Virgin media Customers and AirVPN performance

bluesjunior

17 hours ago, Adzkii said:

what settings should i set to bypass this virgin media throttling? i'm on their 100mbps package and i'm only getting 20-30mbps

If you are on Windows check out the link in my post above and follow the instructions to download and install the Wintun Adapter. I am on the VM 200 package and over the last long, long time was only getting 30-35mbps while using AirVPN although I got the full 200mbps when not using the vpn. I have tried and blamed a lot of things in the chain for that, Virgin say they don't throttle anything and I tend to believe them because I only had these problems since I installed their Superhub3. Myself I think something in the SH3 causes a bottleneck in the 1GB speed setting in the Local Area Connection settings when using a vpn which only gives 100mb instead even though it states 1GB. Anyway, by following those instructions in my post above and installing the Wintun Adapter my speed increased to between 85-95mbps and I am getting d/l speeds of over 12mbps on well seeded torrents.

rustintimberlake

On 4/7/2020 at 4:30 PM, Adzkii said:

what settings should i set to bypass this virgin media throttling? i'm on their 100mbps package and i'm only getting 20-30mbps

On my 350 line, I'm getting 200mbit/sec over encrypted vpn tunnel.

Try the following...

Preferences > Protocols ... set it to 'SSL 443' or 'Automatic'
Preferences > Networking ... set both send/receive buffers to '256' or '512 KB'
Preferences > OVPN directives ... insert 'mssfix 1442' as Custom command

Save these settings and reconnect.

Also, what is the CPU processor's spec on on your computer? Computer's CPU matters for speeds over encrypted tunnel.

hr paperstacks

Sorry to reopen an old thread here.

i have exactly the issue described by the OP here.

i have the same asus AC68U router mentioned in previous posts and regardless of my connection route (modem/router) and protocol (ssl, udp etc) my air connection never exceeds 90-100mb/s but i get a pretty consistent 300-350 without air running.

I run a pi4 with hummingbird, a w10 machine with eddie, and it's essentially the same in either scenario.

i can choose the ssl 28439 from eddie protocols list easily enough, this makes no difference.

i have tried the various openvpn directives mentioned above and thesemake little to no difference either. (though i have no real clue what i'm doing when it comes to implementing an ssl config through hummingbird, but i'll cross that bridge if i come to it if i can yield any positive results using ssl through eddie as it is far easier than tryingg to get an unverified solution on the pi for my linux noob level).

@puremorning - can you elaborate on any settings on your asus router that vary from the defaults?

frankly this is appalling! i was getting effectively getting better speeds with a 67mb connection from vodafone!

side note, i tried using a friend's expressvpn subscription and had exactly the same results - maxing out at 80-90 mb/s, so it's not an airvpn thing

puremorning

Oh wow, this was a long time ago.

Virgin Media claim they're not blocking or traffic shaping OpenVPN traffic but it's clear we don't get the throughput we expect. I'm still unclear on what's causing that.

To get around it I had to stunnel to airvpn and then run openvpn over that stunnel. Which sounds like a faff, and to some extent it is, but it works just fine. You might suffere a bit with the CPU overhead of running 2 connections on a Raspberry PI but give it a go and see what happens.

hr paperstacks

11 minutes ago, puremorning said:

Oh wow, this was a long time ago.

Virgin Media claim they're not blocking or traffic shaping OpenVPN traffic but it's clear we don't get the throughput we expect. I'm still unclear on what's causing that.

To get around it I had to stunnel to airvpn and then run openvpn over that stunnel. Which sounds like a faff, and to some extent it is, but it works just fine. You might suffere a bit with the CPU overhead of running 2 connections on a Raspberry PI but give it a go and see what happens.

Thanks for the speedy reply, really appreciate it.

i'll see if i can figure out how to do what you suggest!

puremorning

There are some good guides for windows and Linux (I'm using centos) if you google airvpn + stunnel + OpenVPN.

Once you get over the initial config shock it's not too bad in operation.
Edited ... by puremorning
spelling, bleh

bluesjunior

After installing the Wintun adapters on my Win10 desktop PC a while back my dl speed rose from around 30-45Mbps to around 110-120Mbps on my then 200Mbps Virgin Media broadband. A month ago I upgraded to the VM 500Mbps package and at first I could only get 180-200Mbps D/L speed. I immediately blamed Virgin but when I solved it it was nothing to do with Virgin but my Linksys router. I run the VM SH3.0 in modem mode into my Linksys EA7500 router.

