Upgraded my Verizon ISP fios service to gigabit and not seeing over 100mbps speeds from NY/DC/NJ east coast servers. Only using the verizon G3100 router directly wired.
Connection setup is: verizon fios ONT > verizon G3100 router > PC with the PIA windows 10 client with wireguard protocol [v3.0.1 build 06696].
In the past, I had comcast and was able to get close to my ISP speeds of 300-400Mbps with OpenVPN [Asus AC-86U router with AES-NI capability]/Wireguard using a few different speed test sites for a better comparison average.
Are there any PIA windows client or ISP router settings I need to modify? I wasn’t expecting 800-900Mbps but wondering if ~400-600Mbps is possible while on VPN. Thank you.
It’s not unusual for me to get several hundred megabits (according to fast.com) from mainland china with peaks exceeding a gigabit - but I’m using the Linux Wireguard kernel module configured via shell script, not PIA’s Windows client.
As far as I’m aware, Windows’ TAP driver has insurmountable performance issues that would prevent you getting more than ~300 or so megabits on that OS regardless of other factors.
I’ve also saw 800+ Mbps using the PIA client on my Windows 10 rig using WireGuard when running speed tests. Torrenting I’ll see around 500 Mbps which I think is partially limited by my old second gen i5 cpu.
Thanks for your shared reference points. I have read in the past with some Windows TAP limitations and where linux definitely handles VPN much better especially with wireguard.
I don’t know if the Windows TAP driver is still currently associated when using the wireguard protocol.
On my same windows machine, 300Mbps via PIA VPN-Windows when I had cable internet (now gigabit fiber) was definitely possible with Open VPN.
Fast dot com shows me consistently less than 100Mbps for example. It was a nice quick site for casual observations. I’ll use dsl reports/speedtest/google fiber speed test sites for other averages and then test download a large 5gb linux ISO file (e.g. debian had big files).
On cable internet, fast dot com would show ~300Mbps but who knows if there were recently new netflix VPN throttling implementations in the states (there always was some kind of it). OpenVPN definitely had some limitations and read that if you had a router that could support AES-NI encryption (e.g. some asus brands), it would help.
With the wireguard protocol, I read that AES-NI isn’t needed.
I don’t know if the Windows TAP driver is still currently associated when using the wireguard protocol.
I believe it is, but I don’t use Windows any more than I have to since all the reasons that made me leave it behind a couple decades ago only seem to have become worse.
Interesting… that 500Mbps you mentioned was on Windows 7/10? The majority of the others here had great linux VPN outcomes which is definitely understandable.
I did note the new alpha version which appears to be a temporary solution until an official build on some win10/11 build previews. I did install some of those windows 10 feature updates over the last few months (e.g. 20H2/21H1); later this weekend, will uninstall the current windows PIA client and try the alpha version found stickied here:
Hmmm. This is last year of course when I had gigabit, but both Wireguard and OpenVPN would max out around 200-300 mbps for me (I had gigabit). I suspect my router was a big problem though. Our internet in the home would go to complete shit when I was uploading for Speedtest. Without PIA I could hit 900-ish mbps, but specifically when doing Speedtest via PIA, my entire internet connection would slow to a halt. I don’t know why that was, but I’m guessing it was my router. I’ve since moved and use better equipment (Ubiquiti), but alas I do not have fiber anymore
Are you using a dedicated IP? That’s the only thing I don’t have enabled same with port forwarding as it shows “not available”. Also using split tunnel, LAN, WireGuard, PIA dns.
