Slow VPN performance

Hi,

I am currently using two NetGear FVS318 VPN routers to connect my home with my office. I'm accessing SMB-mapped drives at the office from my home, and the performance is terrible. I have a broadband connection on both ends, and normal internet performance is quite good, so I attribute the poor performance to the slowness of the VPN.

The NetGear site states that the FVS318 router uses software encryption, and can achieve a max throughput of 1.2 mbps for 3DES. Their FVS338 router technical specs state that hardware encryption is used, and that it can achieve VPN throughput of up to 60 mbps for 3DES. I don't know whether to believe that number. It sounds too good for the money, and my broadband connection is only a few megabits per second.

I have a few questions:

  1. What is the likely source of the slow performance over the VPN? Is it the software encryption in the FVS318?

  1. Is there an economical (e.g., under 0) VPN router alternative with good VPN encryption speed?

  2. I am concerned about all the negative FVS338 router reviews that I see on the web. Is it really that bad?

Thanks,

Ed

Reply to
Ed J
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Hi Ed, What are the ping response times across the tunnel, how do they compare with the ping times across the internet between the 2 sites. Also bear in mind it's the upstream speed of the broadband connection that will limit the data throughput, not the downstream one, quite often this is a lot less. simon

Reply to
Simon

The average ping response across the internet is 34 ms, while the average ping time within the VPN is 37 ms. Not too much difference there.

At one location, download speed is 4900 kbps, and upload is 660 kbps. At the other location, download speed is 1300 kbps, and upload is 770 kbps.

I just ran file transfer tests through the VPN, and got about 700 kbps, so I guess the upload speed is the big culprit, not the VPN performance.

Bummer. I was hoping for a one-time cost to improve performance, instead of paying for a higher class of service.

Thanks, Ed

Reply to
Ed J

I guess you realize now that when one connection is downloading the other has to be uploading so the lowest common denominator of bandwidth will always be the limiting factor. If you are downloading at 700kbps through the VPN then congratulations. It's working as well as can be expected. It's not that the performance is terrible, you simply are experiencing the reality that LAN's typically operate at 100Mbit and your "high speed" Internet link is more than 100 times slower at less than 1Mbit effective speed. It may be 100 times faster than dialup but it would need to get 100 times faster to match your LAN at the office.

Reply to
Mike Drechsler - SPAM PROTECTE

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