MacOS devices start fast, then deteriorate, jitter increases. iOS & Apple TV always blisteringly fast, Anyone else?

[macgarvin]

We have a simple system, with a main router, no mesh, and various Apple devices - MacBooks, iMac, iPhones, Apple TV.

The overall speed, as measured by Starlink App on an iPhone, and also using Speedtest by Ookia is consistently good - download speeds of 150-225 Mbps, uploads of around 15-20 Mbps. (We are in Scotland).

iPhones, Apple TV and the iMac which is connected to the router by ethernet subjectively almost always seem fast, and Ookia Speedtests confirm this.

But the various MacBooks, connecting wirelessly, are not consistently good. After a restart more often than not they are as fast as the other devices,. But sooner or later they deteriorate to less than 10 Mbps (I can see this using iStat Menus). Using the MacOS Ookia App I can also see that more often than not when the speeds are low the jitter has increased from typically under 10ms (and sometimes as low as 3 ms) to 10s or 100s of ms).

Additional points:

- the MacBook I work with most is usually only 2 metres away from the router;

- A restart of the MacBook usually restores the fast speeds, but not always;

- Very occasionally jitter on the MaxBook can be in the 10s of ms, but download speeds remain high;

- this still happens when other network traffic is minimal;

- Restarting Starlink has no effect;

- Starlink Technical Assistance can find no fault on the Starlink side of things of the equipment here;

- this was happening with a 2017 MacBook, which raised the possibility of a hardware issue, but a brand new MaxBook Pro M3 Max has the same issue;

- this is happening without a VPN, and with Apple's non-tracking options turned off  (NB System Settings > WiFi Settings > Limit IP address Tracking has a habit of turning itself back on, eg after a restart)

 

Has me baffled - anybody else seeing this? If this was a generic Apple-side problem I'd expect to see people raising it here, but I'm not seeing that (or else I'm doing a dreadful search ;-))

Anybody got any bright ideas? 

Malcolm

 

[RicochetStarlink]

No, I haven't seen these symptoms. All of our primary computing devices are Apple products (Mac books, Mac Mini, an OLD iMac, iPhones, iPads), too. We also have a bunch (10+?) of IoT devices (thermostat, alarm system, security cameras, 4K TVs, etc) on the network. Up until about 90 days ago, Starlink handled all of this without issues. Oh, we did have a second, meshed Starlink router. However, since getting connected to fiber Internet, Starlink is now my backup ISP and I have switched out my WiFi Routers for Amplifi Aliens. So, my experience here is from at least a few months ago.

Questions:

1. What generation is your Starlink Kit? Gen 1? Gen 2? Gen 3? Most likely, you're on a Gen 2 Kit since Gen 1 is long obsolete and Gen 3 is just beginning to ship.
2. Have you separated the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks on your Starlink Router? If not, I would do so right away. This can be done through the mobile app under Network settings.
3. Do you have any different antivirus or security software running on the two Macbooks that are experiencing these issues. I'm particularly interested in what's on the hard-wired iMac.
4. Do you have nearby neighbors who might have a WiFi network that is bleeding into your home? This could cause WiFi channel conflicts or overloading which are known to affect WiFi performance.

I with I had an easy answer for you, but, in the end, there are a LOT of things that can contribute to these issues. Narrowing this down will take some diligence -- and time.

 

[macgarvin]

On 1/7/2024 at 6:21 PM, RicochetStarlink said:

Have you separated the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks on your Starlink Router? If not, I would do so right away. This can be done through the mobile app under Network settings

Many many thanks for this. Separating the two networks seems to have  done the trick. I did that, and at the same time shut down the hard wired iMac, and that immediately resulted in fast speeds on the WiFi MacBook. After three days I turned the hardwired iMac back on, and this had no detrimental effect on the MacBook. 

For the record, the Starlink Kit is Gen 2. There is Norton antivirus and security software running on the iMac and a MacBook Air, so  this doesn''t seem to have been part of the problem. As an earlier stage of efforts to resolve this problem I had turned off 'Limit IP Address tracking' under the WiFI Settings, and 'Private Relay' and 'Advanced Data Protection' is also turned off, under the iCloud settings. I will now try turning these on and assess any deterioration of service.

[RicochetStarlink]

Glad to hear it was that simple, @macgarvin. Sometimes, it's the little things... 😉