Starlink customers in rural and remote areas across the globe appreciate finally having broadband-type services for their homes and businesses. For most of them, the service is excellent and works well.
But some people have a problem: If you are a technologist who wants to remotely access your home lab, or your workplace is connected via Starlink and you're looking to connect from elsewhere, you’re likely aware that their use of non-routable IP addresses prevents you from doing so.
The TL;DR is that even though Starlink uses the IP protocol, the dishes (and the home labs and businesses they serve) cannot be directly addressed on the Internet. Read on for more about why that is, or, skip to the good stuff below and learn how NoPorts gives you remote access with just a few lines of code!
Each satellite dish (dishy) has a non-routable IP address instead of a public, routable IP address. These non-routable IP addresses are in a range reserved for Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT). Internet service providers, like Starlink, use CGNAT addresses to translate private user IPs to a single public IP for Internet access, which lets them manage a large number of customers with limited public IP addresses. This is great for reducing cost and simplifying network management for Starlink, and it’s practical given the IPv4 address shortage.
The other type of non-routable IP address is a 1918 address. You may have noticed that when you go to a friend's house and get on the Wi-Fi, you always get the same address, or close to it. It often starts “192.168.1,” with the last number changing. These 1918 addresses can be used over and over again in peoples’ homes, and as they make a call out to the Internet they get translated to the router's Internet address. This is called “Network Address Translation,” or NAT. The big difference between CGNAT and NAT is that the router at the customer premises in the case of NAT has a routable IP address—in the case of CGNAT, like Starlink, it does not. If your home lab is on the other side of a Starlink dish, you’re pretty much out of luck.
The Good Stuff
Here’s how NoPorts makes it possible for Starlink customers to access a home lab or small business remotely:
- It runs over TCP/IP, but uses a unique addressing system (called atSigns), so Starlink’s non-routable IP address becomes irrelevant.
- It relies on outbound communication, and sets up a secure “meeting place.” As long as your home lab devices have Internet access, authorized people can connect securely, even if the devices are behind a firewall or connected to the Internet via Starlink’s CGNAT network.
- It creates an encrypted connection between devices, one where you can run the remote service of your choice—like RDP, SSH, or even Windows file shares—and ensure that all communication between your devices stays confidential and protected.
- Only you hold your encryption keys, so no one else, including Atsign, can snoop on your connection.
Try NoPorts free for 14 days! We’ll even help you set up your Starlink remote access.
