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KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-06

Live Feed through Surfshark VPN...

The camera seems to connect while continuing to show the last image taken but no video and circle keeps spinning. Clicking on spinning circle then produces a "just now" still image.

Added https://my.arlo.com and IP address of the VMB 5000 to Surfshark split tunnel "bypass list" but issue continues until I turn VPN off.

Before I contact Surfshark, Is there anything I'm missing?

Windows PC, Surfshark VPN, VMB 5000
Speedtest Results (through VPN) - Download 425 Mbps...Upload 12 Mbps

alex_loo · ‎2025-02-09

Will the UDP setting compromise other VPN features making it worse in other situation?

Alex

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-09

@alex_loo

Not that I've seen.

I've been messing around with Arlo all day and have seen no change with anything...other than the live streaming now works on the web portal (browser).

It's so easy to change and you find something that's affected you can change it back in a heartbeat. What do you have it set as now..."automatic" or "Wireguard"?

Prior to changing, mine was set to "automatic"

alex_loo · ‎2025-02-09

Hi @KachinaShadow ,

I have tried changing my windows pc surfshark client to UDP, and the web portal live streaming works! 👍

@KachinaShadow wrote:

It's so easy to change and you find something that's affected you can change it back in a heartbeat. What do you have it set as now..."automatic" or "Wireguard"?

Prior to changing, mine was set to "automatic"

mine was previously "automatic". (Also tried "wireguard", and it didn't work.)

Interestingly, I have "automatic" with my surfshark client on mobile phone. As reported previously, live streaming on ARLO app here WORKS !! Now I am confused 😅

Alex

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-09

@alex_loo wrote:

Interestingly, I have "automatic" with my surfshark client on mobile phone. As reported previously, live streaming on ARLO app here WORKS !! Now I am confused 😅

My Surfshark protocol on the phone is set to "automatic" too and it has no problem with live streaming so I just left it there. As long as it works there's no need to be confused 🙃😉😁

Glad you can stream from the web portal now...enjoy 😁

Paul

alex_loo · ‎2025-02-09

@KachinaShadow wrote:
@alex_loo wrote:

Interestingly, I have "automatic" with my surfshark client on mobile phone. As reported previously, live streaming on ARLO app here WORKS !! Now I am confused 😅
My Surfshark protocol on the phone is set to "automatic" too and it has no problem with live streaming so I just left it there. As long as it works there's no need to be confused 🙃😉😁

Glad you can stream from the web portal now...enjoy 😁

I actually seldom, if not never, live stream from web portal over VPN 😉

This is more for my understanding (or elimination of any confusion 🤣)

Anyway thanks for the info here 👍

Alex

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-11

@alex_loo @StephenB
Alex - in one of your posts you wrote "Speeds have never been an issue. Unchanged the same as before VPN is turned on (ie downlink 50M bps, uplink some 20M bps)"
It seems to be rather low...how are your speeds without Surfshark connected and how are your speeds with Surfshark (on the PC) on and off?
Reason I ask is that I am now working with Surfshark as to why my speeds, with Surfshark OpenVPN client, are so much lower than the Surfshark speeds, when installed on individual devices. Also, who is your ISP (mine is Spectrum).
Here's what I sent to Surfshark with my speeds (in italics)...note that my router does not have VPN Fusion, just the standard OpenVPN client.

Below is a list of devices/scenarios…the speeds are listed by download & upload speeds respectively.

PC

No VPN……………………..460 Mbps / 12 Mbps
Surfshark app on PC……...…340 Mbps / 11 Mbps
OpenVPN client on router…...76 Mbps / 11 Mbps

Android Phone

No VPN……………………...354 Mbps / 12 Mbps
Surfshark app on Phone……...120 Mbps / 11 Mbps
Instant Guard app on phone….unable to measure speeds but seems to be really good.
OpenVPN client on router……65 Mbps / 11Mbps

Firestick

No VPN………………………323 Mbps / 13 Mbps
Surfshark app on Firestick……185 Mbps / 25 Mbps
OpenVPN client on router…….65 Mbps / 13 Mbps

Paul

StephenB · ‎2025-02-11

@KachinaShadow wrote:

I am now working with Surfshark as to why my speeds, with Surfshark OpenVPN client, are so much lower than the Surfshark speeds, when installed on individual devices.

