Is Starlink Roam with a Peplink Router the ultimate MH internet solution?

[Chris_H]

So, I have finally decided that everything else is a compromise and it’s time to install the Starlink Roam with the Flat High Performance roof top array coupled to a Peplink router! I have the perfect space on the MH roof for it, positioned nicely beside the soon-to-be redundant MH5G rooftop antenna.

Ok it’s expensive and the monthly costs are higher than I really want to pay, but you can pause, and I hope it will give us more bandwidth than we can ever want, along with uninterrupted internet access anywhere we go – Europe or even into North America (maybe one day).

I originally started with MH4G WiFi (Huawei platform) then upgraded to the MH5G (KFE Platform) 12 months ago. The KFE 5G upgrade was a disappointment. The ability to extend WiFi was no longer included and I found that it either didn’t work when in Europe, or just failed! So instead, we are going to try and substitute a Peplink Router for the MH5G Cellular hardware and connecting this into a new more powerful Poyning MIMO MH rooftop antenna.

The Peplink, I hope, will manage two SIM cards, provide WiFi to WAN (grab nearby WiFi) and manage the Starlink connection. I hope it will also seamlessly act as a failover solution when either there is no satellite reception, or we are on pause – defaulting back to LTE data roaming with whatever SIM options we have installed, or just grab nearby WiFi.

Currently, regular satellite receivers tuned into FreeSat increasing lose connection as you descend into France. Good SIM Data options appear to be decreasing and all appear to suffer from bandwidth degradation at peak periods. So, I am hoping that with this new setup we will be able to stream TV content wherever we are; may need to use a VPN, but even without, we should be able to access pay-for content, Prime Video and Netflix (until they IP restrict this too).

I hope that this solution will give us a high data bandwidth for internet connectivity and the ability to stream TV wherever we are in the world!

That’s the theory. So, what am I missing?

 

[OxfordMorgan]

Watching this thread with interest.

I was thinking of either a Peplink or a Teltonika RUTX50; which Peplink are you looking at?

I think the failover on either router should be seamless, but I think with the Peplink you have the ability to 'bond' the channels together to increase the overall bandwidth, but I think this is an additional service you buy into

Poynting MIMO-4-17 looks very interesting

 

[Chris_H]

Using Peplink Max Transit LTEA Worldwide Cat-6 Router (MAX-TST-LTEA-W-T) with the Poynting 7in1 MIMO 4xLTE, 2xWiFi, 1xGPS - Peplink uses all 7 inputs as well as accommodates up to 4 SIM cards...

Yes, I believe you can buy the additional Speedfusion service to gain the extra features, but not sure if I really need it. The option to add this is in the user config menus. Maybe see how it goes...

 

[zac]

that's a serious router at a serious price more options than you can shake a stick at, i would like one of those for sure.

 

[Guigsy]

I've got a Teltonika RUTX50. It's twin SIM, but single modem. So you can only use one at once. It can do bonding, but only if you've got another source plugged into the WAN port. Not sure if the Peplink is the same?

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[Chris_H]

There's a lot in the config for the Peplink that allows you set source priorities and the failover criteria. I am hoping this will make sure that we are always accessing the best internet source, include a WiFi WAN option.

 

[OxfordMorgan]

I've got a Teltonika RUTX50. It's twin SIM, but single modem. So you can only use one at once. It can do bonding, but only if you've got another source plugged into the WAN port. Not sure if the Peplink is the same?

How do you find the RUTX50?

 

[Guigsy]

How do you find the RUTX50?

I've got it connected to the Poynting 2x2 Mimo. It's fine. I've been to a couple of festivals where others are struggling to get any connection from any network and I've been ok, but I think that's more down to the antenna than the router.

The van sits on my driveway with the Teltonika permanently on, it's only a few watts. My work laptop frequently connects the van router instead of my home WiFi... I don't notice most of the time because it's faster.

The SIM switch is a bit annoying, but it might be I've not figured it out yet. You set thresholds where it'll switch if the signal strength isn't good enough. Which works ok. But the switch takes about to 30 seconds. And if both are poor, it just ping-pongs between them. So you set the threshold a bit lower. And then it sticks to a slower service. I can't see a way around this without having dual modems. I occasionally have to manually switch and decide which is better. Poor signal strength sometimes gives better throughput.

Between an EE and a Smarty SIM, I've not been anywhere yet that hasn't had a connection of at least 10Mb/s. Highest I've seen is 150Mb down and 80Mb up. I've not yet seen the benefits of 5G very often.

If Starlink had a reasonable surface mount option (not a hack and not £2500) and I could leave it permanently on without using a few dozen AH per day, I'd have gone for that instead. Maybe in a couple of years.