WireGuardNT, the new project to improve WireGuard
The new WireGuardNT project arrives for noticeably improve performance in Windows. It is a really important leap, since the new implementation in the kernel is going to allow a performance in LAN connections of 10 Gbps. Of course, we must bear in mind that for most users this will not affect us today, since the “limit” is the 1 Gbps barrier.
Originally WireGuard on Windows used wireguard-go, which is an implementation written in Google’s Go language. Now it becomes wireguard-nt. By joining the Windows kernel, developers avoid bottlenecks and achieve much higher speeds.
In this way they have managed to achieve a similar operation to that which already existed in Linux. WireGuardNT was already implemented in the Linux kernel and now we can use it in the Microsoft system.
The developers indicate that the benefit is very large when it comes to Wi-Fi. In their ad they show how with a Intel AC9560 WiFi card They have obtained about 600 Mbps without WireGuard, about 600 Mbps with wireguard-go / Wintun connected by Ethernet cable, but instead the capacity dropped significantly to approximately 95 Mbps using wireguard-go / Wintun over Wi-Fi.
However when using WireGuardNT via Wi-Fi the speed rises notably to approximately 600 Mbps, equating it to the use of Ethernet cable, according to what they show in their report. In addition, they also indicate that the use of energy and the power to extend the battery, improves as well.
All of this can be especially beneficial for those using Windows Server. They will achieve a higher performance. We already saw in another article how to install and configure WireGuard.
Project still in initial phase
The developers themselves indicate that at the moment this is a initial project, under development. They still need to optimize the code and polish it to fix possible errors before moving on to the next stages of development.
However, the developers ask that users be part of the project and give it a try. Any of us can download it. The goal is that all those who try it can improve performance. We can install the WireGuard VPN on pfSense 2.5.0.
In short, WireGuardNT is a new implementation of WireGuard for the Windows kernel. In this way the speeds will be much higher and significantly improve performance. In the future it will come as a base in the operating system and, to use the previous implementation, users will have to change it in the registry. For now, as we have seen, it is something experimental but that we can begin to use in the teams to put it to the test.