The big dropoff is when you use the client in your router. When I google "RT-AX55 VPN", I see several posts reporting similar VPN speeds with that router. If that is limited by the router CPU, then the only real way to fix it is to upgrade the router. Though I guess you could try a different protocol - if wireguard is available, then try that.

The phone and firestick hardware also appear to be limiting the performance. Though I think the speeds are fast enough for most uses. 120-185 mbps is a lot more than you need for streaming.

The PC drop might just be the extra latency due to the VPN.

alex_loo · ‎2025-02-11

@KachinaShadow wrote:

Alex - in one of your posts you wrote "Speeds have never been an issue. Unchanged the same as before VPN is turned on (ie downlink 50M bps, uplink some 20M bps)"
It seems to be rather low...

mate, it's Australia here! Wide coverage of jumping to the National Broadband Network (NBN) was just a matter of less than 10 years. The fastest in this "paradise" is just a humble 100 Mbps! I have subscribed to a general usage package, which is 50M bps. Yes, technically 2nd world (imagine my experience drop as a HongKonger), but in practice, I find the most demanding Netflix/ Disney+/ youtube fine 😅

...how are your speeds without Surfshark connected and how are your speeds with Surfshark (on the PC) on and off?

I can only share my speeds here later, when my day is finished.

Reason I ask is that I am now working with Surfshark as to why my speeds, with Surfshark OpenVPN client, are so much lower than the Surfshark speeds, when installed on individual devices. Also, who is your ISP (mine is Spectrum).

As also hinted by @StephenB , I guess this is likely due to the fact that the RT-AX55 (aka RT-AX1800) is equipped with a lower resource hardware (RT-AX55 = 128M flash + 256M RAM, vs RT-AX3000 = 256M flash + 512M RAM). While it can still maintain good performance as a router/switch via its hardware, when it comes to local softwares like VPN client, its weakness is likely exposed.

I have altogether 3 ASUS in my home mesh:

Main: RT-AX3000 (aka RT-AX58U). Any router-level VPN client is configured and run here
mesh nodes: 2x RT-AX53U

"Lower performance" is reason behind the choice of RT-AX53U as mesh nodes only.

...how are your speeds without Surfshark connected and how are your speeds with Surfshark (on the PC) on and off?

So very likely, the figures I will be sharing later will not be deterioted much (like your case), because:

my RT-AX3000 has better CPU performance than your RT-AX55
my starting point of internet broadband speed is not super high (50 Mbps), from a global standard perspective

Alex

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-12

@alex_loo @StephenB
Alex - Didn't realize that the speeds down under were somewhat limited. Also didn't realize that you were in "beautiful" Australia 😉
I'm actually in Southern California...land of palm trees, sunshine, tacos & margaritas 😎

Stephen & Alex - Here's what Surfshark support suggested...

Hey there, Paul!

Good to hear from you again, I hope you're having a lovely week.

Great news, let us know how the DNS changes go for you! If that doesn't help, you can also try out OpenDNS addresses: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Furthermore, could you share the router configuration page from your router panel?

It would allow us to check if there is anything incorrect on your VPN configuration page.

You can find a guide on taking screenshots here:
https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017553399-How-to-take-a-screenshot-on-almost-any-...

Let me clarify the situation regarding OpenVPN router setup connection speeds.

OpenVPN runs as a monolithic process and cannot run multi-threaded. Since routers don't have powerful CPUs, encrypting and decrypting OpenVPN traffic is a real challenge for them making the speed drop large but not to worry.

