Help with VPN & Routing on PFSense - Work, gaming and privacy

Hello!

My problem is two-fold, however I think they are related.

Problem 1:

Backstory/My Setup:

I use NordVPN and set it up following Nord’s Documentatio, however I followed the pfsense whole home vpn video by Wendell & Ryan - The only difference I made was Nord’s documentation specifies it go through WAN where I followed the PFSense video and set it up as it’s own interface. (I also tried it from Nord’s documentation on a previous install)

The Issue:
I get stupid slow performance. about 900mb/s down without going through the VPN to about 200mb/s max.

Problem 2

Backstory/My Setup:

I followed the pfsense Controlling Routes video and set up routes for smart devices, etc. no issues there. Smart devices go though normal wan, and then I assign ports to my machine that needs things in low latency like gaming ports, etc.

The Issue
Stupidly high latency even though - I think - the game is being played on that port. I want my PC to go through the VPN for day to day stuff, but have the game go through specified ports. It seems to always go through the VPN until I move the port rule above the VPN rule. This then removes the PC from the vpn and goes through the normal WAN but still has insanely high latency.

My 2 cents

NordVPN specified 2 DNS addressed under PFSense’s General Setup tab, one of which has to go through the VPN interface. I think this may be causing the latency, but I cant explain the 1/4th the speeds I’m seeing. If anyone has experience successfully setting up NordVPN on PFSense I would greatly appreciate your insight, equally if you have a solution to all my issues above.

Many thanks,

Please Help <3

jdigby

*edit - formatting

@jdigby, I can assure you that getting 200mb/s when traffic is going threw the VPN is normal.

@Shadowbane - thats the unfortunate news I was expecting but not hoping for D: Is is just because of OpenVPN being single threaded or is it more to do with NordVPN?

reposted for tagging

I believe it is because OpenVPN is single-threaded; it has nothing to do with NordVPN.

You want your web traffic to pass through Nord’s VPN tunnel, but you also want your game traffic not to go threw the VPN.