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Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

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Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#11

Post by raverbashing »

londons_explore wrote: post #8
tiernano wrote: post #4

So, bit of digging, StarLink's ASN is 14593 [1]. They show as having 302 V4 blocks and 59 V6 blocks of space [2]. Some of that space (well, most) looks to be GeoLocated in the US, but some show as other countries. Same with the V6 blocks [3]. My guess is that each V4 block is assigned to a given country or Geo Location, and same with a larger V6. Given they use CGNAT, they wont need as much V4 blocks to split out. If…

Many of Musks companies have access to internal google API's that aren't available to the public. For example, the in-tesla car map uses various google data sources in ways the regular API doesn't support.

Could be Waze APIs?

Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#12

Post by dotnet00 »

tiernano wrote: post #4

So, bit of digging, StarLink's ASN is 14593 [1]. They show as having 302 V4 blocks and 59 V6 blocks of space [2]. Some of that space (well, most) looks to be GeoLocated in the US, but some show as other countries. Same with the V6 blocks [3]. My guess is that each V4 block is assigned to a given country or Geo Location, and same with a larger V6. Given they use CGNAT, they wont need as much V4 blocks to split out. If…

The Google IPs might be because SpaceX and Google have agreements where Starlink downlinks can use the network connectivity at Google data centers (and vice versa)?

Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#13

Post by madaxe_again »

Personal experience, it assigns based on where you are connecting from, and it seems they use the lat/long to be precise, as I used it very near the French/Spanish border, and it switched immediately when we crossed. It’s all behind CGNAT anyway, so I use a VPS as a VPN landing point so I can do port forwarding.

There’s also a substantial difference in performance depending on where you are, I assume depending on how saturated the local ground station is - in Portugal, I get near 200Mbps, in Spain, 140, in France, 90.

Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#14

Post by ftl64 »

I had an experience using Starlink at a hotel in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. Funnily enough, I only became aware of this after some websites began redirecting me to their German versions - turns out our traffic was being routed through a host with an IP from one of their STRLNK-POP-FRNTDEU1 pools. The list @mkimball linked to doesn't include Jordan, likely because the service hasn't been officially launched in the country. This also means that, for now, you can enjoy a truly anonymous VPN-less browsing experience out of there :)

Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#17

Post by lxgr »

londons_explore wrote: post #5

Starlink says on their FAQ page[1] for the roaming model that if you roam too far, your connection will be briefly interrupted while they assign you a new IP address. I think that's because they want every user to have a reasonable experience with all the websites out there that do geoIP lookups. It also gives them flexibility in the future to not act as a worldwide internet backbone for their own users traffic by ad…

> It also gives them flexibility in the future to not act as a worldwide internet backbone for their own users traffic by advertising each set of local IP's only at local POP's.

They'd need multiple ASNs for each of these network islands then, though – is their network actually set up like that?

> if you roam too far, your connection will be briefly interrupted while they assign you a new IP address.

That's an interesting detail: It seems like they might not actually have cross base station roaming/connectivity, unlike e.g. mobile ISPs in large countries (where you can keep the same IP and maintain open connections even as you're driving across the country).

I wonder if Starlink will eventually build out a terrestrial backbone to complement their satellite network for these two scenarios (i.e. very mobile base stations, such as those on airplanes, and terminating their own traffic globally as opposed to locally).

Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#18

Post by reincoder »

I work for IPinfo.io. For geolocating satellite IP addresses, we use a combination of geofeed, rDNS hints etc. Starlink's geofeed data is easily accessible [0] which lists out geolocation information of their IP ranges. We use rDNS hints as well where you can find some geolocation hints from rDNS records.

[0] https://geoip.starlinkisp.net/feed.csv

Re: Ask HN: How does Starlink work for IP address/ASN internationally?

#19

Post by nickphx »

tiernano wrote: post #4

So, bit of digging, StarLink's ASN is 14593 [1]. They show as having 302 V4 blocks and 59 V6 blocks of space [2]. Some of that space (well, most) looks to be GeoLocated in the US, but some show as other countries. Same with the V6 blocks [3]. My guess is that each V4 block is assigned to a given country or Geo Location, and same with a larger V6. Given they use CGNAT, they wont need as much V4 blocks to split out. If…

google caching appliances. https://support.google.com/interconnect/answer/9058809?hl=en
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