Very slow VPN speeds with ExpressVPN

[Oldun]

I have a Lenovo AIO S730 desktop and an Acer A5 laptop both on a Virgin Media network, connected wirelessly to a Virgin Media Hub 3.0 (no VPN), as the main modem/router, and an Asus RT-AC68U as the second router. The Asus has Merlin firmware and has ExpressVPN installed using OpenVPN. I also have a Firestick 4K installed on the network

I have checked the settings and done leak test etc and all seem to be working correctly, as I get an IP somewhere in East London, some distance from where I live.

I have also set up two other locations around London which I can change to, if necessary.

Running on either router, without VPN, our two computers and the Firestick return speeds of around 220 to 240 MB/s

Running on the Asus, with the VPN active, the three devices return speeds of between 17 and 27 MB/s om all three VPN locations.

Is this VPN speed, around 10 times slower than no VPN as expected, or is there something wrong with the settings?

I would appreciate your help.

Thank you

 

[L&LD]

This is expected with the RT-AC68U. What version do you have (what are the CPU speeds)?

You can try tweaking the VPN settings and the servers you connect to, but for real-world use, this is it.

You can also check if hardware acceleration is on in the Asus router. Look under Tools, Network.

Other than the above, the router hardware is limited to around 60Mbps tops, for VPN use, depending on the server you connect to.

You can test this by running the VPN on your computers to compare too.

 

[eibgrad]

I have the RT-AC68U (and ExpressVPN provider) as well, and the OP's experience is the same as mine. That's all you're gonna get from that router given its specs. If you want better, you'll need a substantially better router. Or else use your desktop/laptop as the VPN client and route your other network clients through it.

 

[Oldun]

This is expected with the RT-AC68U. What version do you have (what are the CPU speeds)?

You can try tweaking the VPN settings and the servers you connect to, but for real-world use, this is it.

You can also check if hardware acceleration is on in the Asus router. Look under Tools, Network.

Other than the above, the router hardware is limited to around 60Mbps tops, for VPN use, depending on the server you connect to.

You can test this by running the VPN on your computers to compare too.

 

[Oldun]

Thanks for the very helpful reply.

I will disable the VPN on the router and then try to access the internet using the ExpressVPN appon each individual device.

Could I get any really significant improvement in speed by upgrading the router and, if so, what is a good, not too expensive, router to buy?

 

[Adooni]

there is no word cheap router for VPN - for example with ax86U you can get close to 200Mbit. AX86U cost about $250 what for same is cheap for other expensive.
AX86U looks like the best router to invest.

if you need something better for VPN you would need to use miniPC with i5 or Xenon CPU

 

[L&LD]

@Oldun, don't forget that your VPN speeds are not only limited by your ISP paid-for speeds, but also by the server you are connecting to. I can't guess if the server you (need) to use will benefit from faster hardware. The RT-AC86U, the RT-AX88U, and the (preferred) RT-AX86U will all give you up to around 250Mbps VPN speeds with the right server connection.

You can get an idea of how fast the servers are by using your fastest computer (plugged into AC, and in High-Performance mode) to run the VPN directly from it.

Don't forget that on the Firestick, you can't install a VPN client (I don't believe it's possible).

The suggested RT-AX86U is less expensive than the RT-AX88U (while being a better router) and very close to the price of the RT-AC86U (which is an older model). But all have the 1.8GHz AES-NI capable CPUs needed to give the best consumer VPN performance possible on Asus routers.

You'll have to decide if the cost (in your area) is worth it for you.

 

[Oldun]

Thank you.

I disconnected the VPN on the router and did speed test on my Lenovo AIO S730, my Acer 5 laptop and on the Firestick 4K. The speeds were 221, 200 and 190.

I then connected each device to ExpressVPN with the relevant app and the speeds were 170, 160, 150. All of these are about 7 times faster than the router. Wow!!!

 

[L&LD]

I'm not surprised at the results but am incredibly surprised that the Firestick allows a VPN client to be installed on it.

 

[Oldun]

No there are quite a few apps allowing the major VPNs to be installed upon the Firestick. They are popular with the Firestick users who use them, I imagine, to access such sites as netflix USA.

I feel, at last, that I am being to get understanding of VPNs and their effect on internet speed. *I still have a long way to go but, with the help of this forum, I may get there in the end.

Many thanks to you all