Hi guys,
We have open vpn configured on our firewall . When we do a speedtest (speedtest.net) our download speeds are fine ;9.8 Mbps on a 10 Mbps connection; but our upload speeds are only 0.2Mbps. We tried testing the speed on the wireless network and the upload speeds shoot up to 10-13 Mbps. When a pc is hooked up directly to the router the upload speed increases as well. it only suffers when we try to connect through the firewall. I wonder if openVPN is causing this. Also, on firestarter the tap0 device shows no activity? is this normal?

Any Ideas?

we use a firestarter firewall
Interfaces available:-

Code:
ifconfig
br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:17:ad:e4:3d
inet addr:172.20.20.1 Bcast:172.20.20.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::215:17ff:fead:e43d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:324825 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:512374 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:28919110 (28.9 MB) TX bytes:720617485 (720.6 MB)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:17:ad:e4:3d
inet6 addr: fe80::215:17ff:fead:e43d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:455310123 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:530091512 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:47554840139 (47.5 GB) TX bytes:389381334434 (389.3 GB)
Memory:b1a00000-b1a20000

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:17:ad:e4:3c
inet addr:172.20.21.2 Bcast:172.20.21.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::215:17ff:fead:e43c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:9000 Metric:1
RX packets:281968822 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2
TX packets:201201315 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:10
RX bytes:354715206168 (354.7 GB) TX bytes:27864072448 (27.8 GB)
Memory:b1900000-b1920000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2523525 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2523525 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:365583553 (365.5 MB) TX bytes:365583553 (365.5 MB)

tap0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr ba:7b:58:aa:6c:42
inet6 addr: fe80::b87b:58ff:feaa:6c42/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11272 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:24354 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:991059 (991.0 KB) TX bytes:6378820 (6.3 MB)



/etc/network/interfaces

Code:
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback


# The primary network interface for our internal network
auto br0
#iface eth1 inet dhcp
iface br0 inet static
address 172.20.20.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 172.20.20.1
bridge_ports eth0 tap0

# The primary network interface
auto eth1

iface eth1 inet static
address 172.20.21.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 172.20.21.3
mtu 9000

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
up ip link set $IFACE up promisc on
down ip link set $IFACE down promisc off




openvpn/server.conf

Code:
mode server
tls-server

local 172.20.21.2
port 1194
proto udp

#bridging directive
dev tap0
up "/etc/openvpn/up.sh br0 tap0 1500"
down "/etc/openvpn/down.sh br0 tap0"

persist-key
persist-tun


#DHCP Information
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
server-bridge 172.20.20.1 255.255.255.0 172.20.20.210 172.20.20.220
push "route 172.20.20.0 255.255.255.0"
push "dhcp-option DNS 172.20.20.1"
push "dhcp-option DOMAIN local"
max-clients 10

#log and security
user nobody
group nogroup
keepalive 10 120
status openvpn-status.log
verb 3


lemme know if you need any other information about this.. im a complete beginner with only 2 days experience in this so i don'kt know what you would need exactly..
Thanks for reading it guys/girls ..

The lines in your post wrapped, you might want to investigate different formatting tags used here, such as "code," "quote," etc...

But regarding your question: when troubleshooting, sometimes it helps to go one step at a time. For instance, if you're having trouble connecting through the firewall to the VPN, then first start with a very permissive firewall. Test your connections speed. If your speed is still okay, build your firewall up more. Then keep adding what you need incrementally. STOP and re-analyze when your connection speed drops.

I don't have any experience with VPNs, and my firewall experience is fairly basic compared to many users on here. That's all I can suggest at this point. Good luck.