Fastest network wide VPN gateway/router

VPN
1

So I’ve created a very fast WireGuard server on a pi4 in my home country but my speeds abroad just suck. When I use desktop software vpn I can get 300mbps but when I use my nighthawk router to connect to it (I need all devices on it) it’s a measly 10mpbs. I’ve tested this down to the router having shit hardware for fast encryption and need something beefier but at low cost.

What’s the fastest affordable gateway/router I can load my vpn client on? Hoping for an elegant solution or maybe even another pi server plugged into my router? Hoping for your informed advice here.

2

Honestly, the very best thing to use is an old PC which you cannot use as a PC anymore.

I had a nice Netgear R7800, using OpenWrt. It worked fairly well, but there were some annoying limitations.

Ever since I have replaced that R7800 with a ten-year-old Dell PC (with 2 gig of RAM), the router/network performance is much, much better.

On that ten-year-old Dell PC, I am using Debian 10.

3

I agree that a used PC will give bests speeds. If you really want a router, you have to research the routers that have a SoC (cpu) that has built in hardware acceleration for encryption. This will get you started Hardware Acceleration is Here for Routers Using OpenVPN

4

The biggest limitation of routers is the CPU as that would limit the rate of encryption. A mini PC like another Raspberry Pi or old PC would be better just because of the CPU and RAM. However for my home VPN router I use the Asus RT-AC86U. It has a 1.8 GHz processor. I can get over 100 Mbps download on it with v2ray which uses websocket and TLS. So look at routers with decent CPUs and RAM that have custom firmware available. Also for wireguard you’ll need a router with Linux kernel 4.2 or higher I think.

5

Strictly speaking you don’t need your router to be also the machine to handle VPN. You could add a rpi4 with WG to your network and configure it as the gateway and let it forward all traffic over the VPN. This method saves on needing a more powerful dual NIC machine.

6

You can make a PC act as a router? That’s cool I didn’t think of this

7

Can also look into something called a Mini PC

8

OP is using wireguard, which uses ChaCha20. I’ve never heard of hardware accellerated ChaCha20 in CPU’s. Chacha20 is supposed to be close to as fast in software as AES (as used in OpenVPN) is in hardware.

9

Also for wireguard you’ll need a router with Linux kernel 4.2 or higher I think.

From kernel-version 3.15, as Wireguard can be installed.

From the 5.4 version, Wireguard is in the kernel, though many Linux distributions have backported Wireguard.

10

And that old PC will work much better as router than even those very expensive routers, as long as you are using a Linux or a BSD operating system.

And you could look into pfsense and OPNsense as well. Both of these have a nice interface, for turning that old PC into a quality router.

11

Or even a Dell R210, if you can hide it in an attic or closet

12

A mini-pc would work just fine, as long as there are enough required ports.

You would need at least two ethernet ports, or one ethernet port and one USB-3 port.

13

Ok it’s changed then. I actually see according to some sources minimum Linux kernel needed is 3.1 or higher. When I was last playing with wireguard it needed kernel 4.x and above. However that was over a year ago. It could also be I remember the minimum Linux kernel needed incorrectly.