Starlink

[sodamo]

My 3rd gen StarLink router issues IPs in the 192.168.1.xxx range. My wired network uses the 192.168.10.xxx range to avoid conflicts. I haven't disabled anything on the StarLink router, and it seems to be working fine.

RNG
So you have you Dream Machine Pro plugged into SL, no bypass?

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG
So you have you Dream Machine Pro plugged into SL, no bypass?

That is correct.

I still can't login to the app to access the Settings menu, so I don't have the option to turn off the SL WiFi.

I also don't understand why speed tests using the SL WiFi are almost double what I get on the Unifi network, but in practical use, it hasn't made much of a difference. Might be something to do with double NAT, or SL's special way of doing NAT, but I'm not savvy enough (or have time enough) to figure that one out.

And after all the reports of good SL performance for a few weeks or months, only to be followed by severe degradations and no SL response, I'm keeping the HughesNet link up as a fallback. I did decrease the data cap, though, saving me a few bux every month.

 

[ponytug]

@RedNeckGeek My router is plugged into the Starlink router via the Ethernet adapter and the speed tests are within normal variance of each other. I'm seeing full speed to end devices that are capable of the bandwidth. You might want to check your settings, or contact Starlink to see if they see anything from their side. Have you check the debug information pages?

All the best,

Peter

 

[buckeyefarmer]

To the best of my knowledge, there is no data on what range the Starlink router uses, just that it has only has a 127 address table of addresses that it does hand out. I looked as well. You might watch the dynamic addresses and see if you see a pattern.

All the best,

Peter

Mine’s handing out .25 to my phone, so that says the lower half, if it is 127 for dhcp. Once I get a computer on mine, I’ll check if it can handle the upper half.

 

[ponytug]

Mine’s handing out .25 to my phone, so that says the lower half, if it is 127 for dhcp. Once I get a computer on mine, I’ll check if it can handle the upper half.

I have seen addresses much higher than 127, which is what leads me to believe that the router can handle 127 different addresses (+1 for itself) in the 256 address space. But who knows? The 127 address limit may just have been software at one point in time.

All the best,

Peter

 

[RedNeckGeek]

@RedNeckGeek My router is plugged into the Starlink router via the Ethernet adapter and the speed tests are within normal variance of each other. I'm seeing full speed to end devices that are capable of the bandwidth. You might want to check your settings, or contact Starlink to see if they see anything from their side. Have you check the debug information pages?

All the best,

Peter

I'm also using the SL Ethernet Adapter. Unfortunately, I'm not savvy enough on configuring the UDMPro to understand which settings might be slowing down the LAN WiFi when compared to the SL WiFi.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have seen addresses much higher than 127, which is what leads me to believe that the router can handle 127 different addresses (+1 for itself) in the 256 address space. But who knows? The 127 address limit may just have been software at one point in time.

All the best,

Peter

Then the whole network is probably set for dhcp.

I got dish up tonight, but cable still goes under garage door. The app said no interference here.

 

[ponytug]

I'm also using the SL Ethernet Adapter. Unfortunately, I'm not savvy enough on configuring the UDMPro to understand which settings might be slowing down the LAN WiFi when compared to the SL WiFi.

My first suggestion would be login to your UDM and check the dashboard for network usage and speed to see if the upstream (WAN) link is running at the speed you expect. If not, there may be a kinked cable, or bad connection. If that checks out, my next suggestion would be to check that the UDM has DNS servers set to something like 4.4.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 as sometimes switching from a different ISP those settings get left behind and if not altered will make everything slow.

In general, check to see that the UDM has a WAN address in the 192.168.1.N range, and that it is doing DHCP for the 192.168.10.N subnet that you are running. I would double check that any devices with static IPs know that they are 192.168.10.N, and that they are showing up on the UDM correctly.

Then I would check to see what the CPU & memory usage on the UDM. If either one is over 75% or so, you either need a UDM-PRO, or you might want to check the DPI (deep packet inspection) settings and your threat settings. BUT reducing either of those categories reduces your network security.

Crosstalk Solutions over on YouTube has some nice configuration videos on the UDM

and the UDM-PRO,

if you are interested.

What access points are you using with your UDM? (Unless they are quite old, I doubt that they are a problem, but one never knows...)

All the best,

Peter

 

[RedNeckGeek]

My first suggestion would be login to your UDM and check the dashboard for network usage and speed to see if the upstream (WAN) link is running at the speed you expect.

Logged in to Unifi Network app, using Speed test on dashboard page.
On UDMPro WiFi:
Up Down
4.44 34.9
7.04 58.7
5.78 54.0
11.2 83.9
12.2 25.2
————————
8.11 51.34

I can't access the UDMPro subnet when using the StarLink Wifi, so to get an apples to apples comparison, I downloaded a copy of the Ookla Speedtest application and ran it on my MacBookPro laptop.

