Why do I need a VPN to download Docker images?

This likely comes down to CG NAT or shared IP issues. If you can switch to using IPv6, it often resolves these kinds of problems. Some services perform better over IPv6 due to the limitations imposed on shared IPv4 addresses.

Given that it works with a VPN, it's likely a routing or peering issue with your ISP. Since Docker images are stored on Cloudflare R2, your current route might be leading to a problematic console node. You could check if the domain resolves to IPv6, try forcing an IPv4 connection, or investigate with tools like curl to see where the hang-up is.

It sounds like the problem could be due to rate limiting from a shared IP address. If you're using a shared connection like Starlink, that's a real possibility. You might want to authenticate with your Docker Hub credentials to possibly get around those limits.

This is a known Starlink issue where you're sharing a public IPv4 address, which can lead to rate limits on Docker Hub. Your entire group connected to Starlink is likely hitting the same quota. Switching to IPv6 can help, and you might also want to set up a registry mirror in your Docker configuration as a workaround.