wanted to see how performance scaled.

 

[fltundra]

I have a rt-n66u and an RT-AC56u right now, and my speed threw a VPN provider (pia), i only saw gain around 10 mbps for a best of 21mbps with the closest server. With client running on PC, i'm seeing 45-50mbps and i have a 50/15 connection. Rt-n66u runs between 9-12-mbps, and my upload is a full 14mbps up.

Ps: Both running Merlin firmware.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Vpn comparisons

Here is a Speedtest run using my N66U connected to a Speedtest server on my ISP's network 28 miles distant. No VPN in use.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2900390604

Speedtest run using N66U connected to a Speedtest server in Miami. 1200 miles distant no VPN.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2900393987

Here is a Speedtest using my E3000 backed up with a VPN Accelerator to the same server in Miami. Connected using OpenVPN. StrongVPN running on a Reliable Hosting server in Miami.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2900386350


With the right hardware running a VPN doesn't have to significantly reduce your spee.

 

[Sky1111]

I have a rt-n66u and an RT-AC56u right now, and my speed threw a VPN provider (pia), i only saw gain around 10 mbps for a best of 21mbps with the closest server. With client running on PC, i'm seeing 45-50mbps and i have a 50/15 connection. Rt-n66u runs between 9-12-mbps, and my upload is a full 14mbps up.

Ps: Both running Merlin firmware.

Thanks, that very useful info - and N66 VPN speed in line with my observations

RT-N66U is $150 (CAD, Staples), while I can probably get RT-AC56U for only $13 more (NCIX pricematching DirectCanada.com). So in my opinion it is worth getting it - again, people who need better wifi probably should stick with N66 or AC66 (3 streams vs 2).

I am planning to overclock it 1GHz (been overclocking CPUs for years - never done on a router - awesome ) and increase wifi power a bit, paired with a USB fan blowing air on the router to prevent the whole thing from melting down

Fltundra - do you get reasonable speeds on AC56U + PIA while watching Netflix and downloading (like torrent) on a PC? in other words, that 20 Mb speed you are getting - does it hold under load or it slows down? what is your router CPU usage under that circumstances? - thanks in advance!

 

[Sky1111]

Here is a Speedtest run using my N66U connected to a Speedtest server on my ISP's network 28 miles distant. No VPN in use.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2900390604

Speedtest run using N66U connected to a Speedtest server in Miami. 1200 miles distant no VPN.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2900393987

Here is a Speedtest using my E3000 backed up with a VPN Accelerator to the same server in Miami. Connected using OpenVPN. StrongVPN running on a Reliable Hosting server in Miami.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2900386350


With the right hardware running a VPN doesn't have to significantly reduce your spee.

What is a VPN Accelerator? is it another box to be used in parallel with the router?

 

[RMerlin]

Keep in mind that OpenVPN also will add overhead to the traffic itself. So, you will never get close to your full speed, no matter what router you use. The encryption means that more data gets received/sent than usual.

You are also dependent on the speed of your tunnel provider.

 

[Sky1111]

Understood, and I do not expect VPN speeds to be the same as "naked" - I already see that on my CoreDuo system running PIA's client.

What I would like to get it as close to "slow" PC VPN speeds as possible.

 

[CaptainSTX]

VPN Accelerator

What is a VPN Accelerator? is it another box to be used in parallel with the router?

It is basically a FoxConn mini PC with an Atom processor and two gigs of memory running proprietary software from Sabai Technology.

Connect using a gigabyte port to a router running Sabai's dual gateway firmware which is a modified version of Tomato. The firmware comes preinstalled on several routers of various capabilities including the ASUS N66U.

Not an inexpensive setup, but as you can see it does get the job done. Primary market is to individuals wanting to stream American video to other parts of the world.

I use it for that but now with the very small penalty in download speed I use it for most everything else. Since much of our family lives overseas I sure that the N?A enjoys figuring out what our e-mails say.

 

[Sky1111]

It is basically a FoxConn mini PC with an Atom processor and two gigs of memory running proprietary software from Sabai Technology.

Connect using a gigabyte port to a router running Sabai's dual gateway firmware which is a modified version of Tomato. The firmware comes preinstalled on several routers of various capabilities including the ASUS N66U.

Not an inexpensive setup, but as you can see it does get the job done. Primary market is to individuals wanting to stream American video to other parts of the world.

I use it for that but now with the very small penalty in download speed I use it for most everything else. Since much of our family lives overseas I sure that the N?A enjoys figuring out what our e-mails say.

Cool... so it is $300 for the router with SabaiOS and $300 for the VPN Accelerator?

And it does not seem they offer to buy just the firmware...so yes, it is a solution but the cost is just too high for me... I will give AC56 a shot.

 

[RMerlin]

Cool... so it is $300 for the router with SabaiOS and $300 for the VPN Accelerator?

And it does not seem they offer to buy just the firmware...so yes, it is a solution but the cost is just too high for me... I will give AC56 a shot.

A Zoltac mini PC would be the same price as the VPN accelerator, and provide you with more.

Also, something a bit disturbing about SabaiOS: they use Tomato, yet they have never provided any source code back to honor the GPL licence. Luckily for them, there is no officially appointed maintainer for the Tomato code to file a complain.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Cool... so it is $300 for the router with SabaiOS and $300 for the VPN Accelerator?

And it does not seem they offer to buy just the firmware...so yes, it is a solution but the cost is just too high for me... I will give AC56 a shot.

It is expensive, but if you don't need the top of the line dual band router they do offer less expensive routers with their operating system bring the cost down to $400 for the router and the accelerator. Whatever router you buy from them, Sabai's support is the best I have ever had for any type of product so for someone that just wants the benefits of using a VPN without the hassles of setting it up the price maybe very reasonable. If you are a long way from home and want to watch geo blocked programming you need the full speed of your connection. If you live in China, Saudi Arabia, etc. and want to know whats going on in the rest of the world or check your Facebook page running an OpenVPN connection is the only option.

The results I showed above were running the VPN on the Accelerator behind an E3000 which only has 64 Mb of RAM and a 400 Mhz processor. The purpose of the Accelerator is to match the speeds you might get if you ran the VPN on your PC.

Good luck with your project and let us know how it works out.

 

[Sky1111]

today I got RT-AC56U and will be experimenting tonight. I even bought a portable USB fan to cool the router off!

Merlin - could kindly point me in a direction - how to overclock the router?

can I do it using your firmware? what are the commands? thanks in advance!

So the plan is to flash the router with Merlin FW and measure speeds - naked, with VPN and default clocks, VPN with overclocking...