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Rookie trying to setup starlink main router and ap/mesh node (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by Argetlam101@alien.top to c/homenetworking@selfhosted.forum

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I will try and be succinct but include all the details, any help would be greatly appreciated!

I live in a rural area and my only option is starlink which I've used for 5 years now so I have a Gen 1 dish and router; this means I don't need to have an ethernet adapter as I can plug any router into the power supply for the dish. I've never had the need for a different router, until now, and it only has 1 port on it.

I have a new build home with 10 cat6 cables (one of which comes from my cameras nvr) ran to all the different rooms that all come together in the hall closet/structured media box. Currently I only have the office cat 6 plugged into the router but ideally would like them all to be connected should the need arise to have hard wired connections in the other rooms.

Additionally 1 of the cat 6 cables runs 40 feet to my detached workspace catty-corner to my house into another structured media box where I'd like to put another router/access point/mesh node(the wifi connects but barely works). However whatever i put there I would like to have 3 more cat 6 cables hard wired into the ap/node so that I'm not using all my wifi bandwidth on the devices/tvs out there.

I've tried looking up the best way set this up and honestly I just keep getting lost. I saw a previous post from about 2 weeks ago about a tp link 3000 router being used as the main router and another as an access point but the main router wouldn't have enough ports(looks like theres normally 4). Do I have to have a switch in the main house or are there routers with enough ports (i dont mind replacing starlink router)? And is that something I can just plug all the cat6 cables into the switch and then plug that into the router?

Obviously I'm not very savvy with this kind of stuff, but I appreciate you taking the time to read this and any help.

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[–] DizzyAd9643@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I would suggest that you get a TP-Link Deco Mesh. It can be configured in AP(Access Point) mode or in Router mode. So you would connect the first one to the Ethernet coming from the Starlink. Configure your Deco using the APP on your smart phone. Set it up in AP mode. The connect and configure the next Deco node. You can have up to 10 Deco satellite nodes in the mesh.

So once you have all of the Deco mesh nodes configured in AP mode, use the second port on the Main Deco Node to connect to an unmanaged Ethernet switch. From there connect all of your Ethernet lines to the switch.

Now connect the Ethernet cable in your detached workspace to one of the Deco nodes. If you need more than one Ethernet connected device in the detached workspace, just add another switch, either before the Deco in that space or after using the second Ethernet Port.

Now you will have Wi-Fi everywhere using the same SSID and multiple Ethernet connections.

The main thing to make sure is that you either place the Starlink Router into "Bridge Mode and disable the native Wi-Fi. OR Simply ignore the Starlink Wi-Fi and connect nothing to it.