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VPN speed issues
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VPN speed issues

v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

Hi,

I am running a Pritunl (OpenVPN) VPN on my 256MB KVM server, but I noticed, that the speed varies strongly.
It varies between 7 and 150 Mbit, which is the maximum of my connection at home.
If I download for instance a tele2 testfile from AMS I get around 160 Mbit without using the VPN.
With the VPN only around 7 Mbit.
The interesting part is, that if I download the same file on the server on which the VPN is running I get more than 500 Mbit which is perfect. I have the same issue also with other speedtest servers, like the one from Linode, or Digitalocean.
Do you know if this is a routing issue or caused by the VPN software?

I also noticed, that the speed increases on some mirrors with time and also if I download a file multiple times. But that's only the case with some mirrors I tested.
The load/ cpu usage while downloading something is pretty low.

Greetings

Thanked by 2benj0x vmhaus

Comments

  • qtwrkqtwrk Member
    edited November 2017

    First suggestion i have is to install kernel with BBR...it helps "a lot"

  • The issue isn't Technology here.

  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

    @qtwrk said:
    First suggestion i have is to install kernel with BBR...it helps "a lot"

    Did't help unfortunately

  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

    I tested it again on another server in the Netherlands.
    Same issue, most of the speed test mirrors are very slow, but I noticed that steam downloads with 150 Mbit/s without a problem.
    The tele2 speed test on the other hand only reaches around 10-20 Mbit/s.

  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

    Just installed the exact same setup on a Digitalocean VPS also in London, no issues so far.
    The previous server is rented from @vmhaus, but I can't imagine that this makes such an extreme difference in terms of the network performance.

    Especially since the download of the test files directly on the vmhaus server is very fast, only via VPN there are performance issues most of the time.
    My first thought was, that the connection from my ISP to vmhaus is bad, but that wouldn't explain, why steam works perfectly with 150 Mbit/s over the VPN.

    Anyone an idea?

  • vmhausvmhaus Member, Top Host, Host Rep

    @v3ng said:
    Just installed the exact same setup on a Digitalocean VPS also in London, no issues so far.
    The previous server is rented from @vmhaus, but I can't imagine that this makes such an extreme difference in terms of the network performance.

    Especially since the download of the test files directly on the vmhaus server is very fast, only via VPN there are performance issues most of the time.
    My first thought was, that the connection from my ISP to vmhaus is bad, but that wouldn't explain, why steam works perfectly with 150 Mbit/s over the VPN.

    Anyone an idea?

    Hey,

    As we said in our ticket from the data you gave us. This seemed to be a config issue. Your connection took the PNI to Liberty Global from @Clouvider. You said you could download a file from your VPS to your home connection directly without VPN at 150mbit. If you want to update the ticket and we can try out OpenVPN instead of Pritunl?

    I will keep looking into this issue over the weekend to see if there is anything at all we can see but it seems unlikely.

    Thanked by 1v3ng
  • If you run VPN on IPv4 and download server 1 only has IPv4 you will use IPv4 to download your file, this will be slower. if it has IPv4 and IPv6 it will use IPv6 which will be the same speed as normal.

  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

    @vmhaus said:

    @v3ng said:
    Just installed the exact same setup on a Digitalocean VPS also in London, no issues so far.
    The previous server is rented from @vmhaus, but I can't imagine that this makes such an extreme difference in terms of the network performance.

    Especially since the download of the test files directly on the vmhaus server is very fast, only via VPN there are performance issues most of the time.
    My first thought was, that the connection from my ISP to vmhaus is bad, but that wouldn't explain, why steam works perfectly with 150 Mbit/s over the VPN.

    Anyone an idea?

    Hey,

    As we said in our ticket from the data you gave us. This seemed to be a config issue. Your connection took the PNI to Liberty Global from @Clouvider. You said you could download a file from your VPS to your home connection directly without VPN at 150mbit. If you want to update the ticket and we can try out OpenVPN instead of Pritunl?

    I will keep looking into this issue over the weekend to see if there is anything at all we can see but it seems unlikely.

    Hi,
    Thank you for your answer, I appreciate it.

    Actually, the same issue occurs on my hosthatch vps.
    I also tested it on a Linode and Digitalocean server, both times without a problem.
    The config was always exactly the same.
    I also tried plain OpenVPN, but the results were the same, which makes sense since Pritunl is based on OpenVPN.

    Downloading a file from the server to my pc is very fast, without and even with VPN.
    It still doesn't make sense to me why Steam ALWAYS downloads with 160Mbit/s without a problem, but most of the other mirrors are not even close to this speed.
    Downloading a file from the server to my pc is also fast, so I don't think this is a config issue.

  • ClouviderClouvider Member, Patron Provider

    way to go. Publicly shame a provider that was helping you for non-provider caused issue.

  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider
    edited December 2017

    Um, when did I shame vmhaus?! I would always recommend them, they are great.
    I only mentioned the name because maybe someone has the same issue.
    I didn't expect them to help me either.

    If you have nothing meaningful to contribute please just keep going and keep these unnecessary comments for you.

  • vmhausvmhaus Member, Top Host, Host Rep

    @v3ng said:

    @vmhaus said:

    @v3ng said:
    Just installed the exact same setup on a Digitalocean VPS also in London, no issues so far.
    The previous server is rented from @vmhaus, but I can't imagine that this makes such an extreme difference in terms of the network performance.

    Especially since the download of the test files directly on the vmhaus server is very fast, only via VPN there are performance issues most of the time.
    My first thought was, that the connection from my ISP to vmhaus is bad, but that wouldn't explain, why steam works perfectly with 150 Mbit/s over the VPN.

    Anyone an idea?

    Hey,

    As we said in our ticket from the data you gave us. This seemed to be a config issue. Your connection took the PNI to Liberty Global from @Clouvider. You said you could download a file from your VPS to your home connection directly without VPN at 150mbit. If you want to update the ticket and we can try out OpenVPN instead of Pritunl?

    I will keep looking into this issue over the weekend to see if there is anything at all we can see but it seems unlikely.

    Hi,
    Thank you for your answer, I appreciate it.

    Actually, the same issue occurs on my hosthatch vps.
    I also tested it on a Linode and Digitalocean server, both times without a problem.
    The config was always exactly the same.
    I also tried plain OpenVPN, but the results were the same, which makes sense since Pritunl is based on OpenVPN.

    Downloading a file from the server to my pc is very fast, without and even with VPN.
    It still doesn't make sense to me why Steam ALWAYS downloads with 160Mbit/s without a problem, but most of the other mirrors are not even close to this speed.
    Downloading a file from the server to my pc is also fast, so I don't think this is a config issue.

    I've spent a few hours trying to debug this and I've found nothing. The issue is not you to us at all from what I can see. Valve have peered with us over LINX LON 1 & LON 2. So this is quite an odd occurrence.

    Thanked by 1v3ng
  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

    Nevertheless, thank you for your effort!
    Maybe someone else has an idea.

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