Viscosity & AirPort Extreme

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effgee

Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:17 am

Post by effgee » Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:33 am
Hi there!

I've been a most happy user of Viscosity for quite a few months now and during most of that time, I've been free of any VPN-related troubles. This seems to have changed this past weekend when I replaced my trusty old Netgear ProSafe FVS318 router with a brand-spanking new Apple AirPort Extreme (= must have Gigabit LAN for NAS), which - according to Apple's tech spec page - is capable of passing through VPN connections (or so it says).

I use perfect-privacy.com as my VPN provider (so I can watch German TV in the US), and ever since hooking up the AirPort Express, my VPN throughput has dropped from well over 200KB/s seen with the FVS318 to a max of ~80KB/s and a sustained max of ~40KB/s with the AEBS. I am also seeing dramatically longer connect times (see log below). Also, this is no temporary fluke and/or problem with the VPN provider since I've been observing this problem for four days now, and it only occurs with Apple's AirPort - when I hook the Netgear router back up, speeds jump back to previous levels.

I've searched high and low for that "magic" and/or "hidden" setting I might have missed when setting up the AirPort, but my Google-Fu has been weak and Apple's own documentation and discussion boards have proven useless (for this particular issue, that is).

Have any of you guys had similar issues with Airport base stations? Any and all hints/tips/pointers would be most welcome!!

:)
Code: Select all
Thu Jun 25 18:05:21 2009: NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts
Thu Jun 25 18:05:21 2009: Control Channel Authentication: using 'ta.key' as a OpenVPN static key file
Thu Jun 25 18:05:21 2009: LZO compression initialized
Thu Jun 25 18:05:21 2009: UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Thu Jun 25 18:05:21 2009: UDPv4 link remote: 85.214.61.152:1149
Thu Jun 25 18:05:21 2009: WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this
Thu Jun 25 18:06:22 2009: TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity)
Thu Jun 25 18:06:22 2009: TLS Error: TLS handshake failed
Thu Jun 25 18:06:22 2009: SIGUSR1[soft
Thu Jun 25 18:07:22 2009: NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts
Thu Jun 25 18:07:22 2009: Re-using SSL/TLS context
Thu Jun 25 18:07:22 2009: LZO compression initialized
Thu Jun 25 18:07:22 2009: UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Thu Jun 25 18:07:22 2009: UDPv4 link remote: 85.214.61.152:1149
Thu Jun 25 18:07:22 2009: WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this
Thu Jun 25 18:07:27 2009: [ppserver] Peer Connection Initiated with 85.214.61.152:1149
Thu Jun 25 18:07:29 2009: TUN/TAP device /dev/tun0 opened
Thu Jun 25 18:07:29 2009: /sbin/ifconfig tun0 delete
Thu Jun 25 18:07:29 2009: NOTE: Tried to delete pre-existing tun/tap instance -- No Problem if failure
Thu Jun 25 18:07:29 2009: /sbin/ifconfig tun0 10.0.21.14 10.0.21.13 mtu 1500 netmask 255.255.255.255 up
Thu Jun 25 18:07:29 2009: /Applications/Viscosity.app/Contents/Resources/dnsup.py tun0 1500 1562 10.0.21.14 10.0.21.13 init
Thu Jun 25 18:07:31 2009: Initialization Sequence Completed

P.S. Yes, I did change the range of IP addresses dished out by the AirPort to avoid conflicts with those handed out by the VPN server.

James

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Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:27 pm

Post by James » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:35 pm
Hi effgee,

As I don't own an AirPort Extreme base-station, I'm not sure how much help I can be. But a few comments:

- Do you have the same speed issues when connecting via Ethernet instead of Wireless (or vice-versa)?
- Are the speed issues only occurring through the VPN? I.e., do you still max out at 80KB/s when not connected to VPN?
- Do Perfect-Privacy offer a a TCP option (or another server/port to connect to)? If so, this might get around any screwy QoS the AirPort Extreme might be doing
- VPN Passthough is only needed for IPSec and PPTP connections. OpenVPN works without it :)

It's possible you are looking at a MTU issue (the AirPort Extreme may be using a lower MTU for the connection, causing the connection issues and slow speeds you are getting). Try setting the Tun MTU field to 1500 and the Fragment field to 1300 (under the Networking tab when editing your connection), and add the command "mssfix" (no quotes) on a new line under the Advanced tab. Save the connection and see what the speeds are like. Try lowing the Tun MTU value and Fragment value a few times (e.g. next time try with 1400 and 1200, etc) and see if your connection speed improves.

Cheers,
James
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