V3 - No Waterfall when using SmartLink

Greg - KØGDI

Hey all!  I am trying to use SmartLink with v3 and I am not getting the waterfall.  DAX and CAT work just fine as I have made numerous FT8 contacts with SmartLink.  Any ideas?

Mack

What are the results when you press the "test" button in SmartLink setup? If that comes back as pass "green" then wherever you are remotely is blocking the necessary UDP ports to display the waterfall.

Run the Test on SmartLink and let us know the results for more help.

73,

Mack
W4AX
Alpha Team

Mike-VA3MW

It may be that you have consumed must of your upload bandwidth and the waterfall lost the battle.  Just a thought as you don't mention what sort of bandwidth you are consuming.

Mike

Greg - KØGDI

I get the "green" pass button.  And I have a Commercial Verizon Wireless IP with a Static IP and no port restrictions.  It's not your typical Consumer line with all the restrictions.  About 11mbps down - 9mbps up.

Mack

Greg,

OK then your station site is probably OK. Where are you trying to connect from remotely? It's almost certain that location is blocking UDP packets (waterfall) from the radio. Please detail your remote location connectivity and I'll help more.

Do you have a cellular hotspot you can connect from remotely?

73,

Mack
W4AX
Alpha Team

Al K0VM

Does shutting down DAX change the result in the WF ?
AL, K0VM

Greg - KØGDI

I am connecting from my parents house and they have Charter.  My remote location is using Verizon with a AER2200 Cradlepoint router.  

Greg - KØGDI

It does not.

Mike-VA3MW

When the waterfall disappears, the Vita49 packets stop showing up.

This happens to me when I totally overload my upstream bandwidth from the radio, meaning you ran out of resources.

So, to test this, I would turn off SmartSDR DAX and see if it comes back.

Next, I would turn down your FPS and RATE  on the display.  This will reduce amount of data being sent to the remote user.  This may solve your problem.

And, being a commercial or residential site doesn't matter.  It is possible to have ISP throttling and you have no idea if they are doing it.  If you are upstream a lot of data, they may consider you hosting a service.  These tools are a automatically activating.

That is the reason I was asking about your bandwidth you pay for.

Mike

Greg - KØGDI

We have a negotiated corporate contract that they can not throttle our account so I know that is not the case.  I did as you recommended above and it did not work.  I will get a cellular amplifier for the remote location and that should really boost the speeds and if that doesn't fix it then I will come back here.

Mike-VA3MW

Greg

At this point, you need to describe the entire setup you are using.  Based on your initial comments, we do assume you are using Cable, Fiber or DSL. 

When it comes to a Cellular connection, strange things happen even on corporate accounts.  Cellular connections are also bursty and not full streaming like a hard wired connection.  It depends on your provider.

From a Flex perspective, it sounds like you are all set up correctly.  Now, you may need to look into the part between the radio router and your users router.  Something in between is likely impacting this.  One obvious thing is to make sure your firewall is either off or has the correct ports opened on the user Client.

If you need a cellular amplifier, I would make sure you use a professional installer.  I mention this only since I used to work for a company that did Cellular Wireless infrastructures and the consumer grade ones are not very good.    However, you should not need one if your Data connection from your Cellular provider is what you say it is.  They can give you the metrics on your performance if you ask them.

My comments are based on what you have shared with me so far.  Let us know how you make out.

Mike

George KF2T

Same issue yesterday with 2.4.9 on the rig and SSDR for iOS 3.0.1. Figured it was hotel wifi. Haven’t checked today. May not be a Flex 3.0 issue.

Eric-KE5DTO

You may want to try the MTU setting under the Advanced section of the Network Setup (new in SmartSDR v3.0).  Try moving this down to see if you get better results.  The industry standard MTU is 1500, but it seems like some people have to use a smaller number depending on the network they are on.

Mike-VA3MW

Eric is correct on the MTU values.  For cable, the default value is 1500.  For DSL it can be 1492.  For a Wireless ISP, I have seen the value set pretty low in my personal testing.   If the value it too high, it will cause packet fragmentation.

Since you are on a Wireless connection, here is the method you can use to test your MTU value.  

The MTU size, or Maximum Transmission Unit Size, is the largest physical packet size, measured in bytes, that a network can transmit.
Any messages larger than the MTU are divided into smaller packets before being sent.

The best value for MTU is that value just before your packets get fragmented.

You can determine the optimal MTU size by using PING at a command prompt.

