Starlink and WiFi booster

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wfleenor

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Messages
151
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Double-Wide
Vessel Make
49ft Custom Power Catamaran
I've been using a wifi booster fed to a wifi router onboard for 15 years. Adding SL since headed where other wifi is scarce. Is there an elegant way to serve both to a router where you can select the one to use? I could unplug the booster and run with the SL but would need to physically swap connections to check if other wifi available. Thanks. Of course, other wifi is likely only available when in a marina, so maybe not that big a problem.
 
Why not point your wifi booster to the starlink wifi SID?
 
Once you set up Starlink you won't have any use for the wifi booster equipment.
We have both (although my wifi booster is completely independent of my Starlink system), and have had a few occasions where I was glad that we do.

One was in Oriental, NC. Nice marina with a nice slip shaded by huge trees. Blocked the sun and helped keep the boat cool - they also did a great job at blocking our Starlink signal. A similar case was when we booked a slip up the Eastern Shore in the Chesapeake. We were there over a l9ng holiday weekend and they put us in a nice covered slip. Yup, blocked the sun and Starlink's view of the sky.

Most recently we had a Starlink cable go bad. Starlink troubleshot it and sent us a replacement cable (3 year old system). Problem for us was that it took almost four weeks to arrive. They did credit us a month's service fee and sent the new cable free of charge, but without our back up wifi booster we'd have been out of luck.

I like the redundancy just in case.
 
Having dealt with Starlink for almost 3 years, the only spare you need to have is a cable for the generation 2 system. The connector on the antenna end, has a habit of very slowly backing out due to vibration resulting in a high resistance connection on the power pin and failure of the connector. The generation 2 system depends on friction to hold the connector in. I have 2 generation 2 systems and I make it a practice to put a loop in the cable at the antenna so the loop in the cable puts upward pressure on the connector.

The company I still work for part time in Anchorage has sold a couple of thousand Starlink systems and installed a lot of them. That has been our standard installation practice to reduce the number of cable related failures.
 
I must point out that I will likely have the boat on the hard during hurricane season in Mexico, so I would opt to turn off SL and use a local wifi signal. Giving further thought to the fact I am not likely to be within a given wifi signal for long enough to turn off the SL and use the local signal, then I will have little opportunit to save money by using local wifi.
 
You should use a different router like a Peplink. The SL router doesn't allow for separate connections. Then you can establish multiple connections that will rotate automatically or manually.
I have a TMobile data cell card and as well use wifi at my yacht club. In the summer when we go to Canada I turn on SL and turn off the TMobile card.
 
We work frequently from our boat and reliable communications are a necessity. We have both a WiFi booster with a wireless router and Starlink with a Starlink router (we also have a 3W cellular booster and external antenna). We kept both independent, which provides redundancy and allows us to share a cellular signal to the WiFi booster router when we want to connect over cellular 'back haul' rather than Starlink. To paraphrase another frequently contributing member, "you only need one Internet back haul, that why we have two."
 
I have ethernet adapter to SL, have other ethernet plugged in to that router plus a different wifi network. works great.
 
I have a router onboard that is my network. I don’t use the SL as a network but as a modem providing internet. My router can be switched from SL to Cellular or to WiFi.

However, since getting SL I have cancelled the Cellular contract and WiFi has never worked as well as SL. I should probably get rid of my router and just let SL do the job.
 
I have a router onboard that is my network. I don’t use the SL as a network but as a modem providing internet. My router can be switched from SL to Cellular or to WiFi.

However, since getting SL I have cancelled the Cellular contract and WiFi has never worked as well as SL. I should probably get rid of my router and just let SL do the job.

Similar experience here. I ran SL through Peplink router via SL Ethernet adapter. SL didn't like playing in that sandbox but maybe they've improved. I also had trouble running a VPN over SL. Starlink seems to be a gifted child, just spoiled rotten and doesn't play nice with others.

Peter
 
Replacing your router with a multi-WAN router will accomplish what you want, I think. There are a lot of choices there.

Some of my favorites, lately, come from GL-inet. Something as simple as their Beryl AX might do the job, replacing your existing router with one that can be told, via its web-based UI, to use the amplified WiFi signal or Starlink as your WAN connection. Might not have the range to cover a 49-foot cat, though. They have higher-end devices that can do the same thing. They also have some with cellular modems, like the Spitz AX, that can let you choose between any number of WiFi, 1-2 wired connections, or a subscribed SIM card. IMO these devices are particularly user-friendly, though there is a learning curve similar to that of any home router. As a bonus, these gadgets come with a decent Wireguard implementation (if you're into VPNs) and Adguard Home, so you could eliminate ads for the whole boat pretty trivially.

The thing is, though, they're built for personal travel and/or home use and aren't exactly nautical in build quality. While I've never had one fail, I've also never taken one to sea. Some of 'em run on 5V. I currently have a GL-X3000 (Spitz AX) wall-mounted in our travel trailer behind the TV, and it runs fine on 12V. When we get where we're going, I spend a few minutes with its UI to select the best backhaul (in my case, between passively amplified local WiFi, either of two cellular providers, or Starlink), and then give my wife a thumbs-up.

On our boat I used a Peplink MAX BR1 Mini, which is a much sturdier-looking multi-WAN device that runs on 12V and can switch between WANs, and also up to two cellular SIMs. It is designed to be deployed in vehicles (mostly trucks, but as you can tell by this thread, they find their way into a lot of boats). The user interface is admittedly more a little more data-center oriented (powerful, steeper learning curve). They have pretty good tech support, though it is subscription-based. I've also used their Balance products, in other settings where no cellular is needed, but those seem to be all more expensive these days - you'd be just as well off with a BR1 and just not bothering about putting SIM cards in it.

I've also been experimenting lately with Mikrotik devices - they're product line is ginormous and inexpensive, and they've got quite a few gadgets with Multi-Wan, but the "RouterOS" software has the steepest learning curve I've seen yet (enterprise brands like Cisco and Juniper aside). Any of their recent products that has both wifi and wired ethernet connections will be configurable as a multi-wan router.

In your case, I think the search string "Can the (insert manufacturer here) (model name here) use WiFi as WAN?" is likely your friend. If it has that, you can probably replace your router with it and achieve what you're looking for.
 
Following. We bought a TMobile portable MiFi a few years ago, as TMobile advertised coverage all over the Caribb. They lied! The MiFi works great, good service, and inexpensive.....as long as you're in US waters and can recieve a TMobile tower. We bought a Gen3 Starlink, but have yet to put it up...trying to find the best place to mount it, and the MiFi is working great.
 
You should use a different router like a Peplink. The SL router doesn't allow for separate connections. Then you can establish multiple connections that will rotate automatically or manually.
I have a TMobile data cell card and as well use wifi at my yacht club. In the summer when we go to Canada I turn on SL and turn off the TMobile card.


This wired Ethernet adapter comes in handy to run to your existing Router/Switch
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