Testing the Dark Knight of VPN Routers

We’ve been eyeing the Asus RT-N66U “Dark Knight” router for some time now.  Impressed by it’s power and wireless range.  Not to mention the RT-N66U will run on custom DD-WRT and Tomato firmware.  Adding some nice extra features like support for OpenVPN connections.  Fortunately our friends over at FlashRouters.com offer the Asus RT-N66U flashed with Tomato firmware.  So we didn’t have to chance bricking a nice router.

FlashRouters Dark Knight

This isn’t our first FlashRouters device but we noticed some new options when ordering the Dark Knight router.  For starters we were able to have the device pre-configured with an OpenVPN connection.  The router supports PPTP connections for a lot of services.  Along with OpenVPN connections for HMA, OverPlay, StrongVPN and Astrill.  We used a Hide My Ass OpenVPN connection to test the new router.

HideMyAss OpenVPN Connection

We had the router pre-configured to connect to a VPN server in the United States using an OpenVPN connection from HMA.  The process was seamless.  Once we connected the new device to our network and synced it with out cable modem the router took care of the rest.  Connecting to HMA and providing our entire network with encrypted access through the router.  Here’s a screenshot of the OpenVPN client configuration.

HMA OpenVPN connection

As with all our VPN reviews we decided to test the performance using speedtest.net.  First with an OpenVPN connection through the HMA Pro VPN client.  Then with the same connection made through the Asus router.

OpenVPN Speed Tests:

  • HMA Pro VPN Client OpenVPN – 12.79 Mbps download, 3.84 Mbps upload
  • FlashRouters HMA OpenVPN – 10.31 Mbps download, 2.40 Mbps upload

As you can see the router was slightly slower at tunneling the traffic but not by much.  We could easily stream Netflix, Hulu and YouTube videos through the VPN connection on the router.  Even from our non-VPN devices.

Remember that one big advantage of a VPN router is the ability to securely route devices that wouldn’t otherwise natively support VPN connections.  With a VPN router anything that passes through will be encrypted.  That includes Roku, PS3, Xbox 360, network media players and more.  You can visit Flashrouters for more details.

We’re more than pleased with our new router.  Thanks to the FlashRouters team for the custom firmware and excellent customer service.  If you’re considering a VPN router then definitely check out their selection.  Flashrouters carries a wide range of brand name routers flashed with custom DD-WRT or Tomato firmware.