Hybrid VPN performance issue

[addy]

Hi team,

I've been using the XR500 router for a few years now and I haven't had any major issues. I recently switched my VPN provider to Proton VPN, and I wanted to use the Hybrid VPN feature on the XR500 (V2.3.2.114). Although hybrid VPN works, I'm seeing a large decrease in internet connection speed. I also am unable to connect to certain streaming services, such as Amazon Prime Video. A similar issue occured with my old VPN provider, but I did not think the router was the cause at the time. Please find screenshots below.

 

Internet Speed without VPN:

• Streaming works
• Speed as expected

 

Internet Speed using Proton VPN Windows 10 app:

• Streaming works
• Speed as expected

When using the Proton VPN Windows 10 application,  the speed doesn't fluctuate as much and I am still able to access streaming services.

 

Internet Speed using Hybrid VPN (Proton OpenVPN config attached):

• Streaming does not work
• Speed is heavily reduced

 

For reference, the Proton VPN server I am using has the following settings:

• UK Server London #44 (Plus server, so guaranteed to allow streaming)
• UDP connection

 

Please let me know if I can post the Hybrid VPN log, as I'm not sure if this contains identifiable information.

I would be grateful if you could help me resolve this issue, I'm keen to use the Hybrid VPN feature as intended!

Thanks,

Addy

uk-44.protonvpn.com.udp.ovpn

[Netduma Fraser]

Speeds will be reduced using OpenVPN with the router, there isn't we can do about that at the moment unfortunately. You can use ports so it doesn't cover the ports for a speedtest though.

How have you added the device exactly to HybridVPN?

When streaming doesn't work do they give you an error message?

[addy]

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there isn't we can do about that at the moment unfortunately.

Is this an issue with the router and could it be solved in a future firmware update? It seems like quite a large drop in speed that renders the Hybrid VPN feature useless.

Quote

How have you added the device exactly to Hybrid VPN?

I copied and pasted the ovpn config file into the advanced area of the Hybrid VPN setup, and also inputted OpenVPN username and password provided by Proton VPN.

Quote

When streaming doesn't work do they give you an error message?

It's the error message I provided as a screenshot in my initial post. It refers to detection of a VPN or proxy and will not allow pressing play. This does not occur with the Windows 10 application version.

[Netduma Fraser]

Well the beauty of HybridVPN is that you can specify what services/applications/ports on a device is covered by the VPN e.g. your game going through a VPN but your stream going through your normal connection thus getting full speeds. We're looking at alternate protocols for VPN that will boost the speed yes.

Did you add your device to the VPN Traffic Panel? If so how did you do this, can you provide a screenshot?

I think you can remove all but one of the remote lines as you shouldn't need that many in theory.

[addy]

Agree on how Hybrid VPN can be used to specify the ports to cover, but I'm looking to cover all traffic from my PC. See the attached screenshot for the setup.

Whilst I know that using a VPN would reduce speeds, I wouldn't expect a 1/3 of the original speed when the windows 10 application (screenshot below) also uses Open VPN and does not throttle the download speed or prevent streaming services, so this seems to be an issue with the router or the configuration loaded into the VPN setup panel?

 

[Netduma Fraser]

It's due to the protocol and the router combined, there is nothing we can do to increase this, which is why we're looking at alternate protocols to use instead.

That all appears to be correct. I'd recommend you upgrade to the beta https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-DumaOS-3-0/New-Firmware-v2-3-2-120-XR450/td-p/2071197/jump-to/first-unread-message and then factory reset and try the VPN again and see whether the services work.

[addy]

Thank you for your help Fraser. I am a bit wary of installing beta firmware, and I would rather wait for a stable release.

I contacted Proton VPN support and I've changed the DNS settings on my router which now allows streaming services,. However, I still get heavily reduced speeds. The Proton VPN shed some light on this, saying:

"The downside to OpenVPN is that in its current architecture, it is not scalable. It runs as a monolithic process and cannot run multi-threaded.

This means that if you have a beefy processor with 8 cores and each of the core has 8 threads, OpenVPN will use only a single thread in one of the available cores.

Regarding routers - they do not have powerful CPUs, thus encrypting and decrypting OpenVPN traffic is a real challenge for them. For that reason, the speed can drop by a large amount.

You could try increasing your speed by connecting to a few different servers (preferably to the ones in yours or neighboring country), changing between TCP and UDP, enabling QoS, and changing Upload and Download to 100Mbps, disabling SPI Firewall and NAT Acceleration (if your router has one). You could also try looking for the most optimal MTU value on your router which could be in the range of 1300 to 1500.

If these changes do not help and you are getting better speeds while connected to the same servers with our software on your computer, then, unfortunately, your router's hardware cannot encrypt the internet traffic fast enough and this is the reason for the speed drop"

This seems to be a soundexplanation for why the Open VPN implementation is slow on the router. I look forward to future firmware updates, which hopefully implement a different protocol that can utilise the XR500s hardware properly.

[busolof]

On 4/1/2021 at 7:34 PM, Netduma Fraser said:

It's due to the protocol and the router combined, there is nothing we can do to increase this, which is why we're looking at alternate protocols to use instead.

That all appears to be correct. I'd recommend you upgrade to the beta https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-DumaOS-3-0/New-Firmware-v2-3-2-120-XR450/td-p/2071197/jump-to/first-unread-message and then factory reset and try the VPN again and see whether the services work.

When use hybridvpn on your xr500 will you not use same speed when use windows 10 app for your vpn provider. will you have great speed use windows 10 app.