Comparatively No Bandwidth Without VPN, Full Speed With

[Johnborrowman]

Here's hopefully an interesting one for all you OPNSense detectives.

I recently set up a fresh install of OPNSense, and after only a few weeks started noticing significant speed slowdowns. I tested the connection at the modem and saw exactly what we are paying for, (the infamous Comcast 1.2Gbps/40Mbps package.) I started taking speed tests on various devices and sites, (fast.com, speedtest.net, and thinkbroadband.com) and got a relatively consistent ~100Mbps down and ~35Mbps, regardless of Wifi/ethernet connection, phone/laptop. This is also consistently the speed I'm getting on game download servers such as Steam/XBox.

However, when I turn on ProtonVPN on any of these devices, (the family VPN subscription) the speeds instantly jump up to the maximum bandwidth of the connection, (about 480Mbps on wireless devices and the full 1.2Gbps on wired.) Running iPerf tests on the LAN connection reveals no change with/without the VPN, e.g. it's the full ~480Mbps/1.2Gbps regardless. The change with/without the VPN is instant.

I have no traffic shaping/QOS/VLANs of any kind that I'm aware of, and am beginning to find the slowdowns quite frustrating, (especially as everyone in the house is complaining of the slow speeds in their day-to-day usage.)

I'm running a fresh install of OPNSense directly on the hardware of an Optiplex 3050, i5-6500, with 16GB of ram. (Completely overkill, I know. This is intended for other future home server applications, and electricity cost is not an issue.) The only things I have installed/modified are setting up a default instance of os-sunvalley/Zenarmor, and the os-realtek drivers for a 10Gbps and 2.5Gpbs Pcie card. I have a 10Gbps switch on the LAN side, and a 2.5Gpbs self-owned modem on the WAN side. For WiFi access I have 3 Deco X60's all hardwired to the switch.

Any help/insight here is much appreciated. Thanks!