Hello,
I was recently told (by a NordVPN tech support rep) that generally, router CPU aren’t all that capable of encrypting/decrypting all the network traffic efficiently when compared to something like a laptop. Since the current protocol doesn’t support multi threading configuring the VPN on the router will ultimately not be suitable for online gaming due to the routers processing capabilities. I suppose I’m looking for a second opinion or confirmation of that fact as I hadn’t found anything stating that when originally researching my VPN solution.
To provide a bit of background, I was having MTU issues on my Xbox when the VPN was active on my router (ASUS RT-AX55), I Ultimately found that the VPN was murdering my network speed (~900Mbps —> ~60Mbps) and causing almost half my packets to be lost. After talking to NordVPN they essentially stated I was SOL if I’m setting up the VPN on a router and intending to game.
router CPU aren’t all that capable of encrypting/decrypting all the network traffic efficiently when compared to something like a laptop
It just depends on what your router is. It’s no different than asking if your computer can handle playing some particular game. The NordVPN rep is probably assuming you are talking more off the shelf gear like you get at Best Buy. It might be a lot iffier there. If you have higher end gear, or something a little more enthusiast friendly(i.e. you have what amounts to a PC running OpnSense or pfSense) then you stand a much better chance of being able to manage it. I’d almost say you can judge it by how much your router cost. If it was in the 100$ range, it’s probably gonna struggle with VPN at high speeds. If it was 300$+, it’s more reasonable to have high expectations of what it can do.
why you’d want to game over a VPN though is beyond me
The two reasons I know of: you’re a streamer or otherwise worried someone will DDOS you…a lot of games do regional matchmaking for certain things, using a VPN can make you look like you are in a particular region, which you might be trying to do so you can match with your friends.
Cheap store bought routers don’t have fast cpu’s, that can encrypt every packet for openvpn or wireguard.
That’s why many people here buy a mini-pc like (this) for $300 and install router software, like pfsense, vyos, untangle or if you are adventurous, build your own custom linux router like I do.
I bought that box and tested it. pfsense can sustain about 100mb/s for openvpn, but drops 30% of packets. vyos and linux do about 200mb/s openvpn, no packets dropped, and less cpu used.
I get 400mb/s wireguard using linux on that box. Works great.
edit: if you want wirespeed wireguard, over your 900mb/s isp link, you’ll need a faster pc, like an i3 or i5, and I wouldn’t do it fanless. I just ordered parts, building a gigabit wirespeed wireguard router, but it’s expensive, can probably get cost down to about $500 if you don’t mind a big case, or order something used off of ebay.
I’m not sure about the CPU in the ASUS RT-AX55 right now but could you comment on which crypto algorithms are more/less intensive for a processing point of view? Feel free to let me know that google is also my friend lol.
Ah, thanks for the input. This router certainly wasn’t ~$300 so I’m going to chalk it up to not doing enough research before purchasing something.
Just trying to get around the crappy configuration of the hotel internet network while I’m abroad for work. The primary goal was to achieve a Moderate NAT type and balance the strict that’s normally reported on the network here.
Would something like this work with a raspberry pi? I was trying to set up a openwrt router with a backup internet using mwan3 with my phones 5G, (my isp drops a lot) it worked, but turns out that the switch in IP address still gets me kicked out of COD, so I’m thinking I need to use a VPN that routes both connections to the same IP address.
Just trying to get around the crappy configuration of the hotel internet network while I’m abroad for work
Ah, yeah that can be annoying. I wouldn’t expect most hotels to block VPNs, it would impact business travelers, but it might depend on the country of course. The Nord folks might be right, though I would expect more because hotel wifi tends to be very busy.
Things that can be mitigated so as to work well in a busy wifi environment, like streaming, don’t always work so well for gaming due to the real time nature of gaming. It might not even matter if you have a better router.
If you are on Windows, you could try using Internet Connection sharing, though I’m not sure if that’s workable with only the single wifi adapter (it might not be able to use the same wireless network to share and be the source of the sharing). You’d have to establish the vpn and then tell windows to share that network. But as I said, for gaming (well, anything multiplayer), it may not matter in a hotel. If you just need it so that games can phone home and verify a license then you might be fine.