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    PfSense hardware for home router - OpenVPN performance

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    • D
      denova
      last edited by

      @yogibo:

      @denova:

      The reason for this is that the Flash based speedtest.net tool does not account for LZO compression, which is built into the  OpenVPN protocol.

      did you try beta.speedtest.net I believe that doesn't use flash.

      I have i3-7350K and I tried disabling compression and it didn't seem to make a difference, I am able to hit around 700mbs to 800mbs.  Maybe i'm not disabling it correctly.

      Hmm, you might be correct. I just tried the beta version and still reached 765 Mbps regardless of compression. Maybe its not the compression after all.

      I think it's safe to say you can reach around 750 Mbps with OpenVPN on PIA with a G4400 processor (a $50 chip!). It might be the sweet spot for anyone with a 1000 mbit connection, unless you're trying to reach 900 or something but I'm not quite sure the CPU is the bottleneck for that.

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        The fact it's flash based should make no difference there. The only thing that matters is what their test data is, if it's compressible.

        That's an impressive result if you're seeing that without compression. Both in terms of the CPU's ability and PIAs.

        Steve

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        • D
          denova
          last edited by

          @stephenw10:

          The fact it's flash based should make no difference there. The only thing that matters is what their test data is, if it's compressible.

          That's an impressive result if you're seeing that without compression. Both in terms of the CPU's ability and PIAs.

          Steve

          Well, the incorrect accounting for LZO is often connected to some speedtests using Flash. For example here: "it is very important to note that using flash-based speed tests like speedtest.net are unrealible for VPN services. This is because VPN services use compression to increase the speed that data flows across the network. Some flash based speed test servers do not properly account for this" (https://vikingvpn.com/speed). More in general it might not be Flash that's the issue, but for speedtest.net its a problem apparently.

          But quite happy indeed, especially as I'm using some refurbished Lenovo M700 SFF with a Chinese Ebay Intel I350-T4. Great job for pfsense as well, its unfortunate they switched off the donations.

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            @denova:

            …its unfortunate they switched off the donations.

            Feel free to purchase Gold instead, get something back.  ;)

            Steve

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            • D
              denova
              last edited by

              Yeah I know, but those are not really that useful for me. I'll just buy some stickers or something ;)

              OpenVPN speed has been steady between 700-800 Mbps.

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              • D
                digitalgimpus
                last edited by

                @Fuego:

                Still haven't got a chance read on wiki for tweaks, but added:

                Which wiki is that? Looking to optimize my j3355 as well.

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                • P
                  pbosgraaf
                  last edited by

                  @denova,

                  Do you mind sharing your hardware build/partlist?
                  I'm looking into purchasing something similar and i like your idle power usage of 13watts.

                  Thanks.

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                  • B
                    belt9
                    last edited by

                    @digitalgimpus:

                    @Fuego:

                    Still haven't got a chance read on wiki for tweaks, but added:

                    Which wiki is that? Looking to optimize my j3355 as well.

                    Don't know about any wiki, but optimize OpenVPN with fast-io and buffers. Read here:

                    https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=130350.0

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                    • D
                      denova
                      last edited by

                      @pbosgraaf:

                      @denova,

                      Do you mind sharing your hardware build/partlist?
                      I'm looking into purchasing something similar and i like your idle power usage of 13watts.

                      Thanks.

                      Sure, I'm using a prebuild Lenovo M700 SFF that I got really cheap with a platinum rated PSU (to quote Lenovo's website: "ENERGY STAR 6.1, ULE Gold, EPEAT Gold, and 85% efficiency with 80+ Platinum power supply unit", I'm not sure that's saying all that much though). Specs are: Intel G4400 dual core, 4 GB DDR4 memory, it came with a HDD but switched it for a cheap Kingston SSD and I added an Ebay Chinese I350 T4 NIC. I unplugged the CD drive and USB connectors and some other stuff not used. Speedstep is enabled and the CPU is often running around 1.5-2.0 Ghz when idle. Now I've monitored it over a longer time, the average idle power consumption usage has been around 15 watts. The case is really cool as well, usually around 25 degrees.