I have one cat7 ethernet cable running from the router to my PC and another running to the Samsung tv in my living room. Other than that I have my wifes laptop, mobile and the Virgin Tivo box running on the Linksys Wi-Fi. In the Linksys settings there is a box in the prioritization options which you need to set with your broadband subscription speed x 1024. In my case when I had the VM 200Mbps package it was set at 204,800. When I remembered this I went into the Linksys settings and changed to 512,000 and hey presto I was getting 380 - 400Mbps straight away.
I have also found that the server you choose to connect to at AirVPN and the time of day also has a bearing on your connection speed, which is why I have a preferred list of Air servers which have given me excellent d/l speeds in the past and do an online speedtest each time I connect to ensure I get a good connection. Something else is that I only use AirVPN a couple of hours in the early mornings and an occasional Sat/Sun afternoon, perhaps if you are using AirVPN 24/7 these results will not match I don't know but I am quite happy getting 50-75% of my broadband connection via AirVPN and 100% the rest of the time all things considered.

Edited ... by bluesjunior
spelling

hr paperstacks

Thanks both of you.

I got stunnel>openvpn set up and unfortunately it didn't make any tangible difference. i see that in a previous post it was mentioned that eddie directly connected to the SH in modem mode gave full speed, alas this is not my situation so i think there must be some sort of hardware/config issue at my end.

Given that i get the full 350+ when not tunnelled, i am left thoroughly confused.

That being said, tinkering with different servers and protocols i am getting 5MB/s downloads on a well seeded torrent, and the rest of my traffic is all direct connection anyway. TCP seems to be best on good old 443.

I did try the wintunnel fix, but again, this yielded no tangible difference.

as you say bluejunior, server and time of day seems to play a big difference, but ultimately the fact that i'm only getting a fraction of my bandwidth to my pi download box is acceptable for the time being.

My asus modem does have various QoS options which i can only assume is similar to the linksys optimization options, but there is no obvious place to set anything other than a cap. I tried on the off chance to 'cap' it at 300Mb/s but that did nothing. Surely that would also impact the non tunnel speed as well though, which i am getting my advertised speed.

At any rate, i will keep persevering i have a couple of friends who have the exact same issue, and one friend who has zero issues at all, so between us we should be able to figure this out. If i get anywhere i will post my findings here

Lee47

On 10/29/2020 at 9:16 AM, hr paperstacks said:

Sorry to reopen an old thread here.

i have exactly the issue described by the OP here.

i have the same asus AC68U router mentioned in previous posts and regardless of my connection route (modem/router) and protocol (ssl, udp etc) my air connection never exceeds 90-100mb/s but i get a pretty consistent 300-350 without air running.

I run a pi4 with hummingbird, a w10 machine with eddie, and it's essentially the same in either scenario.

i can choose the ssl 28439 from eddie protocols list easily enough, this makes no difference.

i have tried the various openvpn directives mentioned above and thesemake little to no difference either. (though i have no real clue what i'm doing when it comes to implementing an ssl config through hummingbird, but i'll cross that bridge if i come to it if i can yield any positive results using ssl through eddie as it is far easier than tryingg to get an unverified solution on the pi for my linux noob level).

@puremorning - can you elaborate on any settings on your asus router that vary from the defaults?

frankly this is appalling! i was getting effectively getting better speeds with a 67mb connection from vodafone!

side note, i tried using a friend's expressvpn subscription and had exactly the same results - maxing out at 80-90 mb/s, so it's not an airvpn thing

Hi your Asus ac68u only uses a cpu with no AES encryption support which means you would only get poor VPN broadband performance speeds.

You need a better router like the Asus AC86u which has a dual core cpu and AES support, I think like above bluejuniors Linksys EA7500 router that also supports AES support also but google and double check this I know the 86u has it since I own one.

I think nearly all vpn providers use AES encryption so you really need the support for it in order to get the full speed, if you use the airvpn client software and connect via your laptop or PC chances are you would get better speeds since your computer cpu probably supports AES as long as it's a fairly modern cpu but obviously easier and better on the router since it covers all devices with vpn also.

