Hardware encryption is on the C7 is not supported. If you have fast internet you're capped at 500mbps due to this issue: https://forum.archive.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=53703

The original post, from 2014, states

> I tried using both open (no auth) and WPA/WPA2

meaning even without encryption, the TCP performance with OpenWRT was worse than the original firmware.

I should have been clearer. I was talking about two distinct issues:

* lack of hardware encryption support

* poor network performance (about 50% slower than with original firmware) - the issue I linked to

> lack of hardware encryption support

I don't think that the Archer C7 hardware (or most consumer router hardware) supports any kind of encryption acceleration aside from what's built in to the WiFi radios. If you want a hardware accelerated VPN, you need to either get one of the Cavium-based Ubiquiti routers or something with a relatively high-end processor implementing AES instructions.

The lower routing performance has largely been solved in 18.06 with software flow offloading.

I don't see anything on that page about encryption. Are you talking about something to do with VPNs or with WiFi encryption?