ANSWERED New Mac user, slow speeds, what should I expect?

[Subwoofer 0]

Hi there,
I'm brand new to the VPN world. I just upgraded my home service to 1GB fiber and want to use AirVPN for torrenting.
First thing I'm doing is trying out Eddie and checking speeds with speedtest.org
My speeds without VPN on my Wifi MacBookPro are 600mbps up and down. Latency is 10ms.
My speeds with AirVPN are anywhere between 40 and 200mbps max, depending on the server and protocol. I've tried a handful of servers and also Wireguard protocol.
I've tried 2 different Macs, an Intel macBook Pro and Mac Mini M1, both Wifi and wired connections. Speeds are the same for both.

I'm wondering what speeds should I expect using Eddie + Wireguard protocol?
Is speedtest.org the best way to check speeds while using VPN?

thanks!

Edited ... by Subwoofer
typo

[Staff 10050]

On 1/5/2025 at 3:48 PM, Subwoofer said:

My speeds without VPN on my Wifi MacBookPro are 600mbps up and down. Latency is 10ms.
My speeds with AirVPN are anywhere between 40 and 200mbps max, depending on the server and protocol. I've tried a handful of servers and also Wireguard protocol.
I've tried 2 different Macs, an Intel macBook Pro and Mac Mini M1, both Wifi and wired connections. Speeds are the same for both.

Hello!

While the OpenVPN performance you report in macOS is unfortunately typical, the WireGuard performance should be much higher, provided that you are in a network that does not interfere with UDP.

Please test Eddie 2.24.6 (on the M2 machines please make sure to download the optimized version for ARM 64 bit, important!) with WireGuard. Tune different MTU values for the WireGuard network interface. You can modify it on Eddie's "Preferences" > "Protocols" window. Each time you change MTU, please make sure to re-start the connection, in order to apply the change on WireGuard.

Eddie 2.24.6 download instructions:
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/57401-eddie-desktop-224-beta-released/

The aforementioned program is beta software but it has been extensively tested, even by the Mac community, and a stable version should be released in a matter of days. It's important that you don't stay with Eddie 2.21.8 for performance reasons because it includes old WireGuard software and it does not allow you to modify WireGuard interface MTU.

Kind regards
 

[Subwoofer 0]

2 hours ago, Staff said:

Hello!

While the OpenVPN performance you report in macOS is unfortunately typical, the WireGuard performance should be much higher, provided that you are in a network that does not interfere with UDP.

Please test Eddie 2.24.6 (on the M2 machines please make sure to download the optimized version for ARM 64 bit, important!) with WireGuard. Tune different MTU values for the WireGuard network interface. You can modify it on Eddie's "Preferences" > "Protocols" window. Each time you change MTU, please make sure to re-start the connection, in order to apply the change on WireGuard.

Eddie 2.24.6 download instructions:
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/57401-eddie-desktop-224-beta-released/

The aforementioned program is beta software but it has been extensively tested, even by the Mac community, and a stable version should be released in a matter of days. It's important that you don't stay with Eddie 2.21.8 for performance reasons because it includes old WireGuard software and it does not allow you to modify WireGuard interface MTU.

Kind regards
 

Hi and thanks for the excellent info!
I have since installed Wireguard client which seems to be much faster than Eddie. I got a dl speed of around 500 on one connection!
But I will definitely test Eddie 2.24.6, the built in MTU tuning sounds like it's worth checking out.

I have a question, regarding your comment about being in a network that interferes with UDP.
I thought that using VPN bypasses any limitations on my ISP service.
My new fiber service, I just learned uses CGNAT so I'm sharing IP4. I'm actually going to get my own Public IP soon, just waiting for them to set me up. So what kind of situation do you mean, where UDP is interfered with?

thank you!
 

[Staff 10050]

2 hours ago, Subwoofer said:

I have since installed Wireguard client which seems to be much faster than Eddie. I got a dl speed of around 500 on one connection!
But I will definitely test Eddie 2.24.6, the built in MTU tuning sounds like it's worth checking out.

Hello!

Excellent! Consider that Eddie 2.21.8 includes very old WireGuard code, while the new 2.24.6 features an up to date one. Furthermore, when you test WireGuard native app, the VPN interface MTU is set to 1320 bytes because of our Configuration Generator directive, while Eddie 2.21.8 leaves default WireGuard size (usually 1460 bytes) which is not suitable in some networks. Eddie 2.24.x sets by default 1320 bytes MTU, and offers the option to modify it.
 

2 hours ago, Subwoofer said:

I have a question, regarding your comment about being in a network that interferes with UDP.
I thought that using VPN bypasses any limitations on my ISP service.

AirVPN offers routed private networks built over transport layer protocol UDP (and, with OpenVPN, TCP too). The ISP can not tamper, forge or wiretap/sniff the content of the tunnel, but can enforce limitations (such as de-prioritization and other shaping methods) directly on the transport layer protocol. However, since you have 500 Mbit/s throughput when in the VPN and 600 Mbit/s when outside the VPN, this is probably not the case. A performance hit due to routing (because of the obliged hop, the VPN server) and other overhead (wrapping, encryption...) are physically unavoidable. If your peak is 600 Mbit/s without VPN, 500 Mbit/s inside the VPN is just fine in our opinion.

Kind regards