Also to note not all router cpus with AES are equal I think the Asus 86u tops out around 330-380Mb roughly (so I am told), blues Linksys router sounds better than my Asus 86u if he's clocking a cool 400Mbps already, there maybe newer and better routers also not stayed on top of the latest Asus or Linksys routers.

I'll post a separate update on my VM experiences below, since it feels like a year or so since I posted this thread.

Lee47

Almost post 1 year since this post so here is an update which may help VM customers or others with issues but this was in relation to my own speed issues.

The issue is not Airvpn, so stick with Airvpn since they are the best. I still believe Virgin Media's hub3 is the fault (some disagree and I could still be wrong), the issue stems from high packet transfers (usually UDP) so anyone running applications like skype, zoom, webcam, online gaming, torrenting or similar their hub3 will just collapse randomly sometimes down to the slowest speeds possible and after a minute or few will normalize and speeds go back up.

Several threads around the net confirm this or similar as shown here:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/UDP-issues-on-SuperHub3-collective-thread/td-p/4382720

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/09/quick-update-for-virgin-media-speed-issues-on-ipv6-tunnels.html

The last link from ispreview is a different subject issue but similar in packets and mentions a comment from bmhughes saying anything else other than TCP will cause latency spikes due to the puma chipset fault on the hub3.

There are many threads all over vm forums, ispreview articles also with many saying a firmware fix won't fix it since it's been 3 years +, the hub3 router is just faulty
But Virgin Media won't admit it or do anything about it.

A small glimmer of hope some did say the hub4 may help or process the udp packets a bit better and VM said they will give it free to customers in the right areas so it's a long shot but let's wait and see.

Yes there are workarounds (other VPN providers and trying to use unsafe Wireguard etc) but for myself I just ditched the problematic programs (torrents in my case) and moved to newsgroups, hit 16-20Mbs no sweat, so I am maxing out my broadband speeds and this is with AirVPN UK servers with Asus AC86U router. As blues pointed out above you won't magically hit full speeds while under Airvpn and you will have bad or good days from both virgin and your airvpn uk server you just have to try other uk servers or try your bulk downloads after 12 pm midnight when everyone's in bed and not online.

Good luck and dont give up !

bluesjunior

On 4/7/2020 at 4:30 PM, Adzkii said:

what settings should i set to bypass this virgin media throttling? i'm on their 100mbps package and i'm only getting 20-30mbps

You can try to install the Wintun driver from the thread instructions in one of the headers in the list but doubt you will get much better to be honest, d/l speed with a VPN seems to give around 50-70% of whatever package you have depending on connecting to a good server. Before I installed the Wintun driver, on my old 200Mbps Virgin package I would only get between 15 - 35Mbps afterwards I would get between 85 - 110Mbps.

PS: For some reason when I clicked on the star in the thread header instead of taking me to the latest post it took me to the final post on page 1 which was yours and I answered it thinking it was the newest. Anyway sorry for the very late reply. 😎 Edited ... by bluesjunior
Misunderstanding of post time.

puremorning

5 minutes ago, bluesjunior said:

On 4/7/2020 at 4:30 PM, Adzkii said:

what settings should i set to bypass this virgin media throttling? i'm on their 100mbps package and i'm only getting 20-30mbps

You can try to install the Wintun driver from the thread instructions in one of the headers in the list but doubt you will get much better to be honest, d/l speed with a VPN seems to give around 50-70% of whatever package you have depending on connecting to a good server. Before I installed the Wintun driver, on my old 200Mbps Virgin package I would only get between 15 - 35Mbps afterwards I would get between 85 - 110Mbps.

Yeah, this matches my experience. I'm on the 500Mbps package and I get around 350Mbps. Which while it isn't the full whack it's literally 10x better than what I previously got with BT.

hr paperstacks

19 hours ago, Lee47 said:

Hi your Asus ac68u only uses a cpu with no AES encryption support which means you would only get poor VPN broadband performance speeds.

You need a better router like the Asus AC86u which has a dual core cpu and AES support, I think like above bluejuniors Linksys EA7500 router that also supports AES support also but google and double check this I know the 86u has it since I own one.

I think nearly all vpn providers use AES encryption so you really need the support for it in order to get the full speed, if you use the airvpn client software and connect via your laptop or PC chances are you would get better speeds since your computer cpu probably supports AES as long as it's a fairly modern cpu but obviously easier and better on the router since it covers all devices with vpn also.