Here are a few simple solutions you can try to increase your speed:

1. Connect to a few different servers (preferably the ones close to you).

2. Switch your protocol between TCP and UDP (that would mean simply importing a new VPN file for the mentioned protocol and creating a new connection location)

3. Enable QoS and change Upload and Download to 100Mbps.

4. Disable the SPI Firewall and NAT Acceleration (if your router has one).

5. Look for the most optimal MTU value (it ranges from 1300 to 1500).

In case these steps don't increase your speed much, try using our app on your devices - not only will it give better speeds but also a plethora of additional features.

I'm excited to hear your input on this matter. Take care and I'll be eagerly awaiting your reply.

alex_loo · ‎2025-02-12

@KachinaShadow wrote:
@alex_loo @StephenB
Alex - Didn't realize that the speeds down under were somewhat limited. Also didn't realize that you were in "beautiful" Australia 😉
I'm actually in Southern California...land of palm trees, sunshine, tacos & margaritas 😎

Stephen & Alex - Here's what Surfshark support suggested...
Hey there, Paul!

Good to hear from you again, I hope you're having a lovely week.

Great news, let us know how the DNS changes go for you! If that doesn't help, you can also try out OpenDNS addresses: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Furthermore, could you share the router configuration page from your router panel?

It would allow us to check if there is anything incorrect on your VPN configuration page.

You can find a guide on taking screenshots here:
https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017553399-How-to-take-a-screenshot-on-almost-any-...

Let me clarify the situation regarding OpenVPN router setup connection speeds.

OpenVPN runs as a monolithic process and cannot run multi-threaded. Since routers don't have powerful CPUs, encrypting and decrypting OpenVPN traffic is a real challenge for them making the speed drop large but not to worry.

Here are a few simple solutions you can try to increase your speed:

1. Connect to a few different servers (preferably the ones close to you).
2. Switch your protocol between TCP and UDP (that would mean simply importing a new VPN file for the mentioned protocol and creating a new connection location)
3. Enable QoS and change Upload and Download to 100Mbps.
4. Disable the SPI Firewall and NAT Acceleration (if your router has one).
5. Look for the most optimal MTU value (it ranges from 1300 to 1500).

In case these steps don't increase your speed much, try using our app on your devices - not only will it give better speeds but also a plethora of additional features.

I'm excited to hear your input on this matter. Take care and I'll be eagerly awaiting your reply.

thanks @KachinaShadow for the update. Have you tried these 5 suggestions? Personally, I am not expecting much from them, except may be #2.

And then #1 should not be a user option (what, don't connect to that server for Singapore? what's whole purpose of VPN then?)

And I don't expect much, if any, improvement from #3,4,5.

Afterall, I think the choice of running VPN client at device (say mobile) or router --- is a matter of what you want/have to achieve. Say for my smart TV and chromecast stick, I have to have VPN client running on router level. And if you do as well and the router is slow, it is what it is.

Alex

StephenB · ‎2025-02-12

@alex_loo wrote:
I think the choice of running VPN client at device (say mobile) or router --- is a matter of what you want/have to achieve.

True. If you want to use the VPN on every device, then it is certainly easiest to put it in the router. Though you also would need to turn it on phones, since they also connect using mobile data.

As far as UDP/TCP goes, openVPN will run faster if that is set to UDP. It is likely it is already configured for UDP.

The best option with OpenVPN is to get a router with a faster CPU. Maybe also look for one that support WireGuard (which should run faster, and it is also supported by SurfShark).

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-12

@StephenB wrote:
@alex_loo wrote:
I think the choice of running VPN client at device (say mobile) or router --- is a matter of what you want/have to achieve.
True. If you want to use the VPN on every device, then it is certainly easiest to put it in the router. Though you also would need to turn it on phones, since they also connect using mobile data.

As far as UDP/TCP goes, openVPN will run faster if that is set to UDP. It is likely it is already configured for UDP.

The best option with OpenVPN is to get a router with a faster CPU. Maybe also look for one that support WireGuard (which should run faster, and it is also supported by SurfShark).

I'm pretty much good with the separate apps for now. Next router will be faster.

