Question : Problem: Netopia R910 VPN vs Win2003 VPN Speed

Hola all,

I have two offices currently VPN connected using the VPN (IPSec) features built-in to our Netopia R910 routers.  Both offices are on cable (2.5 down/1.0 up at one location and 3.0 down and 0.5 up at the other, two different providers).  Of course, normal internet traffic speed is acceptable, but our VPN data transfer speed is suffering.  I'm looking for the best way to speed it up.  I realize that the R910 is probably not the fastest VPN router out there.  Should I try PPTP or ATMP for better speed?  What about reliability of the connection?

Another option, pass the VPN traffic through the router and let the Win2003 Servers at each end handle the traffic.  Would the servers be able to handle the encryption/decryption better/faster than my Netopias?  I don't want to upgrade to better routers if I don't have to, but if I were going to, what would be an inexpensive router that might fit my needs?

I am not too terribly concerned with an ultra secure VPN.  Just want something that is reasonably secure, and gives the maximum throughput (BIG CAD files need to go back and forth efficiently!).

Thanks for your time!

Answer : Problem: Netopia R910 VPN vs Win2003 VPN Speed

I think, without changing service providers, your only option would be to purchase higher performance routers that support faster encryption speeds. The Windows server option is not usually as fast as a hardware solution. The routers are designed to be dedicated devices and apply a large percentage of their resources to the encryption process, more so than a Windows server VPN. It sounds like your remote users may be using a VPN client. If that is the case changing them to a dedicated device, a VPN router, would improve overall performance as you would then have a hardware to hardware tunnel. When shopping for VPN routers they are rated by NVPN encryption performance speeds.