A newly renovated 3 story home was fitted with a Starlink internet connection and Cat 6 cabling throughout, to cater for televisions, security cameras and Playstations etc. The standard Wi-Fi access point didnt have the range to cover the whole house, and had no capability to connect to Cat-6 cabling. Everything terminated in the Attic.

I needed to find a Wi-Fi access point model that was mesh network capable. It also needed two RJ45 ports to offer a glitch free cat 6 connection for a TV or Playstation. 3 Floors means an AP on each floor. Additionally I need a small switch, a router/firewall and the additional components to convert the Starlink into a Cat-6 capable service. A small cabinet housing the components finished things of neatly.

The tricky part with this is that the Starlink Wi-Fi access point also powers the Starlink receiver, so we found a product that both powers the receiver and has an RJ45 Socket. Power supply not included, so we had to spec that too. A small travel router acted as our firewall and “network” as it issues the IP addresses for all the devices on the network. We chose the TP-Link Deco product because it had the two ports required (LAN & WAN) was mesh capable, though given we are cabling them to the router, technically its an ethernet backhaul mesh network which leaves more wireless bandwidth for the devices. Its also POE (Power Over Ethernet) capable, so no messy wires hanging down by the AP. The design was finished off with a small POE Switch that had enough ports for TVs, IP Cameras, Access Points and a playstation.

The challenging bit

Besides going up and down the Attic ladder, its the network routing thats the fun part. The Starlink issues IP addresses, but only when it has the AP. It doesnt have a firewall, so I decided to use the router to create the network, and route traffic to the reciever. Additionally, the 3 Access Points were self configuring and required the use of an AP. With almost no phone signal in the area, I regretted unpluging the Starlink before attempting to download the app!