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Starlink Mini as a failover

jackpearce.co.uk

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Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#101

Post by SunshineTheCat »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #4

I also do this. Xfinity went out for a few hours earlier this month and Unifi failed over almost instantly, and within minutes we had high speed internet once I upgraded us. The standby mode would have been plenty for basic web browsing, too. $5/mo for pretty guaranteed connectivity, plus being able to take it around with me on travels is pretty awesome.

I was paying for gigabit with the local ISP and it slowed down and lost connection so frequently I bought a Starlink (the regular one, not the mini) as a "backup."

As per the usual, my internet went down and I switched to the backup Starlink. After working with it for about a week I cancelled my ISP.

Turned out around 350MBPS down was fine for everything I was doing (and it's way more reliable).

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#103

Post by arjie »

We've used this in San Francisco to great effect. Once the Internet went down and I took our portable battery to the roof with the Mini and my wife was only a few minutes on her phone hotspot before she was able to have meetings normally. Great functionality.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#104

Post by codethief »

zzyzxd wrote: post #81

I have a GL.iNet travel router. When I am not travel, it connects to the router's second WAN port. If my main internet goes down, it takes me 30 seconds to tether my phone and failover manually. My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that. Typically I get over 400 Mbps. From time to time I get the itch to improve my home network uptime, an…

> My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that.

Could you elaborate on this?

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#105

Post by WarmWash »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #101
mynameisvlad wrote: post #4

I also do this. Xfinity went out for a few hours earlier this month and Unifi failed over almost instantly, and within minutes we had high speed internet once I upgraded us. The standby mode would have been plenty for basic web browsing, too. $5/mo for pretty guaranteed connectivity, plus being able to take it around with me on travels is pretty awesome.

I was paying for gigabit with the local ISP and it slowed down and lost connection so frequently I bought a Starlink (the regular one, not the mini) as a "backup." As per the usual, my internet went down and I switched to the backup Starlink. After working with it for about a week I cancelled my ISP. Turned out around 350MBPS down was fine for everything I was doing (and it's way more reliable).

Kinda drifting off topic, but I'm so bitter over this

My girlfriend had been paying for 1Gb fiber for about 5 years at the insistence of the rep because "You stream 4k content and use your internet for work". $110/mo or something. Verizon comes by and sets her up with a modem and an "auto-route smart 2.4GHz/5GHz" router which slots you into a frequency based on...something. Who knows because it didn't work. It just put everything on 2.4GHz.

I noticed while at her house that the internet was painfully slow downloading large files and dug into it.

For those who don't know, 2.4GHz will typically top out around 100Mbps. Around the house you're looking at closer to 50Mbps. With 5Ghz it's much better, about 500Mbps typical, but verizons awful "smart" router just put everything on 2.4GHz.

So for years she had been paying for 1Gbps, Verizon happily taking her money, while she never saw over 100Mbps. It's also not like they tell you anywhere that the router they give you will only realistically offer 1/10th your Gb speed. Such a dumpster tier company. I can only imagine there are tens of thousands being conned by this scheme.

Anyway, I put in a new router and switched to the cheapest plan. The internet is now much faster.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#106

Post by bigbuppo »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #101
mynameisvlad wrote: post #4

I also do this. Xfinity went out for a few hours earlier this month and Unifi failed over almost instantly, and within minutes we had high speed internet once I upgraded us. The standby mode would have been plenty for basic web browsing, too. $5/mo for pretty guaranteed connectivity, plus being able to take it around with me on travels is pretty awesome.

I was paying for gigabit with the local ISP and it slowed down and lost connection so frequently I bought a Starlink (the regular one, not the mini) as a "backup." As per the usual, my internet went down and I switched to the backup Starlink. After working with it for about a week I cancelled my ISP. Turned out around 350MBPS down was fine for everything I was doing (and it's way more reliable).

I hate that it works so well these days. I have my antenna right out ground level between the house and trees. Absolute worst case scenario, and it's been rock solid in everything but the heaviest of rain storms for almost a year now. Still, the occasional slowdown or half-second outage really screws up Android's idiotic magic for switching between wifi and cell to the point that my pixel phone is basically useless at home. But that's more of a "google knows best" problem.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#107

Post by bigbuppo »

Reubend wrote: post #42

A mobile failover would be cheaper and would give you better connectivity in heavy rain. A 4G dongle can be purchased for $15, rather than $200 for a Starlink Mini. Then, let's say your main internet source fails and you need to actually use the backup plan beyond the standby amount of 0.5 Mbps. That will cost you a minimum of $50 for Starlink, versus roughly $25 for a month of unlimited cell service. As for standby…

[dead]

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#108

Post by toomuchtodo »

nine_k wrote: post #83
zzyzxd wrote: post #81

I have a GL.iNet travel router. When I am not travel, it connects to the router's second WAN port. If my main internet goes down, it takes me 30 seconds to tether my phone and failover manually. My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that. Typically I get over 400 Mbps. From time to time I get the itch to improve my home network uptime, an…

(Tangential, regarding GL.Net routers: I find it satisfying that these routers run OpenWRT out of the box, and top the "Travel routers" category on Amazon: "Overall Pick" and "Amazon's Choice".)

I run several GL.Net routers in a mesh across two continents, some have Starlink and cellular, some on regular ol' fiber. They are bulletproof, highly recommend.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#109

Post by dylan604 »

codethief wrote: post #104
zzyzxd wrote: post #81

I have a GL.iNet travel router. When I am not travel, it connects to the router's second WAN port. If my main internet goes down, it takes me 30 seconds to tether my phone and failover manually. My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that. Typically I get over 400 Mbps. From time to time I get the itch to improve my home network uptime, an…

> My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that. Could you elaborate on this?

I have a friend that is also curious. Their fibre cable was cut by addicts trying to find a source of copper that took a few days to be repaired. Using their hot spot during the outage used up their allotted hot spot bandwidth for the month. My friend would be very interested in how to avoid potential down time in the future.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#110

Post by Havoc »

numbers wrote: post #97
zzyzxd wrote: post #81

I have a GL.iNet travel router. When I am not travel, it connects to the router's second WAN port. If my main internet goes down, it takes me 30 seconds to tether my phone and failover manually. My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that. Typically I get over 400 Mbps. From time to time I get the itch to improve my home network uptime, an…

Is your phone connected to the router through a cable or wirelessly?

They can do both - cable or bluetooth. Don't think wifi
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