alt.hn

3/16/2026 at 8:07:29 AM

Starlink Mini as a failover

https://www.jackpearce.co.uk/posts/starlink-failover/

by jkpe

3/16/2026 at 7:58:11 PM

We've used this in San Francisco to great effect. Once the Internet went down and I took our portable battery to the roof with the Mini and my wife was only a few minutes on her phone hotspot before she was able to have meetings normally. Great functionality.

by arjie

3/16/2026 at 4:52:54 PM

I have a GL.iNet travel router. When I am not travel, it connects to the router's second WAN port. If my main internet goes down, it takes me 30 seconds to tether my phone and failover manually. My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that. Typically I get over 400 Mbps.

From time to time I get the itch to improve my home network uptime, and I have to keep reminding myself that the current setup is fine.

by zzyzxd

3/16/2026 at 8:01:11 PM

> My carrier detects and throttles hotspot traffic by measuring packets TTL, so I tweaks the router's iptables to dodge that.

Could you elaborate on this?

by codethief

3/16/2026 at 6:44:23 PM

(Tangential, regarding GL.Net routers: I find it satisfying that these routers run OpenWRT out of the box, and top the "Travel routers" category on Amazon: "Overall Pick" and "Amazon's Choice".)

by nine_k

3/16/2026 at 7:29:05 PM

Is your phone connected to the router through a cable or wirelessly?

by numbers

3/16/2026 at 7:39:38 PM

I was looking at the Standby plan a few months ago. There was some talk as to needing to activate it to full speed and price at least once per year or pay an extra fee which makes it a lot less attractive.

by nickcw

3/16/2026 at 9:16:26 AM

I also do this. Xfinity went out for a few hours earlier this month and Unifi failed over almost instantly, and within minutes we had high speed internet once I upgraded us. The standby mode would have been plenty for basic web browsing, too.

$5/mo for pretty guaranteed connectivity, plus being able to take it around with me on travels is pretty awesome.

by mynameisvlad

3/16/2026 at 7:44:26 PM

I was paying for gigabit with the local ISP and it slowed down and lost connection so frequently I bought a Starlink (the regular one, not the mini) as a "backup."

As per the usual, my internet went down and I switched to the backup Starlink. After working with it for about a week I cancelled my ISP.

Turned out around 350MBPS down was fine for everything I was doing (and it's way more reliable).

by SunshineTheCat

3/16/2026 at 9:46:49 AM

What is the role of Unifi here? I read the article and went to their site but I still have no clue.

by intrasight

3/16/2026 at 12:24:31 PM

Unifi is one of the few consumer-grade routers that supports dual WAN.

by QuiEgo