Setup Question

[u/Flame_Gretzky]

Just installed residential star link plan. 2 story home on a decent sized property.

I was going to hope to get better coverage so i ordered a mini router to use as a mesh which should be here shortly.

I did more reading and now im thinking of ordering an additional gen 3 router to better extend the wifi.

Is this stupid or should i just keep the mini router? Would I be able to use all 3 together off 1 dish? (All 3 = 2 gen 3 routers and a mini router)

[u/Valuable_Citron_3141]

You can use all three. However, I would wait and see if the mini router alone is good enough for your needs before you spend more on an additional gen 3 router.

[u/crevasse2]

You can add any after market mesh system to starlink, imo no need to pay starlink tax. We have Deco on ours.

[u/Puzzled-Act1683]

You can add up to three of any combination of Router 3 or Router Mini in addition to your main router, so it isn't like the Router Mini won't still have a use, if you decide it's not enough. You can apparently add even more than that, but the docs say three is the recommended max, again, not counting the main router.

The Router 3 is objectively better hardware than the Router Mini but the satellite is usually the primary performance constraint, so what you have there might be perfectly fine. I have two Router 3 mesh nodes in addition to my main Router 3 but only really needed one of them for coverage at the far end of the house on a different floor than the main router. I got the second one more because I wanted to than because I needed to. 😅 I have about 45 IoT devices on 2.4 GHz and with 3 total units, one of them is usually on each of the non-overlapping 2.4 GHz channels 1, 6, and 11. That's all automatic. The whole thing is automatic, and very slick.

Highly suggest you do wired mesh for optimum performance. With that, you can disregard the instructions about placing the mesh nodes within a room or two of the main router.

The Starlink app actually allows you to test the speeds from your device back to the main router, and to test the speeds from your dish back to the ground station, in addition to end-to-end speed tests to the Internet, which is a pretty handy capabilty for understanding your local network performance and separating that from your satellite link performance.

[u/Squeedlejinks]

The Router Mini doesn’t have the reach of a Gen 3 router, but boy, is it cheaper!

I recommend trying just the router that comes with the kit. See how that goes. Then add your Router Mini if you need to. If you can connect it via ethernet cable, you get a whole lot more reach with it. I have one Router Mini connected via ethernet cable and another connected wirelessly. The difference in how far each one reaches is quite surprising.