Nighthawk XR500 traffic prioritization feature not loading after switching to Starlink

[kell90]

Model: XR500
Firmware: V2.3.2.134
OS: Windows 11
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Hello,

I recently just switched ISPs (Xplornet to Starlink) and I believe I have everything set up mostly correctly. However, one thing that does not load on my DumaOS QoS panel is the Traffic Prioritization settings - where I would normally specify ports on devices that I wanted to skip the queue. The router has been updated and factory reset. I have tested with both ISPs and this problem only occurs on Starlink. 

HOWEVER, if you notice in the "Traffic Overview" section, it shows that packets are being prioritized - so it's as if the default profile is being applied, but I just can't edit it at all. 

Here is my setup:

I saw that one Redditor suggested, "My guess would be it needs to have a public IP on the WAN interface. If you're behind Starlink's router or on CGNAT, you don't have that, maybe that disables [the traffic priority menu]. Perhaps [Netgear] feels it makes no sense to prioritize packets if you're behind NAT(s) that will interfere with that".

So yeah, the feature seems to work, but I can't manage it manually. Any ideas?

[Netduma-Fraser]

Your ISP wouldn't dictate whether the feature loads or not, I suspect that is a coincidence. Reboot the router from the interface, wait 2 minutes then try accessing and see if it loads correctly please.

[agent47isn1]

I recently got starlink the beginning of last month and finally got the Ethernet adapter about 2 weeks ago. Only problem I've had with my router (XR450) was when I updated it to the latest firmware my IP address changed from 192.168.x.x to 10.0.0.1 and I'd lose connection and regain connection within minutes of each other. Other than that every tothing else works like it should even opening ports needed for our consoles.

[kell90]

Did not solve the problem, unfortunately. I've tried various restarts and refreshes, yet this problem only persists when connected to Starlink. 

[kell90]

Hmm strange. My internal IP did not change, it's still 192.168.x.x

[Netduma-Fraser]

The LAN IP of the router will change if it notices a conflict, i.e. if the upstream modem/router LAN IP is also 192.168.1.1 then the XR will change to 10.0.0.1, other than that it won't affect the functioning of the router.

Go to the System Information page and then in the Rapp panel menu ≡ change the retries to 5, reboot from the interface, wait 2 minutes before accessing and see if it works.

[kell90]

It still does not work. 

I should also mention that when I navigate to the QoS page, it says "device not found", see below. Not too sure what to make of an error message like that. 

Also, we've noticed that our network quality has been significantly worse since connecting to the Netgear router. For example, our smart TV (on the 2.4 GHz band one floor away from the router) tends to drop out intermittently. Also, some smartphones in the house will get stuck sending text messages -- it's as if we lose connection to the internet for a brief moment, but it's far too frequent to be normal. I'm aware that Starlink isn't the most reliable service, but these issues are different. 

It's as if everything got worse when we bridged our Starlink to the Netgear router, to be honest. Kind of frustrating. 
 

[kell90]

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@agent47isn1 wrote:
... and I'd lose connection and regain connection within minutes of each other. 

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Has this been solved for you? We are also experiencing something like this in our house. Our smart TV will kind of become sluggish and fail to load video despite me scoring a 150 Mbps speed test on my phone. Every now and again, our phones will get stuck sending messages, as if they lost connection to the internet for a second -- but it doesn't feel like a Starlink dropout. These problems did not happen on the Starlink router, they only cropped up after bridging to the XR500... Lately we've spent more time complaining about the internet than enjoying it. 

[agent47isn1]

Yea I ended up going back to an older firmware that's stable I haven't had issues since.

[kell90]

Any idea what the version is? Or roughly the date the version was released? At this point, I'm considering just rolling back one update at a time. 

[agent47isn1]

It's v2.3.120 it should be the same for the XR500 since the XR450 is practically the same router minus the 256QAM feature.

[kell90]

Appears these are my options. I was on .134, but just switched to 130. So far... it's worse... but gotta give it the test of time.

[agent47isn1]

Yea I was on that one too but downgraded to the one I'm on now because I was having nothing but issues with it. The next update should fix the bugs we're talking about.

[kell90]

Very interesting I’ll try that as soon as this current version gives me trouble

[Netduma-Liam]

Just to add to this, typically the visual issues you've been seeing have been fixed by downgrading to a previous firmware, factory resetting, then upgrading back to the latest firmware without a reset.

[kell90]

@Netduma-Liam @Netduma-Fraser 
It appears reverting to firmware version 2.3.2.114 has returned the Traffic Prioritization menu. The next step is to see if the dropout/connectivity issues are resolved, which @agent47isn1 seems to also have experienced.

If everything works well on this firmware version, is there any reason to do what @Netduma-Liam suggested (revert to old firmware, factory reset, then return to the newest firmware) other than for curiosity?

Thanks for the help so far by the way. 

[Netduma-Fraser]

@kell90 the only reason would be to ensure you're on the latest firmware with latest security fixes but if you're happy on that version then that's up to you if you want to stay on it. My recommended next step would be to upgrade using the TFTP method which bypasses the boot process and any issues there, followed by a factory reset.

[agent47isn1]

Yea I have the traffic prioritization menu is working as well on my firmware. I haven't updated to 2.3.2.134 yet only because there's talks of other issues going on that are unrelated to what happened to me so figured I'd wait until the next one. And no problem figured I'd share what worked for me.