Thank you @Ian_D 

  @JanRekenaar I second that...I know that there was a huge attack against TP Link routers that took advantage of something flawed in them, have not been able to find anything related to that either from TP Link.

Additionally, this firmware 20230511 has major issues with stability as my AX3000 is now failing nearly daily due to some reason...have to power it off and back on to get things back up and running.

I am using Mesh with RE505X extenders and those did not get any update, so don't know if they or the Mesh is part of the issue.  After the firmware update, I lost all the Mesh nodes in my config.  Had to re-join them.  That said, now after re-adding them all and after the router seems to fail, after rebooting the router, all mesh nodes come back to the mesh.

When the AX3000 fails, I can ping it, but can't get the admin UI to come up nor can I pass through it.

TP Link, please provide an update as to what's going on and please fix the buggy 20230511 firmware that has at least broke my router.

  @AdamPfromMN 

Different experience for me. The 0511 firmware is working fine for me, on a 3 node X50. I've been streaming TV and music, standard stuff, no issues . Patiently awaiting the VPN fixes!

  @David-TP 

I have downloaded the "20230518" firmware to my 3-node X50 system. Upgrade went fine, no issues.

it's run on my system for a couple days now. No issues, and, the VPN client function seems to work just fine.

Thanks,

Mark

  @David-TP 

VPN Client Speeds

I’ve seen a few posts saying things like “VPN client very slow” when using an OpenVPN client configured in the Deco router. I have been very interested in (and impatiently waiting for) the VPN client support, for geo-unblocking purposes.

I recently downloaded the “20230518” firmware, and thought I would document my VPN speeds, in case that helps anyone else understand their own situation.

Background: 

My network is 3 node X50. The main X50 has Ethernet cable to ISP router. My ISP gives me approximately 40 megabits in each direction. I mostly stream TV thru an Apple TV, and I configured my Deco with ExpressVPN, using their Tampa node, with only the Apple TV enabled for the VPN. I am in South America. My Apple TV connects to one of the X50 nodes (not the main one) via Wi-Fi.

I used Speedtest app to test performance on the Apple TV:

With VPN: 

Download 19.9 mbps, Upload 15.5 mbps, ping 69 ms, jitter 3 ms, loss 29%

Without VPN (used Deco app to disable VPN):

Download 37.5 mbps, Upload 34.0 Mbps, ping 76 ms,jitter 2 Ms, loss 0%

From iPhone, attached via Wi-Fi to same Deco as Apple TV, VPN client running on iPhone:

With VPN:

Download: 37.8 Mbps, Upload 27.0 Mbps, ping 71 ms, jitter 4 ms

Without VPN:

Download 39.7 Mbps, Upload 32.7 Mbps, ping 79 ms, jitter 3 ms

I noted two issues. One, Speedtest on my iPhone did not show the loss statistic. And two, after using Deco app to disable the VPN, when subsequently re-enabling the VPN, the client would not connect. This appears to perhaps be a defect in the router firmware, or an issue with the VPN provider. I re-booted the Deco to get the VPN to connect again.

I’m not smart enough to interpret the results and come to a crisp conclusion, so I’ll let you all have at it. I would note that regardless of any of these numbers, my X50 setup is working well, and the new VPN client function is working well for what I need (geo-unblocking).

Mark

  @Mbauer5 

One side note.

As best I can tell, with ExpressVPN, in most cases it uses its proprietary protocol, which is a variant of Wireguard, and may be faster than OpenVPN.

in the case of the tests I ran, the Deco VPN would be OpenVPN, and the iPhone would be the proprietary protocol.

Mark

Hi  @Mbauer5 

Thank you.

I have the same downspeed as you on my Apple Tv with VPN only active on Apple TV.

As I understood the downspeed is limited to 20 Mbps for now but will be adressed with future updates.

Grt

  @Mbauer5 thanks for the stats Mark, looks great for you.

I havent tried this optimised version yet, been busy with work. I'll test it and post some stats.

When the VPN client didnt reconnect and you had to reboot the router, how long did you wait before doing the reboot?

There should be a cleanup section that removes the previous IP Tables entries.

I'll also test that, if I see the same i'll check the logs and see whats going on.

Ian_D wrote

  @Mbauer5 thanks for the stats Mark, looks great for you.

 

I havent tried this optimised version yet, been busy with work. I'll test it and post some stats.

 

When the VPN client didnt reconnect and you had to reboot the router, how long did you wait before doing the reboot?

 

There should be a cleanup section that removes the previous IP Tables entries.

 

I'll also test that, if I see the same i'll check the logs and see whats going on.

  @Ian_D 

Hi Ian,

I didn't time it, but I waited pretty patiently, I would guess 5-10 minutes. I took this as both a very small bit of bad news, and also more good news, as it implied my VPN connection had stayed up for several days before I turned it off.

I'm glad to do a more scientific test on the timing if that would help.

Thanks,

Mark