Using Ookla Speedtest desktop for Mac against Zeta Broadband, Rancho Murieta, CA
On UDMPro SSID On WiFiTemp StarLink SSID
Down Up Down Up
39.1 7.14 124 7.46
39.7 7.49 44.1 6.05
17.0 4.06 66.5 3.42
57.7 8.94 56.2 8.36
42.5 9.96 56.5 9.16
_______________ _______________
39.2 7.52 69.46 6.89

All tests were run between 9:30AM - 10:00AM PST today.

The StarLink WiFi is clearly faster, with one download speed reaching 124 Mbps. I've never seen anything close to that on the UDMPro WiFi.

I'm running a dozen Unifi network cams on the UDMPro using Protect, and five of them are WiFi cams. All five are accessing the same Unifi AC-Pro access point. Disabling the WiFi network cams and repeating the tests on the UDMPro WiFi only shows a slight, maybe 5%, speed increase.

If not, there may be a kinked cable, or bad connection.

I made an Ethernet cable using Ubiquiti Networks UISP Cable Carrier Cat 5e Shielded Outdoor Ethernet Cable and their shielded connectors. The Network app report that the WAN port on the UDMPro is operating at 1 Gbps.

If that checks out, my next suggestion would be to check that the UDM has DNS servers set to something like 4.4.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 as sometimes switching from a different ISP those settings get left behind and if not altered will make everything slow.

The UDMPro WAN is set to use 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 for DNS.

In general, check to see that the UDM has a WAN address in the 192.168.1.N range, and that it is doing DHCP for the 192.168.10.N subnet that you are running.

The UDMPro WAN IP is 192.168.1.50, and the UDMPro DHCP server is manually configured to issue addresses in the 192.168.10.6 - 192.168.10.254 range. That seems to be working, as Network shows all devices on that subnet have IP addresses in that DHCP range.

I would double check that any devices with static IPs know that they are 192.168.10.N, and that they are showing up on the UDM correctly.

I don't have any devices using static IPs.

Then I would check to see what the CPU & memory usage on the UDM. If either one is over 75% or so, you either need a UDM-PRO,

Memory usage on the UDMPro is 90%. Here's a plot that shows CPU and Memory usage:

or you might want to check the DPI (deep packet inspection) settings and your threat settings. BUT reducing either of those categories reduces your network security.

I have disabled both DPI and threat detection. Enabling them doesn't seem to slow things down much.

What access points are you using with your UDM? (Unless they are quite old, I doubt that they are a problem, but one never knows...)

Three Unifi AC Pros and one AC-LR. As mentioned, the one AC Pro services the four WiFi network cams. Everything else is wired.
On a hunch, I repeated the speed test after I stopped the Protect application on the UDMPro.
Repeated using Gunsmoke SSID with Protect application stopped
Down Up
36.4 10.9
55.2 7.17
37.9 14.6
33.5 9.31
34.3 5.02
———————
39.46 9.4

Download speed was pretty much identical, while upload speed was slightly better. I don't think Protect and the cameras are the problem.

Just for completeness, I used an iPhone Pro12Max to run the StarLink app speedtest while connected to the StarLink Wifi. One run only produced 38 down and 3 up. When I ran the Advanced test, I got 35 down and 7 up router to internet, and 545 down and 52 up iPhone to the StarLink router. That makes it clear that the bottleneck is somewhere in the UDMPro or its associated subnet, but darned if I know where to look for it.

I appreciate the help, ponytug.

 

[ponytug]

@RedNeckGeek Wow! Thanks for the detailed information. Very helpful information, and diligent work on your part! When you wrote that you a UDM, I thought that you meant a base Dream Machine. I think that the UDM-PRO router rocks and shouldn't be limiting you in home usage in my opinion.

A UDM-PRO has tons of compute power, so the CPU being overloaded shouldn't be an issue, (and you showed it wasn't) and I would turn the security settings back on. I'm glad that you tried turning protect off; I wondered about disk throughput possibly being an issue, and it clearly isn't.

I forgot to ask earlier, are there errors being thrown in your error log?

I think that all of your APs are fast enough not to be limiting.

When you say that the UDM-PRO is manually configured to do DHCP for 192.168.10.6-254, do you mean that your base LAN is set up to be 192.168.10.1/32, with DHCP service enabled from 192.168.10.6-254? (The UDM-PRO is at 192.168.10.1, right?) (sorry to ask dumb questions)

Is it possible that your UDM-PRO thinks that the WAN link is bandwidth limited? Does the speed setting have something reasonable in it like 400Mbits/s down/100up? (i.e. A little faster than what Starlink might get to) Is it possible that you have your base LAN network setting configured to limit the per user bandwidth? (Normally enabled for guest networks and IOT networks, but not usually enabled for the base LAN) Grasping at straws here.

Have you tried to ping the Starlink router? ping in flood mode?If so what sort of times did you get?

All the best,

Peter