Open a command prompt and type (start by using a value of 1472 which is equivalent to MTU size 1500):

ping google.com -f -t -l 1500 (which is too big a value)




Use CTRL-C to stop the ping (or don't use the -t switch)

Then try a lower packet size (for example 1412) until you get a successful ping response instead of the "Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.” message.
Keep changing the packet size until you have found the highest packet size that can be sent in your network without being fragmented.



What is key, is that being too big a value is a bad thing and can severely impact your streaming performance.

Mike

George KF2T

Update: works fine on a better wi-fi network.

Greg - KØGDI

Thanks guys.  I will get back with you and let you know if this fixes the issue.  We will be migrating to be 5g ready with Verizon which requires a newer Cradlepoint router.  So I will wait until this transition and get back with you in a couple weeks.  I feel confident it will work after the solutions you have offered.  Until then...

73 de K0GDI

Eric-KE5DTO

Good deal.  Thanks for following up.

Cal N3CAL

Eric,  

I wanted to adjust my MTU settings down on my remote laptop but noticed "Advanced" is not shown under the Radio Network settings while connected remotely to my 6600 via Smartlink ?  This is using SSDR V3.0.  ( I'm getting really choppy audio with a low bandwidth connection.) 

If I connect to my 6600 inside my home network I can see the Advanced Network Settings and adjust MTU but for some reason outside my home network via Smartlink it's not there??  

The Flex Webite does not list any documentation on V3 yet hence the question here.   

Cal/N3CAL

Al K0VM

Try Settings>Radio setup>Network> advanced.. I haven't tested on smartlink but it is there on a LAN connection..
AL, K0VM

Cal N3CAL

Al,  It's not there. There is no "Advanced" under Settings>Radio setup>Network>  via a Smartlink connection.   The tab shows the 6600 network IP address and Mask address only.   The MAC Address is blank and no advanced tab???   I can also see the advanced tab from a LAN connection within my home network. 

Cal/N3CAL

Al K0VM

OK... It may one of the things that is not available via Smartlink..  I should be there only with a LAN connection..
AL, K0VM

Eric-KE5DTO

Cal -- This is a bug that was discovered yesterday (#7347).  The new MTU value is not shown when connected via SmartLink (any model) or when connected locally to an M model.  We'll get this fixed up.

In the meantime, you can use the following as a workaround:

Since the MTU value is stored and used for all connections from the SmartSDR Client, if you can connect to the radio (non-M model) locally, you can just set the value there.  Then, the value will be used even when connecting via SmartLink. 

Another alternative:

1. Close SmartSDR for Windows.
2. On your PC, open a file browser to %appdata%FlexRadio Systems (this is C:Users<Your User Name>AppDataRoamingFlexRadio Systems
3. Open the "SSDR.settings" file with a text editor.
4. Search for "MTU". You will see a line that looks like "1500"
5. Change this value to the desired MTU value. For example, to set the MTU to 1450, change the line to say "1450".
6. Save and close the SSDR.settings file.
7. Start SmartSDR and connect to a radio.

Note to take care when editing this file. You may want to make a backup copy of the file first in case the edits make the XML unhappy.

Cal N3CAL

Eric,

Thanks for the reply!    Could you clarify where you want to test for a good MTU value? What I'm confused about is this:

1.  If I do the command prompt test you describe in this thread (ping google.com -f -t -l xxxx) from my remote laptop location (Verizon 4G Hotspot Network) A good MTU (xxxx) is 1400+28 = MTU 1428.   ( This is my Smartlink Remote Computer)

2.  If I do the same command prompt test from my Home Desktop ( Cable Ethernet) a good MTU (xxxx) is 1472 +28 = MTU 1500. 

I thought setting the MTU is for the remote network laptop connection.   

I have set the MTU down to 1428 via SSDR on my home Desktop but when I connect from my laptop I still get very choppy audio on SSDR even with everything set to low.  

Cal/N3CAL

Eric-KE5DTO

In general, you want to use the largest value that works.  In that sense, it doesn't hurt anything to try different values.  So just bump the number down until it works.  Then you can inch it back up until it doesn't.  I would leave some headroom (~25-50) to make sure you aren't right on the edge of the boundary.

Craig Williams

In the "SSDR.settings" file in V2.4.9 I cannot find a "MTU" setting value. Flex 6400.

Ted VE3TRQ

It’s in v3.

Craig Williams

Well that sucks.

Ted VE3TRQ

You just need to wait until 2.5 :-)

Greg - KØGDI

I changed my MTU to 1400 and it works beautifully now.

Thank you all!

John Orjias

did this issue get forgotten? changing the mtu still not available when using smartlink