- Joined
- Jul 11, 2001
- Messages
- 12,443
My Starlink arrived this morning. I wanted to make this thread to catalog my experiences with the new rectangular antenna and router, and testing the service overall. I'm currently on Mediacom Cable, with speeds about 330/25. It's decent, but it's very expensive (more than 2x Starlink) because it's a business plan, which is the only way to get unlimited data with this ISP. They also wouldn't run Coax to my house so I have my Cablemodem sitting in a little shack 300+ft from my house, with Cat6a running the rest of the way. I got Starlink because it would be nice to cut the monthly cost and get rid of the less than ideal arrangement with the Cablemodem. But it will need to be fast and reliable otherwise it doesn't matter how cheap it is. Time to find out.
Package arrived shipped from Southern California.


The Antenna is actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

And the WiFi router, which also acts as a power supply for the Antenna.

Only two cables connect to the router, the power cable, and the cable to the Antenna. No Ethernet port on this version of the router
There is an Ethernet adapter, which I ordered at the same time as the kit, but it has not even shipped yet, so WiFi only for now apparently.

The port is some odd port that looks like a slightly larger micro-USB connector. You can see the water-proofing on the plug. I don't believe Starlink encourages you to set the router up outside but it seems pretty rugged in that respect. The built-in 90 degree angle at the very end makes it almost impossible to push that end of the cable through a pre-drilled hole, which is rather annoying.

And here it is on the little stand. The stand doesn't seem as stable as I thought it would be. I'm thinking I will probably have to use tent spikes or something to stop it from being knocked over in the wind. We'll see. We are on the top of a hill with a perfect unobstructed view of the northern sky. Zero obstructions according to the app.

It took about 10 minutes to boot up. The antenna adjusted itself automatically. I completed the setup using the starlink app on my phone, which also allows me to control the very limited settings on the router.
Trying to find out what WAN IP it gave me was more challenging than it should have been, because the configuration options with this router are so limited. It doesn't even tell you what the WAN IP is until you open up the Debug Data and scroll down and find the entry for "ipv4WanAddress". My heart sank when I saw that it had given me a 100.78.x.x CGNAT IP Address.........
I've run my own webserver from my own home internet for over 15 years and it's come in handy countless times and saved me from ever having to deal with trash services like photobucket, etc. I'm sort of screwed in that respect if I don't have a public IP to work with. I knew that many were getting CGNAT IPs but starting in November or so there began to be reports of users having actual public IPs assigned to them. I had my fingers crossed, but now I know... I'm still holding out some tiny hope that maybe when I get the ethernet adapter and put the starlink router into bypass mode so I can use my own router, perhaps that will somehow allow me to get a public IP. I'm really hoping that the whole CGNAT nonsense just goes away as the service matures.
Despite being stuck on WiFi for now, I decided to start running some tests anyway. Speeds are variable, and seem to fluctuate between 150-300Mbps on the download, and 12-25Mbps on the Upload.

The Latency is pretty amazing compared to what I was expecting. For most sites, the latency is actually lower than what I was getting via Cable, sometimes by quite a bit. The two main Starlink ground stations for Northern California aren't really that far from me. That might help with the latency. The connection is very consistent and I have not been having any significant interruptions.

Downloading a Windows 11 ISO gives a better picture of the way the speed fluctuates. With my Cable connection it would just be pegged at 330Mbps.

Well so far my experience has been pretty good. I'm really happy with the speeds, latency, and reliability that I am seeing so far. Not having an Ethernet port is annoying but as long as the Ethernet adapter actually arrives and works as advertised, it shouldn't matter. The whole CGNAT thing is really the only thing that is giving me some pause. I look forward to doing some gaming and more real-world activities to test for lag as numbers don't always tell the whole story.
Package arrived shipped from Southern California.


The Antenna is actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

And the WiFi router, which also acts as a power supply for the Antenna.

Only two cables connect to the router, the power cable, and the cable to the Antenna. No Ethernet port on this version of the router

The port is some odd port that looks like a slightly larger micro-USB connector. You can see the water-proofing on the plug. I don't believe Starlink encourages you to set the router up outside but it seems pretty rugged in that respect. The built-in 90 degree angle at the very end makes it almost impossible to push that end of the cable through a pre-drilled hole, which is rather annoying.

And here it is on the little stand. The stand doesn't seem as stable as I thought it would be. I'm thinking I will probably have to use tent spikes or something to stop it from being knocked over in the wind. We'll see. We are on the top of a hill with a perfect unobstructed view of the northern sky. Zero obstructions according to the app.

It took about 10 minutes to boot up. The antenna adjusted itself automatically. I completed the setup using the starlink app on my phone, which also allows me to control the very limited settings on the router.
Trying to find out what WAN IP it gave me was more challenging than it should have been, because the configuration options with this router are so limited. It doesn't even tell you what the WAN IP is until you open up the Debug Data and scroll down and find the entry for "ipv4WanAddress". My heart sank when I saw that it had given me a 100.78.x.x CGNAT IP Address.........
I've run my own webserver from my own home internet for over 15 years and it's come in handy countless times and saved me from ever having to deal with trash services like photobucket, etc. I'm sort of screwed in that respect if I don't have a public IP to work with. I knew that many were getting CGNAT IPs but starting in November or so there began to be reports of users having actual public IPs assigned to them. I had my fingers crossed, but now I know... I'm still holding out some tiny hope that maybe when I get the ethernet adapter and put the starlink router into bypass mode so I can use my own router, perhaps that will somehow allow me to get a public IP. I'm really hoping that the whole CGNAT nonsense just goes away as the service matures.
Despite being stuck on WiFi for now, I decided to start running some tests anyway. Speeds are variable, and seem to fluctuate between 150-300Mbps on the download, and 12-25Mbps on the Upload.

The Latency is pretty amazing compared to what I was expecting. For most sites, the latency is actually lower than what I was getting via Cable, sometimes by quite a bit. The two main Starlink ground stations for Northern California aren't really that far from me. That might help with the latency. The connection is very consistent and I have not been having any significant interruptions.

Downloading a Windows 11 ISO gives a better picture of the way the speed fluctuates. With my Cable connection it would just be pegged at 330Mbps.

Well so far my experience has been pretty good. I'm really happy with the speeds, latency, and reliability that I am seeing so far. Not having an Ethernet port is annoying but as long as the Ethernet adapter actually arrives and works as advertised, it shouldn't matter. The whole CGNAT thing is really the only thing that is giving me some pause. I look forward to doing some gaming and more real-world activities to test for lag as numbers don't always tell the whole story.