VPN Router Help!

[Cream]

Hi Folks,

Bit of a noob here and I really need your help. So I got a Netgear R7000 just for Expressvpn (this is my first VPN setup). I am on a 100mbps connection (FTTC) - get up to 90 download and I was only getting a little over 40 on the router with the VPN, this using Expressvpn's own Lightway protocol, but changing it to OpenVpn I only get around 20 download. I did not know this that the router is maxed out at that because of its hardware. So after doing research I saw that I needed a AES-NI router but Expressvpn don't have any of their firmware for any AES-NI VPN routers so it would have to be OpenVpn on another router. I like their firmware as it gives you a dashboard that makes to so easy to jump between vpn servers and have many enabled at the one time - which I found out was split tunnelling. So basically if I want an AES-NI hardware router I have to go to Asus, I am looking at 2 models the ASUS RT-AC86U and the ASUS (GT-AC2900). I cant confirm with Asus if they have hardware AES-NI built in and Asus don't say they give any support for split tunnelling - I think they don't know their products at all!.

So my first question is do both these routers have AES-NI hardware built in? Also with the GT-AC2900 you get VPN Fusion which from what I have looks like a simple way to setup split tunnelling and the Asus RT-AC86U would need Merlin to do this but I don't know how easy it is to jump between vpn's on Merlin.
I need the ability to setup multiple active vpns, and use some of them with the same devices like my PC, Phone and Tablet, then jump back too my ISP with no vpn while I have an active for my Amazon Echo devices.

As I hope sometime to be upgrading my connection to 1gb Fibre I would like to get a router that will give me some future proofing, I would really hope to get the fastest download I can and as my router is crap I have to change it.

Any advice you can give would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[andreasnielsen]

For an Openwrt-specific use-case, you almost likely want an AES-NI implementation.

Non-AESNI implementations frequently fail to deliver the performance required for an Openwrt use-case.

 

[CaptainSTX]

AES-NI is a specific hardware function built into Intel chips. The ASUS AC86 and certain other ASUS routers have a similar function built into their chips which people call AES-NI even though it isn't.

On my ASUS AC86 with a 700/24 connection from my ISP my VPN clients download speeds range between 150 - 210 Mbps depending on time of day and distance to the server. On an international server 5,000 miles distant speed drops to 90 Mbps.

The AC86 running Merlin's enhanced firmware for ASUS routers allows you to have up to five VPN clients active at the same time. This may also depend on your VPN provider and if they will allow multiple clients simultaneously on a single router.

Merlin's firmware includes policy based routing in the GUI which will allow you to specify which clients use which VPN client or the WAN.

There also other scripts that can easily be added to the router such as YAZFi which allow you to associate a specific SSID on your router with a specific VPN tunnel.

For your specific use case you will need to purchase an ASUS router that is supported by Merlin. Not all ASUS routers do so confirm before you purchase as well as a chipset that off loads the encryption process which will be referred to as AES-NI. ASUS also makes it confusing to buy a router by having different model numbers for the same router as well as just changing the WiFi designation so you have both the AC86 and the AX86 models.

The speeds you are getting on your R7000 are similar to what I could get on my R7000 when using a VPN on it. You will need a different router for higher speeds.