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I have reasonably fast broadband, which on my Mac, using Safari 6, is perfect for my uses. Webpages load quickly, and I am extremely satisfied with it overall.

My Raspberry Pi is another story. I can't link to my speeds, so you will have to trust me.

Raspberry Pi, Midori
Upload: 1.01 Mbps
Download: 1.16 Mbps

This, is far less than my Mac's speed.

Mac OSX, Safari 6
Upload: 7.44 Mbps
Download: 52.09 Mbps

Why is this?

NOTE: It is important that my PI can run at at least 10/3: I want to use it as a Personal VPN.

xxmbabanexx
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3 Answers3

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The Raspberry Pi has network hardware hanging off a USB controller, and needs the support of the not-very-brawny CPU to handle every byte. It's probably not the computer for this job. Something like a GuruPlug Server (if they've fixed the power supply/overheating problems that plagued earlier GlobalScale Plugs) might be better.

Just for lulz, I ran a Java speedtest from DSLreports.com on my Raspberry Pi. It maxed out at 5.2m/2m.

scruss
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Try running top or opening the task manager while you run the test and see what your CPU usage is doing, I tried running a torrent client on my PI, even overclocked the CPU would spike and the GUI would almost lock up when I got close to 1Mbs of speed.

You can look at this thread for an idea of the bandwidth someone else is getting running just a VPN client, let alone a server Low bandwidth internet over VPN

I am not sure if Hamachi would be much more efficient to be able to use your whole 10/3 internet connection, than openvpn however its worth a try.

I would recommend a older computer or laptop to use for a Personal VPN server as it will provide more power for processing the encryption for the VPN. But will take up ore space and power.

Community
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Chris
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Scruss is right, the raspberry pi CPU is the problem. Try running your network speed tests w/o the desktop running. I run a proxy on my pi via ssh dynamic port forwarding, and I can get up to 5Mb/s downloads and 1Mb/s uploads via qbittorrent on windows. (Attempted with Linux mint's Iso). Now, this was done on a enterprise class network (a school w/ gigabit Ethernet.) So the raspberry pi was maxing out its 100Mbit connection.

Kaiden Prince
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