Starlink

[LouNY]

SAT tv is free in many parts of Europe and much better in reaching those in the mountain valleys.

One thing I noticed in the typical heavy thunderstorm downpours or heavy blizzard winter conditions or even snow covered the signal is bad.

Is Starlink similar?

Yes it is, I do see people that say it doesn't bother. But, mine is completely unobstructed and any and every heavy rainstorm takes it down till it's over. Heavy snowstorms will really slow it down with occasional drops.

 

[ponytug]

SAT tv is free in many parts of Europe and much better in reaching those in the mountain valleys.

One thing I noticed in the typical heavy thunderstorm downpours or heavy blizzard winter conditions or even snow covered the signal is bad.

Is Starlink similar?

I think that storm intensity is the real variable for whether rain or snow impact the transmission/ reception. Rain and snow can certainly reduce or slow any service using RF, but in generally the rainfall rates need to be pretty high before there is an impact. I use a WiFi relay that will tolerate an inch of rain an hour.

We had a couple inches (4-6") of snow on our Dishy last winter in an extreme snow event here, with no effect on speeds or latency. It was light fluffy snow. The snowfall happened right around freezing, and I think that the Dishy heaters didn't kick in until I turned them on manually the next day, and that then did melt the snow off in a couple of hours.

In my experience, the Starlink performance does wax and wane for non-obvious reasons sometimes. Here in California, weather has never been the answer in my experience. If someone had a severe thunderstorm at the same time that they had a degradation in Starlink performance, I can see how they might be inclined to blame the weather, but I don't see a lot of folks posting signal strength data, so I would take the reports with a grain of salt. i.e. I believe that the signal went down during the thunderstorm, but if the user hadn't checked the detailed debug data for the actual signal strength up and down from the Starlink Dishy, something that you can only do if it is not in bypass mode, I would leave the cause of the signal degradation open. I see performance lags in clear blue sky too often to blame weather as a likely culprit, at least here.

Definitely a YMMV item, but in general hasn't been a big deal for most users most of the time.

All the best,

Peter

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I was hoping the Starlink “router” was actually a router. Yes, I know I can bypass and add a real router, which is what I’ll have to do, but was hoping Starlink would actually step up and build a real router.
Starlink totally missed what I was saying, and closed my trouble ticket, so I had to re open the ticket. Not that I expect them to fix it, but the App should at least show IP addresses for wired items connected. It used to.

 

[BigBlue1]

I was hoping the Starlink “router” was actually a router. Yes, I know I can bypass and add a real router, which is what I’ll have to do, but was hoping Starlink would actually step up and build a real router.
Starlink totally missed what I was saying, and closed my trouble ticket, so I had to re open the ticket. Not that I expect them to fix it, but the App should at least show IP addresses for wired items connected. It used to.

I can see IPs for wired devices in the SL app. Network, Devices, select the device with the > arrow. Info displays about connection type, MAC, IP. For all I know this may work for every device connected whether wired or wifi, but I front my SL with a Deco mesh system and only have a couple devices hard wired.

 

[Fallon]

I was hoping the Starlink “router” was actually a router. Yes, I know I can bypass and add a real router, which is what I’ll have to do, but was hoping Starlink would actually step up and build a real router.
Starlink totally missed what I was saying, and closed my trouble ticket, so I had to re open the ticket. Not that I expect them to fix it, but the App should at least show IP addresses for wired items connected. It used to.

It is a real router in terms of what it means in a standard consumer context (basically, it does DHCP & NAT).

It just doesn't have a lot of features power users are use to.

Personally I have a OpenWRT router/AP for my Dishy. Just waiting on a Dishy Dualie DC power supply to kick over to a DC only setup on the RV & kick over to a more configurable router. Although that Dishy Dualie is months behind the promised ship date.

If the DHCP scope on the Starlink router us only 128 hosts, you could hard code your gear to use an IP outside of the DHCP range but still in the same subnet. Not clear if Starlink only does a 128 IP range, but somebody else above indicated it might. That's how I run my DHCP ranges. .1 to .50 on a subnet are for network gear & servers. .50-.200 are DHCP. .201 & up generally don't get used except for wierd stuff.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I can see IPs for wired devices in the SL app. Network, Devices, select the device with the > arrow. Info displays about connection type, MAC, IP. For all I know this may work for every device connected whether wired or wifi, but I front my SL with a Deco mesh system and only have a couple devices hard wired.

Just ordered a deco system

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I can see IPs for wired devices in the SL app. Network, Devices, select the device with the > arrow. Info displays about connection type, MAC, IP. For all I know this may work for every device connected whether wired or wifi, but I front my SL with a Deco mesh system and only have a couple devices hard wired.

Interesting, some wired devices show the IP, some don’t. Yet some of those that don’t show Ip still work on the network.

 

[LouNY]

My Starlink plugs into my Netgear router,
so lots of networks to choose from for wifi.
The Stsrlink wifi or either of the two bands for the Netgear router, and then the Arlo camera system has it's own wifi network and then my poe switch for cameras is also plugged into the netgear router and I'm going to be adding a NVR one of these days for more cameras.

 

[BigBlue1]

It is a real router in terms of what it means in a standard consumer context (basically, it does DHCP & NAT).

It just doesn't have a lot of features power users are use to.

Came here to say this... you beat me to it. Just because it isn't full-featured doesn't mean it isn't a router. But at least they make it so you can swap in what you prefer without too much fuss.

I'd venture to guess 95% of SL users' (just like any ISP customers) needs are fully met by the SL router. Most people just don't ever have to do more that it can do.

 

[BigBlue1]

Just ordered a deco system

Mesh networks are the shizz. Solid wifi all over...