Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:46 Post subject: DD-WRT Router with the Fastest CPU
Gigabit LAN would be expected but not required, I'm just looking for something that is faster than WNDR3800 when it comes to handling multiple OpenVPN site-to-site nodes.
The E1200 is good enough for the end site with just one instance but I need a router than can load up to 10 OpenVPN instances, all demanding. I find the WNDR3800 will tend to be like 40-50% CPU with 4 active nodes doing a lot of connection processing but I need something that is like 10-20% with that sort of load.
I am leaning towards
- WRT1900ACS with the Dual 1.6 GHz CPU
- NightHawk AC1900 etc.
Ideally I want something for a business that can go in a rack but I realize no such router exists. So the 2nd best thing is to just get one that doesn't look like it belongs in a home with all its colours and antennas, because all I want is site-so-site VPN.
I'm seriously looking at either the WRT1200AC or the WRT1900AC/ACS. The thing is, everything else looks like it belongs in a house and not in a server room.
The WRTs barely pass with their blue & black and space ship looking antennaes (which thankfully come off since I wouldn't be using Wi-Fi). I am just wondering if 1 of these is fast enough to run all 7 openvpn instances. Currently I have 4 of them on 1 WNDR3800 and 3 on another but that requires static IP on both. If i could get down to a 1 router solution, everything would be accessible through that one router.
When the CPU is maxed the ping times are ridiculous (500ms+) and then users complain, when they're split like this over the fibre connections, it's like 10ms max. I am seriously considering taking the leap and just buying a WRT1900 and seeing how it runs and then deciding whether to load all the other traffic on it.
I took all of the other stuff you said re x86 pc into account because ultimately that is where I may go if this doesn't pan out and just get one of those mini pcs to run it. If I were forced to, I'd do that but obviously that's the most expensive option.
I can only bother with a DDWRT solution at this point.
d0ug wrote:
Likely no SOHO router is going to give you what you are looking for with that number of connections.
I have a WRT1200AC router with it's 1.3ghz dual core and tunneling all of my home connection though a VPN with it can easily peg the CPU around the 20% point with just about 30mbps of traffic going though it.
You're probably getting into needing some kind of enterprise VPN endpoint gear. Or maybe try a PC with the fastest processor you can justify and run x86 DDWRT or pfSense on it.
Another thing might be to look for some SOHO gear that has dedicated hardware for the VPN work. Linksys had one of these back in the day the BEFVP41 with a dedicated VPN crypto acceleration chip. DDWRT never ran on this, and even if it could there's no telling if it would have supported the crypto chip. Even the BEFVP41 if you picked it up used would probably be pretty anemic these days and I think it only supported PPTP which isn't really considered secure these days.
This is a board shot of that router. The hifn chip on that board is the crypto accelerator. Pretty sure these crypto acceleration chips have fallen out of favor in the SOHO segment though since processor speeds increased. The CPU on that BEFVP41 was pretty weak, not much better maybe even the same as the original BEFSR41 that Linksys had in the late 90's. I don't think the performance of that CPU was much better than a old classic pentium.
Joined: 16 Nov 2015 Posts: 6447 Location: UK, London, just across the river..
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:28 Post subject:
Look at Netgear R series R7000, R7500, R7800
currently all they have a great DD-WRT support (Kong)
and performance-wise and worry free much better than Linksys WRT...
If you have a chance get R7800 so far the best DD-WRT router _________________ Atheros
TP-Link WR740Nv1 ---DD-WRT 55630 WAP
TP-Link WR1043NDv2 -DD-WRT 55723 Gateway/DoT,Forced DNS,Ad-Block,Firewall,x4VLAN,VPN
TP-Link WR1043NDv2 -Gargoyle OS 1.15.x AP,DNS,QoS,Quotas
Qualcomm-Atheros
Netgear XR500 --DD-WRT 55779 Gateway/DoH,Forced DNS,AP Isolation,4VLAN,Ad-Block,Firewall,Vanilla
Netgear R7800 --DD-WRT 55819 Gateway/DoT,AD-Block,Forced DNS,AP&Net Isolation,x3VLAN,Firewall,Vanilla
Netgear R9000 --DD-WRT 55779 Gateway/DoT,AD-Block,AP Isolation,Firewall,Forced DNS,x2VLAN,Vanilla
Broadcom
Netgear R7000 --DD-WRT 55460 Gateway/SmartDNS/DoH,AD-Block,Firewall,Forced DNS,x3VLAN,VPN
NOT USING 5Ghz ANYWHERE
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Stubby DNS over TLS I DNSCrypt v2 by mac913
I guess if it does end up working and the look bothers you that much. You could go get some generic electronic project box, dremel out holes for the network, power ports and ventilation maybe add a fan and stick the board from inside the router in that.
.....
I _literally_ thought of this 2 days ago, #greatminds, and said if it came to it I would try to fabricate a housing, cutting out the back plane area to align with the router and then making some sort of rackmount bracket to go with it.
Those 2 ideas about checking retail/restore policy/testing first and adding internal cooling are GOLD. You've left me with a wealth of options now. Thanks!
