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Urbanized

New Around Here
Hello folks,

I recently bought a second hand router for a cheap price. The aim was to use it as a vpn behind my modem. After the settings were set I went to test the speed. My normal internet speed is 60mbps. When I turned on the vpn it came up to 16mbsp. So 44mbps is simply thrown away. Then I flashed another firmware, hoping that the speed would increase. But unfortunately that turned out not to be the case and tried another firmware and then something went wrong. I have brickwalled the router.

Now I am looking for another router whose VPN speed (nearly) reaches my original speed. I came across the next router, Asus RT-AC86U. Who can tell me if this router meets my requirement. If not, which router is approaching my original internet speed?

Regards,

U.
 

 
The AC86 is capable of giving you near line speeds using a VPN client with the following caveats:

1. Your VPN provider has sufficient bandwidth to support all the connections they have sold.

2. The VPN server is within a reasonable distance. If you are physically located in NYC and are using a VPN server in Brisbane you are going notice a significant drop in speed.

3. Your VPN speeds will vary much more significantly than the speed from your ISP.

Below are recent speed tests run on my AC86

Screenshot_2020-11-26 spdMerlin.png
Screenshot_2020-11-26 spdMerlin(1).png
Screenshot_2020-11-26 spdMerlin(2).png
Screenshot_2020-11-26 spdMerlin(2).png
Screenshot_2020-11-26 spdMerlin(1).png
Screenshot_2020-11-26 spdMerlin.png
 
Hello guys,

I preciate your answers to my question. But I bought myself a Vilfo Router a few days ago. For now it works great without any reduction in VPN speed. Problem solved.

Cheers,

Urbanized.
 
Hello guys,

I preciate your answers to my question. But I bought myself a Vilfo Router a few days ago. For now it works great without any reduction in VPN speed. Problem solved.

Cheers,

Urbanized.

Yep. As I've said in other threads, no ordinary consumer-grade router is going to be able to match a full-blown PC environment when it comes to the VPN. And that $380, x86-based Celeron router is certainly one way to do it. That's why I offloaded my own OpenVPN client to a small form-factor PC using some spare parts.
 
Yep. As I've said in other threads, no ordinary consumer-grade router is going to be able to match a full-blown PC environment when it comes to the VPN. And that $380, x86-based Celeron router is certainly one way to do it. That's why I offloaded my own OpenVPN client to a small form-factor PC using some spare parts.

I guess you are right. Another solution is a VPN accelerator, but it is expensive too. Or you can do it your way:)

I bought the Vilfo for only 175 euros. It was 2 years used and 1 year putted away.
 
I guess you are right. Another solution is a VPN accelerator, but it is expensive too. Or you can do it your way:)

I bought the Vilfo for only 175 euros. It was 2 years used and 1 year putted away.

Enjoy it. Looks pretty amazing.
 
Hello guys,

I preciate your answers to my question. But I bought myself a Vilfo Router a few days ago. For now it works great without any reduction in VPN speed. Problem solved.

Cheers,

Urbanized.

Glad you found something that works for you. Curious what your line speed is from your ISP and who your VPN provider is?

From my observations there is a limit to how much download bandwidth a VPN provider can afford to provide and still turn a profit.

Recently my ISP bumped my speed after over provisioning from 238/12 to 460/25. In testing my speeds using a PC running a VPN app and selecting the nearest server most of my speed tests were in the range 225/23 with an occasional test over 300. The highest speed observed was 360/23. I tested using both Open VPN and Wire Guard and on both Strong VPN and PIA.

When running the speed tests using SpdMerlin on my AC86 my tests using the WAN (no VPN) showed the 460/25 the speeds using a VPN client were not noticeably higher than when I had the 238/12 service and varied from 176 - 212

Again my opinion is the hardware at the client end can get you only so fast when using a commercial VPN. This isn't to say if you control both the server and the client ends of the tunnel the sky isn't the limit.
 
Glad you found something that works for you. Curious what your line speed is from your ISP and who your VPN provider is?

From my observations there is a limit to how much download bandwidth a VPN provider can afford to provide and still turn a profit.

Recently my ISP bumped my speed after over provisioning from 238/12 to 460/25. In testing my speeds using a PC running a VPN app and selecting the nearest server most of my speed tests were in the range 225/23 with an occasional test over 300. The highest speed observed was 360/23. I tested using both Open VPN and Wire Guard and on both Strong VPN and PIA.

When running the speed tests using SpdMerlin on my AC86 my tests using the WAN (no VPN) showed the 460/25 the speeds using a VPN client were not noticeably higher than when I had the 238/12 service and varied from 176 - 212

Again my opinion is the hardware at the client end can get you only so fast when using a commercial VPN. This isn't to say if you control both the server and the client ends of the tunnel the sky isn't the limit.

Hello Captain,

You have a fast provider speed. Which VPN provider do you use?

My line speed is officially 50Mbs from my ISP provider. But when i do a speedtest (with and without VPN), I get almost 60Mbps. VPN provider is Surfshark, using nearest server. It don't have any speed, bandwidth, or data limitation. My speeds stays the same with VPN on: take a look at the attachment. And the router (actually its a mini computer) supports split tunneling.

Not only the server location/server bandwidth/VPN protocol/network setup (wired of Wi-Fi) etc is important, but more important is the processing/encrypting speed of the router. On my previous router (Archer 7) I had only 16mbps VPN speed with the same VPN provider. So theoraticaly: if you have a 1000Mbs speed from your provider, but a bad processing/encrypting speed of he router, the speed will dramaticly slow down, even if you have a good and fast limitless VPN provider (and it will be worser if you have a bad one).
 

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You have a fast provider speed. Which VPN provider do you use?

I currently use both PIA, I added StrongVPN because they offered support for WireGuard early on and I have also used Astrill.

Speeds are all comparable. Tried gig service from Comcast for a month and when connecting using VPN even running a VPN appliance with an I7 processor, download speeds were never tested much over 300 Mbps.

IMHO, the limiting factors with a commercial VPN provider is they often load a server with up to 128 connections/IPs so even if just one third are in use their server is hard pressed to keep up. WireGuard is less processor intensive but it is still limited The VPN sellers model worked much better when a 25 Mbps connection was considered fast.

The second limitation is how big is their pipe to the WWW? Only so much you can afford to spend if you are only charging $3-$8 per month for each customer.

Finally the distance from your actual location to a server reduces the measured speed of a connection.
 
I have read some about the ASUS RT-AC86U router on other forum, and this what a member says:

260Mbit OpenVPN, 300Mbit IPSEC, 490Mbit Wireguard (roughly estimated). Really good for a home router..

What is the speed using Wireguard on your RT-AC86U?
 
What is the speed using Wireguard on your RT-AC86U?

I don't have WireGuard running on my AC86. I have tested WireGurad running as an app on a PC and I have also experimented running it on a VPN appliance. Sometimes WireGuard is faster than OpenVPN but if you are running OpenVPN on a device that isn't processor constrained AND you are connecting to a commercial VPN server I'm not convinced WireGuard makes that much of a difference in speed. Your results may very so experiment and find out for yourself.
 
I don't have WireGuard running on my AC86. I have tested WireGurad running as an app on a PC and I have also experimented running it on a VPN appliance. Sometimes WireGuard is faster than OpenVPN but if you are running OpenVPN on a device that isn't processor constrained AND you are connecting to a commercial VPN server I'm not convinced WireGuard makes that much of a difference in speed. Your results may very so experiment and find out for yourself.

As I understand you never tested Wireguard on the AC86?
 

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