hi,
I have set up an office VPN using broadband using 2 X 2820n Draytek Routers. The connection between the computers in one office and the server in the other office is so slow that it takes many minutes for the excel files to open. This is causing loads of problems. Is there anything that I can test on the routers to see what the up/down speed is over the VPN between the 2 routers?

If I look at the VPN connection status when I am logged in via a remote dial in user vpn there are some differneces between my connection and the office to office connection. Not sure what they mean though.

My TX Rate is 578 (between 500 and 1000), The office is 83( between 20 and 170), My RX rate is 132, the office is 150 (between 100 and about 200) But theres seems to fluctuate quite a lot but most often it seems to be low numbers

Not sure about those numbers above but when I look at both routers Data Flow Monitor what should they say for 1. The Servers 2. the client comptuters in the second office? The rates seem low to me with them either being 200 for a moment (TX Rate on the Server) or below 10 and often 1 or 2 on the client computers.

When the 'system' is quiet, you can always your upload/download speeds of the routers by opening the excel file in one location and looking at the Diagnostics/Traffic-Graph on each router to see whats passed through at what speed.
I know its quite basic, but its already there and free to use.

If it helps, below is a ping which i'm doing between a 2820 and a 2800 which are 50 miles apart, going via a secure VPN tunnel LAN-LAN between routers.

If you get much bigger numbers for the average ping time (eg more like 1000ms, or lots of dropouts) then networking is going to be a problem.

Otherwise, if your pingtimes thru the tunnel are ok, then make yourself aware of the UPLOAD speeds of the ADSL (or cable) line at each end of the solution. If either of the speeds out of the building is lower than about 300kbps, then remote fileserver access will be painful (regardless of whether you are glowing in the belief that you pay for "up to" 20Mbps download speeds from your ISP - (the latter seldom mention their UPLOAD speed).

If your Excel files are over say 5 MB, and you have narrow Upload bandwidth at either end (as I've just described above) then the opening times will be several minutes - be aware that not only is Excel opening remote data, it is possible writing its TEMP files somewhere and these may be remote too.

I do use my ADSL/Cable service with approx 500kbps (effective) Upload bandwidth at both ends to work with remote Windows filesystems, but I tend to do it as the exception rather than the rule, because it IS slow and you can't get away from it. If you have only a few users and want a long term solution, then I'd highly recommend changing your approach and only access remote files by way of REMOTE applications, and use a terminal application such as Remote Desktop, or VNC or GoTo My PC (as seen on TV). In this way, all the heavy lifting is done by a computer that is local to the data, and all you have to do through your tunnel is shunt screen changes up and down the line. Microsoft's Remote Desktop application is brilliant for this, and these programs can be configured to be dynamically adaptive to changes in bandwith/capacity such as you ARE likely to experience given that ADSL/Cable services are shared ('contended') resources.

PS - the Drayteks enable you to create various types of tunnel - the type i've had most success with (for performance) is AES - so i'd recommend that you do use a secure tunnel, but dont encumber it by using more than the minimum encryption rate necessary eg 128bit.

$ping 192.168.4.1
PING 192.168.4.1 (192.168.4.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=254 time=136.319 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=119.502 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=129.005 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=112.453 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=115.554 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=254 time=119.663 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=254 time=143.320 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=254 time=151.840 ms
--- 192.168.4.1 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 112.453/128.457/151.840/13.276 ms

If it helps, below is a ping which i'm doing between a 2820 and a 2800 which are 50 miles apart, going via a secure VPN tunnel LAN-LAN between routers.

If you get much bigger numbers for the average ping time (eg more like 1000ms, or lots of dropouts) then networking is going to be a problem.

Otherwise, if your pingtimes thru the tunnel are ok, then make yourself aware of the UPLOAD speeds of the ADSL (or cable) line at each end of the solution. If either of the speeds out of the building is lower than about 300kbps, then remote fileserver access will be painful (regardless of whether you are glowing in the belief that you pay for "up to" 20Mbps download speeds from your ISP - (the latter seldom mention their UPLOAD speed).

If your Excel files are over say 5 MB, and you have narrow Upload bandwidth at either end (as I've just described above) then the opening times will be several minutes - be aware that not only is Excel opening remote data, it is possible writing its TEMP files somewhere and these may be remote too.

I do use my ADSL/Cable service with approx 500kbps (effective) Upload bandwidth at both ends to work with remote Windows filesystems, but I tend to do it as the exception rather than the rule, because it IS slow and you can't get away from it. If you have only a few users and want a long term solution, then I'd highly recommend changing your approach and only access remote files by way of REMOTE applications, and use a terminal application such as Remote Desktop, or VNC or GoTo My PC (as seen on TV). In this way, all the heavy lifting is done by a computer that is local to the data, and all you have to do through your tunnel is shunt screen changes up and down the line. Microsoft's Remote Desktop application is brilliant for this, and these programs can be configured to be dynamically adaptive to changes in bandwith/capacity such as you ARE likely to experience given that ADSL/Cable services are shared ('contended') resources.

$ping 192.168.4.1
PING 192.168.4.1 (192.168.4.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=254 time=136.319 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=119.502 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=129.005 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=112.453 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=115.554 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=254 time=119.663 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=254 time=143.320 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.4.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=254 time=151.840 ms
--- 192.168.4.1 ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 112.453/128.457/151.840/13.276 ms