Lessons and Takeaways from Setting up a Starlink in the Woods
Mitch Feigenbaum - https://mitchf.me
Background
- I was tasked by my boss with setting up a Starlink at his cabin in the middle of the Shenendoah valley.
- For reference, it’s on a mountain in the middle of nowhere
Requirements
- Connect to the Internet
- Set up a guest network and a private security camera network
- Make it secure
- Allow for remote access to the security cameras
Initial Challenges
- Starlink router is very limited a. No guest network capability b. No ethernet adapter
- Trees block the view (especially in the Spring)
Dealing with the limited Starlink router
- Use a third party ethernet to micro usb-c adapter between the router and the dish
- Use a third party router (EERO Pro 6) to allow guest network functionality
Dealing with the trees
- Used a mount on the side of the house to get a better view
- Still 3% obstacle obstruction (as calculated on app), causes intermittent outages
Now the fun part
- Starlink requires a subscription to start using it
Good news
- Starlink allows you to access the Starlink website during the setup to buy a subscription
Bad news
- Starlink accounts send you email verification on login, but gmail is blocked on the Starlink network
How we solved it
Not easily
A note on the Starlink Subscription
- If you set up your account as a business, you won’t even be shown the home option
- The home option is advertised as $80 a month
- Suprise!!! It’s actually $120 a month plus a $100 one time “congestion charge”
Starlink account database speculation
- Once the payment was sent, it said it auto created an account with the email used.
- It auto redirected to the existing account associated with the email, but the account had no subscription on it
- The internet worked after this
- Speculation: the Starlink account database is severely buggy (not too far off considering its owner’s other ventures [see X])
Setting up the cameras
- Used cobra cameras connected to the EERO router with a 100 foot ethernet cable
- Connected the EERO router to the Starlink router via the adapter
Yet Another Issue
- The EERO router has an easy mobile interface that allows you to change settings
- The EERO router has support for UPNP, which the cameras use to connect externally
- The Starlink Router is unable to be configured until it downloads an update, which automatically happpens… at 3am
- This can be mitigated by using the Starlink router in bypass mode… which requires the router configuration… which is unavailable until the update is installed
Final Configuration
- Our network topology consists of the Starlink dish
- Which sends its signal to the Starlink router
- Which sends its signal to the Ethernet adapter
- Which sends its signal to the EERO router
- Which sends its signal via ethernet to the security cameras and via wifi to the guest network
Takeaways
- Everything takes more time on the mountain
- Starlink needs to think about its actual use case
- It all sort of works, impressively (90 mbps down, 15 mbps up)
