Official Your Experience with TP-Link and Starlink
Official Your Experience with TP-Link and Starlink
Hey Starlink Users! This One Is for You!
We have started to see an increase in the number of users, especially with summer quickly approaching, mentioning that they are using a TP-Link Router or Mesh Network with their Starlink Internet Connection.
If you have used Starlink in the past, our teams would appreciate hearing about any issues with setup, your solution, and the overall performance/stability of your network so that we may create resources based on your feedback to help future Starlink users.
Our team has already prepared a few resources to guide you through the setup process, including guides on How to Configure a Static Route for Your Gateway – allowing you to manage your Starlink connection while connected to your TP-Link wireless network.
For a Complete List of the New Starlink Support Resources:
Story: Getting Started with TP-Link and Starlink
What Was Your Experience Configuring and Using a Starlink Connection with TP-Link?
Did using a TP-Link Router or Deco Mesh improve the stability or performance of your network?
Do You Use any Smart Devices or Cloud Cameras with your Starlink Connection?
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I've been a Starlink user since early beta days.
Originally, I was using Deco M5's (6 of them around my house and garage all with wired backhaul) with the Master Deco connected to Starlink and all traffic routing through the master. I didn't notice any issues with configuring it to work, but performance was not great. I also have a few dozen IoT devices on my network and the network was mostly flat because the Guest network on the Deco's didn't work that well.
Due to the need to monitor my bandwidth usage on Starlink, I switched to using 4 Omada APs, a TLSG1016PE switch and an OpenSense firewall. This let me both see where all the traffic was coming from and securely move the IoT devices to a separate VLAN and configure rules to prevent my Xboxes from using the internet without explicit permission.
It has made a significant performance improvement - from 40-60mpbs to up to 200mpbs on a good day.
It was incredibly complicated to learn all the Omada config and VLAN config, but it's working!
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I have been using Starlink with my network for almost 2 years now. The mesh network consists of 9 EAP's (EAP235, EAP615, EAP610 outdoors, EAP225 outdoors).
The network is controled with the OC200. I use a Firewalla Gold router in Load balance mode. I orginaly used a TL- 605 router but had to switch to the Firewalla router as the R605 was not reliable in regeards to Load balance and Fallover if the Starlink or DSL connection fails. It also did a poor job or load management.
The Network is large, covering albost 5 acres of seemless WiFi coverage. The avarage number of devices connected is over 100 with a mix of 2.4 Ghz for camers and IOT and 5 Ghz for computers and media.
With the exception of the TL-605 Router, the TP Link gear has been exceptional and we get over 100 MB of bandwith over the property.
I operate Starlink on the Bridge mode with the optional dongel. It works seemlessly with the network.
The netwok is totaly hands off and with the exception of occoasional firmware updates I never need to touch it. I also use 2 -TL-SG2008P switches and about 3/4 of the AP are operated with hardwired backhaul. Some longe range AP are wireless backhaul and use directional Yagi antennas.
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@Riley_S
I forgot until I saw wlbryce's reply that I didn't have my Deco M5 connected directly to Starlink, I had a TL-R600VPN router that was acting as my router, and the Deco mesh network was just in AP mode.
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Good to hear that you were able to find a solution with Omada, but do you remember what your experience was like with your Decos? We haven't see any reports of performance issues between the two, but we would love to investigate further, especially since you had them in AP mode using another router.
I believe, at least according to other users, that after configuring the Static Routes, you can see the overall usage of your Starlink Connection from the Starlink App; but since you were able to configure your Omada network, it looks like you were able to find a solution that works for your network.
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I do have to say: that is quite the network to be running through Starlink; with so many EAPs do you ever see your network performance decrease based on the devices connected and traffic to each AP?
Also, one of our biggest questions in regards to Starlink was how IoT devices and cameras perform over the connection. If you have Cloud Cameras, do you ever see issues with the recordings or viewing live streams outside of your network? Also, have you had any odd behaviors from your IoT devices that could be attributed to Starlink, such as a cloud disconnect or setting reset?
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Because most of the AP's are running a hardwired backhaul (we pulled CAT6 with power and or water). We do not see an issue with performance, even handoff are seamless and show little degradation.
We do see some issues with cameras. We have a dual camera setup with Google Nest cameras and Wyze cams. We had to assign all cameras static IP's or when the Starlink has a coverage disconnect sometime we would lose a feed and the camera would not reconnect without a power cycle (only with the Wyze Cams). This issue was verified with checking the disconnect to the Starlink log. I think it has to share some of the blame with how the connection sharing algorithm (Load Balance) with the router operation.
The Nest Cams have a different issue and we have not totally figured it out. Cameras will go black screen, then recover, (and sometime not recover).
I have no issue with viewing video off the Wyze SD card, never had one fail.
No issues with IoT devices including weather stations, tank water level sensors, remote animal door systems, and many other data systems.
I do have a low badwithy DSL connection that pick up the slack if and when the Starlink drops due to coverage or network issues. But the high bandwidth is covered by Starlink.
So, this might keep me from having some issues. So in the end Load Balance with the router might have some issues with the cameras. But overall it works pretty flawlessly!
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@Riley_S I have a Deco m5 mesh behind the TP-Link WAN load balancer ER-605 which then connects to Starlink. The lack of static routing in the Deco m5 is a pain and limits my ability to monitor starlink easily. I have had a request in to add that support for a few years. If this initiative can add that support that would be great.
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Hey @snackpack
Good and Bad News, Static Routes on Deco is something that our teams have been developing, and we are seeing the feature rollout to many Deco Models over the last few months, with more to come. Bad News: While the M5 has received some of the 1.6 features, it does not appear that the Static Route Function has been added to the model yet.
We even created an FAQ to address the Static Route behavior specifically for Starlink and Deco:
Configuring a Static Route on Deco for Starlink
What has your solution been since you cannot configure the route, if you don't have a solution, what is the process for checking/managing your Starlink Gateway?
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@Riley_S thanks for the update. I use the remote access feature from starlink to check basic stats. BW testing I use local clients. If I run into bigger issues I connect to a port on the ER-650. It works, but it is not a perfect solution. Would the X20/25 allow static routes?
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Helpful: 5
Views: 6181
Replies: 20