How do I speed up my home VPN server while abroad?

So I currently have a home vpn set up using two gl inet beryl routers. One is located in the US and the other is with me while traveling in South America. They connect and I am able to access my home system. I currently have it connected with wireguard vpn and nextdns.

My problem comes with my upload/download speeds. They seem incredibly slow. When I activate my paid vpn server and connect in Australia I have better upload and download speeds. My speed in the US and SA without the vpn is incredibly fast but when I connect to my home server in the US it goes to single digits almost.

What am I doing wrong and is there any way to fix this? Is it just limitations given my equipment and the distance?

Thank you for your help.

Your combined upload+download speed will be limited to the slower of the two speeds at home.

If your home internet is 200Mbps down, 10Mbps up, you will never be able to get more than 10Mbps upload+download.

Every packet you send while connected to the VPN server is “downloaded” by the server, decrypted, and then “uploaded” to the remote location on the internet. And then the server’s reply by to you does the same. Downloaded at home, encrypted, uploaded back across the internet to you.

What is your speed at home?

What’s your upload speed at home? That’s the maximum download speed you’ll get on your remote device. But yes, a consumer router with a tiny MIPS CPU is always going to struggle with encrypting and decrypting VPN packets in real time, hence the low speeds. An x86 device or even a Raspberry Pi would have been a better choice, had you had the option.

Your upload speed at home is your download speed while abroad. Add to that the lag that a VPN brings. Try to increase your upload speeds at your ISP

Exactly you need fast upload speed to get fast download

I can only get Xfinity so 50 upload is as fast as I can get so when out I VPN in and download is about 45-47. Need symmetrical up and down to have a good experience

Hey op did you ever figure this out? Looks like you had your home internet speeds upgraded but you didn’t see any performance gains with your travel router? I’m having the same problem. The WireGuard vpn server at my house is practically useless because of how slow it is. Appears to be at the mercy of my home internets upload speed

I’m looking to do a similar setup. How is your streaming and video calling?

Yeah I started reading about this right after I posted. At home I’m sitting at about 10mb upload. So I’m gonna upgrade to 20 and see if that helps. I need 15 download and 5 upload in my current country to do my job. Currently I’m sitting at 10 dl and 3 to 4 ul.

Upload speed at your home is important. Your download speed abroad will never be faster than your upload speed at home. I did see performance improve with higher upload at home. I was able to live abroad while working in sales with this system (video calls and voip), and my job was none the wiser.

I had no issues with it. Seemed to run pretty well.

Yeah that’ll be your bottleneck.

Cable modems can go up to 35 Mbps upload now, IF your ISP supports it. If there is an ISP offering fiber internet at your house, that would work much better as the upload and download speeds are typically equal (“symmetric”).

Thank you for responding. I appreciate the help. So I have upgraded my service. I went all the way to 35 mbps. Download is excellent. Why is my upload still only sitting at 4.3? Is there anything I can do to increase it? Also, my latency is sorta high. We’re sitting around 162 ms, any suggestions?

Have you tested your local internet connection without being on the VPN?

Latency is a hard one. How far are you from home? Any oceans in between?