                      When building yourself, it's probably best to get a Pico PSU and search for a power efficient motherboard.

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                      • ?
                        Guest
                        last edited by

                        @denova

                        Speedstep is enabled and the CPU is often running around 1.5-2.0 Ghz when idle. Now I've monitored it over a longer time, the average idle power consumption usage has been around 15 watts. The case is really cool as well, usually around 25 degrees.

                        You could trying out to enable PowerD (high adaptive) of not done yet, to get perhaps less then 15 watts back.
                        or did you enable the PowerD (high adaptive) option?

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                        • D
                          denova
                          last edited by

                          @BlueKobold:

                          @denova

                          Speedstep is enabled and the CPU is often running around 1.5-2.0 Ghz when idle. Now I've monitored it over a longer time, the average idle power consumption usage has been around 15 watts. The case is really cool as well, usually around 25 degrees.

                          You could trying out to enable PowerD (high adaptive) of not done yet, to get perhaps less then 15 watts back.
                          or did you enable the PowerD (high adaptive) option?

                          It's enabled (high adaptive), forgot to mention that. But if I recall correctly it made no difference at all for me..

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                          • K
                            Kenji
                            last edited by

                            I have a question regarding your hardware recommendation. I'm just about to complete a DSL contract either 50MBit / s or 100MBit /. I would like to use OpenVPN with 256bit encryption. I would like to have full download speed with VPN because all traffic is used. Do you have a recommendation which hardware can do that? I use it only at home and 95% only with Wi-Fi. anyone a low-cost recommendation? :)

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                            • L
                              lindsay
                              last edited by

                              I use Astrill, and when i sometimes use utorrent it can download at 22-23MB/ s but avarage is more 17-18 with snort enabled

                              This is my CPU for the moment as i will wait to upgrade to an xeon and intel mainboard.

                              CPU.PNG
                              CPU.PNG_thumb

                              Fiberline 500/500Mbps
                              Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 v4 @ 2.10GHz

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                              • R
                                rok1
                                last edited by rok1

                                Intel Pentium Silver J5005 4x1.5 (Turbo to 2.8) TDP 10W -CPU Mark 2987 -Single Thread 1182
                                3200/9.21 = 347 Mbps (aes-256-cbc)
                                3200/8.67 = 369 Mbps (aes-256-gcm)

                                Real World VPN running 5 Ubuntu Torrents at once
                                0_1531276388637_vpn.PNG
                                Nearly half of my Spectrum Gigabit is being used.

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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Is that with FastIO enabled and send/rec buffers increased?

                                  Steve

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                                  • R
                                    rok1 @stephenw10
                                    last edited by

                                    @stephenw10 Just FastIO. I have not done any buffer adjustments yet.

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by stephenw10

                                      FastIO made the biggest difference in my testing. Setting the send and receive buffers to 512k did make some improvement. There was little to be gained setting them higher than that. In my test at least. More testing is always good. ☺

                                      Those numbers are pretty good already though.

                                      Steve

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                                      • R
                                        rok1 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 said in PfSense hardware for home router - OpenVPN performance:

                                        FastIO made the biggest difference in my testing. Setting the send and receive buffers to 512k did make some improvement. There was little to be gained setting them higher than that. In my test at least. More testing is always good. ☺

                                        Those numbers are pretty good already though.

                                        Steve

                                        I am very impressed with the cpu. Motherboard not so much. Plenty of available PCIe lanes for dual Intel gigabit lan. And a pcie x1 slot instead of x16. The realtek gigabit lan couldn't muster over 600mbs. Gigabyte announced a J5005 board earlier this year, but they never released it.

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                                        • L
                                          laped
                                          last edited by laped

                                          i5-8250u

                                          Tue Jul 17 17:06:17 2018 disabling NCP mode (--ncp-disable) because not in P2MP client or server mode
                                          7.68 real 7.67 user 0.00 sys

                                          3200 / 7.68 = 416.67 mbit/s (aes-256-cbc)

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                                          • T
                                            tibere86
                                            last edited by

                                            Intel Atom E3950
                                            AES-128-CBC, AES-NI enabled, OpenVPN compression disabled
                                            319 Mbit/s

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