The PC VPN speeds are actually real good and the phones are more that good enough for what I do and I've got the phones set to automatically connect the VPN when they're connected to any WiFi other than my own. Even the firesticks (one is always on the home TV and the other I travel with) have the Surfshark VPN installed...not that I thought I really needed it but I saw they had an app available and it doesn't slow anything down enough to hurt streaming videos (if it does then I'll just turn it off).

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-13

@alex_loo wrote:
I have tried changing my windows pc surfshark client to UDP, and the web portal live streaming works! 👍

Alex,

Not sure if you're noticing this, after changing the Surfshark client to UDP, but most of the time I try to livestream (web portal) it doesn't respond right away or sometimes I have to click on the camera two or three times.

I use the Edge browser, since a couple of my cameras are 4K and my PC with Chrome won’t play 4k video, so I went into Edge settings and turned off “Hardware Acceleration” https://thegeekpage.com/turn-off-hardware-acceleration-in-microsoft-edge/?cid=wmt_arlo_organic which is now called “Graphics Acceleration” and it made a considerable difference...not perfect but quite a bit better. I then turned off “Efficiency Mode” which seemed to help a little more but still not perfect but now live stream usually connects the first time, with a very slight hesitation.

If you use Chrome then here's the link - https://www.howtogeek.com/412738/how-to-turn-hardware-acceleration-on-and-off-in-chrome/?cid=wmt_arl...

And here's the same for Firefox - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/performance-settings?cid=wmt_arlo_organic

Thanks to @StephenB who posted these in a 2023 post that I found - https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Essential-Wire-Free-Cameras/Arlo-Web-Portal-Live-View-is-Useless/...

Paul

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-13

@alex_loo
Forget what I said about turning off "graphics acceleration"...it allows the live feed to load quicker but it prevents the "feed" videos from playing.
I did leave “Efficiency Mode” off and it actually seems to load the live feed just fine...so far 🤞

StephenB · ‎2025-02-14

@KachinaShadow wrote:
Forget what I said about turning off "graphics acceleration"...it allows the live feed to load quicker but it prevents the "feed" videos from playing.

Graphics Acceleration is definitely with 2K/4K videos in Chrome. Edge might possible play HEVC if you have the Microsoft HEVC windows extention.

Odd that it allows the live feed to load quicker. I am wondering if that is because it is checking to see if 2K/4K livestreaming is possible. Do you have that option enabled?

alex_loo · ‎2025-02-14

@KachinaShadow wrote:
Alex,

Not sure if you're noticing this, after changing the Surfshark client to UDP, but most of the time I try to livestream (web portal) it doesn't respond right away or sometimes I have to click on the camera two or three times.

I use the Edge browser, since a couple of my cameras are 4K and my PC with Chrome won’t play 4k video, so I went into Edge settings and turned off “Hardware Acceleration” https://thegeekpage.com/turn-off-hardware-acceleration-in-microsoft-edge/?cid=wmt_arlo_organic which is now called “Graphics Acceleration” and it made a considerable difference...

If you use Chrome then here's the link - https://www.howtogeek.com/412738/how-to-turn-hardware-acceleration-on-and-off-in-chrome/?cid=wmt_arl...

Thanks Paul for the info, I already have hardware acceleration enabled here. Afterall, I seldom watch live from PC browser here 😁

Alex

KachinaShadow · ‎2025-02-15

@StephenB wrote:
Odd that it allows the live feed to load quicker. I am wondering if that is because it is checking to see if 2K/4K livestreaming is possible. Do you have that option enabled?

I don't think so...is that in Edge settings?

StephenB · ‎2025-02-15

@KachinaShadow wrote:

@StephenB wrote:

Odd that it allows the live feed to load quicker. I am wondering if that is because it is checking to see if 2K/4K livestreaming is possible. Do you have that option enabled?

I don't think so...is that in Edge settings?

Actually it is an app setting (not shown in the browser). It's right below the field of view setting.

Streams are supposed to be limited to 1080p in the browser. But that doesn't mean the browser isn't doing something different when that setting is enabled.

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