I think I have successfully installed openvpn and configured HMA pro on my router with OpenWRT, but I get really slow speeds.

I have 80mb connection and I get 70/75 mb connection with no vpn but 10mb with vpn installed.

Bizarre thing is when i use the windows client to go through the vpn, I get reasonable speeds of 60/70mb.

Servers are the same in both cases.

Any ideas what might be causing this?

Will

What kind of VPN on which version of OpenWrt? Do you refer to PPtP VPN? That is awfully slow and CPU intensive on 10.03.x releases, 12.09 will dramatically improve the performance.

Thanks for quick reply! Bear with me on lack of knowledge!

I installed Backfire 10.0.3.1.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what kind of VPN I installed?

I followed this guide:

http://wiki.hidemyass.com/OpenWRT_OpenVPN_Setup

Ok, OpenVPN. Then the crypto overhead is probably saturating your cpu and you have to live with the slow speed.

Thats upsetting. Is there an alternative?

PPtP.

Could that be configured with my hide my ass VPN account?

Excuse my ignorance.

Seems so, they state on their site that they support OpenVPN, PPtP and L2TP (IPSec)

Ok, i'll give it a go and post back if I have any problems. Will I be able to save me current config when upgrading to  12.09?

Is there a downside to using pptp?

If pptp is installed on the router, does everything that goes through it either wired or wireless, get encrypted?

i.e. will web browsing on a phone or ipad/laptop be encrypted?

(Last edited by Skaboy607 on 12 Sep 2012, 14:37)

yes you can save your config and import it to 12.09 and also you can upgrade directly from 10.03.1 web gui without the lost of config.
pptp has security vulnerabilities - check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESR_Y0yPcSA
If pptp is installed on the router everything that goes through it either wired or wireless will get encrypted, yes
as a refference use: http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/vpn.client.pptp

I got as far as trying to install the pptp package.

It says 'cannot install package ppp-mod-pptp'

Said the same for the openvpn package too

What am i missing?

opkg update

I did that, in the uci, I typed

opkg update
opkg install ppp-mod-pptp

and I got

Unknown package 'ppp-mod-pptp'.
Collected errors:
* opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package ppp-mod-pptp.

If you run 10.03.1 the package ppp-mod-pptp does not exist yet, its just "pptp" there.

I'm now running 12.09 based on your earlier recommendation for use with pptp.

pptp is installed, confirmed using opkg.

When in the web interface, and I choose pptp, it comes up with a pop up box saying that ppp-mod-pptp is not installed and it must even though pptp is installed. Clicking the box brings up the error that it can't find it.

I was trying to use this tutorial to set up the pptp but some of the settings aren't there, I am assuming because it still thinks its not installed?

Thanks

run:

opkg install http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-beta/ar71xx/generic/packages/ppp-mod-pptp_2.4.5-6_ar71xx.ipk

Thanks! I will try that when I get home tonight.

I watched the video showing how easily hacked PPTP is, and have read a few articles confirming that for anonymity,  it is not very good!

So i'm not sure I want to pursue setting it up.

I have an 80Mbit ADSL 2+ connection (BT infinity), what router and cpu would I need to maintain that speed whilst tunneling through OpenVPN?

This post was interesting.

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php … 51#p148751

(Last edited by Skaboy607 on 13 Sep 2012, 11:12)

for 80mbps VPN thoughput you need a x86 based router.
i think any atom or cheaper AMD APU should handle this. just make sure is a low power consumption CPU and has at least two network cards - 1 for wan (ADSL modem) and 1 for your router to be used as AP.

just my 2 cents

I have a feeling they would are going to be expensive.

Where would I find those? Got any links? I was looking at Soekris but none of them seem to be x86 unless I am missing something.

Is there ways to make pptp 'more secure'?

if you can't find any dual-nic cheap low-power x86 board then use any with a single port - just make sure it's gigabit
then use Vlan's on your 1043 to separate traffic.
as for the price of this setup - security + throughput = expensive
you can't make pptp more secure - it'll lose the compatibility !!!

Oh well that kind of puts an end to my task of routing all my network activity through a vpn setup on the router!

Nevermind, learnt about openwrt, and got a better router. Must be better than my current setup of bt home hub!

It was mainly for a HTPC/NAS unit, so I will just run the HMA VPN pro software on it instead.

Thanks for everyone's help.