Also to note not all router cpus with AES are equal I think the Asus 86u tops out around 330-380Mb roughly (so I am told), blues Linksys router sounds better than my Asus 86u if he's clocking a cool 400Mbps already, there maybe newer and better routers also not stayed on top of the latest Asus or Linksys routers.

I'll post a separate update on my VM experiences below, since it feels like a year or so since I posted this thread.

Hi Lee,

Thanks so much. This post has solved the mystery.

None of the CPUs in the hardware on which I have performed my VPN vs nonVPN tests support AES.

For a variety of reasons i don't want to install the vpn on my router, but I assumed my (albeit rather shonky) windows 10 PC would have had AES support, but having checked the intel site, it does not.

The Pi4 (which is pretty much the only device that is permanently tunneled) does not have aes support. hardly a surprise

So mystery solved (at least in my case) thank you all so much.

I may upgrade my router at some point and figure out if i can route specific devices through the vpn while leaving some unfiltered on the router itself, but that is a future project (having just essentially wasted 100 quid on the asus 68, though it is a much nicer router than the HUB3!)

So as it stands, i'll live with the 5MB/s torrents on the pi, it's still more reliable than my adsl line was!

bluesjunior

1 hour ago, puremorning said:

Yeah, this matches my experience. I'm on the 500Mbps package and I get around 350Mbps. Which while it isn't the full whack it's literally 10x better than what I previously got with BT.

I am also on the 500Mbps package now and although on my initial Speedtest after I got everything figured out with my router etc I got a d/l of just over 400Mbps but since then it has tapered off now to around 350Mbps as well. Hopefully yesterdays release of v2.19.5 will make it more reliable server wise.

As myself and others have mentioned the server you choose has a lot to do with d/l speed and probably like others we all have a list of whitelisted servers. For myself on Virgin Media Oomph 500Mbps, I use AirVPN Protocol UDP 443 - 4 and get between 200 - 350Mbps depending on time of day, server etc. My list of preferred servers is as follows. Dutch servers I get good connections from are:
Alcyone
Gienah
Atik
Aljanah
Andromeda
and British servers I like are:
Naos
Nashira
Westerlund
Orbitar
Asterope
Perhaps you other Virgin Customers can add your preferences to this thread?.

puremorning

2 hours ago, bluesjunior said:

3 hours ago, puremorning said:

Perhaps you other Virgin Customers can add your preferences to this thread?.

I use the Manchester servers. Pretty happy with the speeds I get from those.

Lee47

2 hours ago, hr paperstacks said:

Hi Lee,

Thanks so much. This post has solved the mystery.

None of the CPUs in the hardware on which I have performed my VPN vs nonVPN tests support AES.

For a variety of reasons i don't want to install the vpn on my router, but I assumed my (albeit rather shonky) windows 10 PC would have had AES support, but having checked the intel site, it does not.

The Pi4 (which is pretty much the only device that is permanently tunneled) does not have aes support. hardly a surprise

So mystery solved (at least in my case) thank you all so much.

I may upgrade my router at some point and figure out if i can route specific devices through the vpn while leaving some unfiltered on the router itself, but that is a future project (having just essentially wasted 100 quid on the asus 68, though it is a much nicer router than the HUB3!)

So as it stands, i'll live with the 5MB/s torrents on the pi, it's still more reliable than my adsl line was!

No worries, it happens many times many go for the 68 and find out afterwards. The 86u with merlin firmware is a god send for ease of use. I have disabled the AI protection on it since it can choke up the ram on the 86u (make sure you put strong long hard router passwords and good AV/firewall on PC) otherwise it's great you can Add any devices you want to use VPN or normal Internet (WAN) at a flick of a switch, so I added things like the V6 Cable box to WAN (needs wan only) or PC to VPN etc. To make mine extra secure I added a blanket rule under: Rules for routing client traffic through the tunnel

description: All devices
source ip: 192.168.1.0/24
destination :0.0.0.0
interface : VPN

This way any new item that connects to my Virgin broadband be if wifi device or Ethernet say a new TV or new family guest member, any device will always be forced to use VPN (air) regardless if I added the device in or not on the list.

The 86u should be good for 320-380Mb I believe hopefully with the newer openvpn 2.5 and chacha encryption we may hit faster speeds.

Virgin media Customers and AirVPN performance

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