Some rural locations struggle to obtain reliable and fast internet connectivity. Satellite internet has advanced at a dramatic, almost generational pace in the last few years, driven almost entirely by the shift from old‑style geostationary satellites to low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) constellations like Starlink, OneWeb, and Amazon’s emerging Kuiper network.

Latency has dropped from 600-700 ms to 20-40ms.Speed has increased from 5-25Mbps to 100-250+ Mbps. Hardware setup has become simpler with self aligning dishes replacing proffesionally installed satelite hardware.

Our client is based in one such location and had chosen Starlink as their supplier of choice. The standard Starlink hardware offers a single Wi-Fi access point and limited security. Our client required the option to connect their devices via ethernet cable. They also needed to improve the security of their network.

Tolstone designed a solution that replaced the Starlink Wireless access point with an Ethernet converter, a Router/Firewall, and a POE Switch to distribute the ethernet connections. We also installed a new Wireless access point, and a nice cabinate to securely house all the equipment. Finally, the floor ports installed in the building were not cabled up so we had to break out the punch down tools too!

Final Thoughts

In this case, the Starlink internet connection serves as the primary and only internet connection on site. The use of Starlink as a back up network to a broadband or fibre line removes some of the risks of expereincing a damaged cable or other service outage. Dual WAN failover allows a secondary link to take over if the primary fails.