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.
Could you elaborate on this?
tl;dr FTTP. A single outage event in 16 months, lasted 40 minutes, whilst asleep.
I'm in the UK and have FTTP through BT. Way back when I also purchased the 4G backup option (Hybrid Connect) that comes with this service. That's an extra £7.50/mo when taken as part of the usual 24-month contract. It's simple to setup and doesn't require any specific maintenance.
Looking back at the logs it's clear (from an actual usage perspective) it's not been worth the £7.50/mo I've been paying for it, but I'll admit it helped give me peace of mind when I was on-call for work so it is easy to justify.
The BT supplied router (which is required if you want to use their 4G backup hardware) keeps a log of "Resilience events".
In the 16 months I've had FTTP it has had exactly one "resilience event". A 40m11s outage that started at 00:20:05 on 28/11/2025. I was unaware of this outage as I was asleep.
It was really useful when I moved house though. I was in the middle of a 24-month contract with BT at my old address so I ported my contract to my new address. This meant they had to come round and install FTTP at the new property, which they couldn't do for a couple of weeks, so I was without home Internet for these two weeks.
Luckily the 4G "Hybrid Connect" backup device wasn't geo-locked (or if it was maybe BT overlooked it given there was an outstanding "Moving house" order on the account) and so it worked perfectly for the ~2 weeks between moving in and FTTP being installed. If this hadn't worked then a temporary 4G router would have worked just as well.
I had a bunch of "resilience events" for this period (it wasn't one continuous event as I was moving/restarting the broadband router for various reasons). During those 13 days the logs show 163GB download and 25GB upload. That's an average of ~150KBps (note the capital B there, in bits-per-second it is ~1.1Mbps) download.
In the 26 months prior to moving (where I was on ~75Mbps FTTC with BT) I had 3 "resilience events". 17m36s, 47m7s, 31m22s. All between midnight and 4am where I wouldn't have noticed, these were also within 1 month of each other, the other 25 months had no problems at all. None.
When my current contract comes to an end I'll move to a different supplier (probably Community Fibre as I can get symmetric 5Gbps for less than I'm paying BT for 1Gbps/120Mbps) and then not worry about a backup. If it is less reliable then I'll look for a solution then.
My current backup is simply to hotspot on my mobile with 5G (good signal here). Doesn't help the others in the house but they can fend for themselves. Neighbours have different suppliers or technologies (DOCSIS vs FTTP) so swapping wifi details would also be an option.
As others have pointed out, a local power-cut that takes out of the FTTP cabinet could easily take out the local 4G/5G masts making a 4G backup solution useless. If this happens I can just take my laptop to a nearby cafe or the co-working space I use. That kind of outage is very rare though round here.
Then again with the sums involved (under £10/month extra) it may just be easier (for peace of mind again) to just plump for something that doesn't really make amazing financial sense as it's just the cost of a pint or two a month.
Is this also A UniFi bug, is Starlink doing IPv6 address assignment in a weird way, or is this a normal/RFC-compliant way of assigning a /56 subnet to a router?
I always assumed routeable prefixes on v6 require DHCPv6 (except for hacks like RFC 7278 and /64 subnets)?
$5/mo for pretty guaranteed connectivity, plus being able to take it around with me on travels is pretty awesome.
A 4G dongle can be purchased for $15, rather than $200 for a Starlink Mini. Then, let's say your main internet source fails and you need to actually use the backup plan beyond the standby amount of 0.5 Mbps. That will cost you a minimum of $50 for Starlink, versus roughly $25 for a month of unlimited cell service. As for standby costs, you can find phone plans for $5 per month tat give a small amount of fast data, as opposed to Starlink's unlimited amount of slow data.
But of course this only works for areas that actually have cell service.
If I've got a situation so bad it takes out both of my connections I've probably got bigger things to deal with than internet access.
The buried fiber getting cut by is really the only thing that kills the connection. Fiber can go for a long time without power from the local grid infrastructure. My cable provider has a mostly orthogonal failure mode (goes down like clockwork with the grid).
Depending on your area you don't even need an external one. A simple 4g dongle would do.
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).
My cell is unusable.
I found it quite absurd that Spectrum (my cable operator) wants to sell me a modem with integrated 5G/4G backup knowing that as soon as the cable plant drops, hundreds of local phones are going to congest the network as well and my "Invincible WiFi(tm)" will end up dead as a dodo.
I'll just throw a Peplink up and throw the cable and Starlink into it and run that as my load balancer.
I then found out that all providers bar one (there are 5 or 6) come along the same street.
So if you are going to go with this option choose carefully your providers!
> It has the advantage of working pretty much anywhere with a view of the sky so no relying on mobile network coverage.
I'm also not sure if $25/month is anything close to the global average for unlimited 4G/5G data (if even available).
What makes Musk different than Blackrock for instance? Or Monsanto, or Shell, or any corporation both of us rely on and support, in return for being able to eat, fuel our car, etc.
Is it because Musk isn't lobbying behind the corporation but doing it publically?
I truly don't understand where ya'll draw the line.
I truly don't care what other people do or want, I just look to ensure I can live the life I desire while respecting that which others want or impose. As if me being angry or boycotting them will change their hearts. If it changes anything it's their tactics (more deception).
Another example is AI. I despise it, and honestly think it's evil. Yet I'm using it to secure financial stability in a way that does not require AI to sustain.
So when AI takes over my programming job I have the alternative already running, thanks to AI.
Don't reject the massive advantages of Starlink because of a man, just as you're not actively starving yourself despite our food supply being basically poison, caused by boards of men.
My girlfriend had been paying for 1Gb fiber for about 5 years at the insistence of the rep because "You stream 4k content and use your internet for work". $110/mo or something. Verizon comes by and sets her up with a modem and an "auto-route smart 2.4GHz/5GHz" router which slots you into a frequency based on...something. Who knows because it didn't work. It just put everything on 2.4GHz.
I noticed while at her house that the internet was painfully slow downloading large files and dug into it.
For those who don't know, 2.4GHz will typically top out around 100Mbps. Around the house you're looking at closer to 50Mbps. With 5Ghz it's much better, about 500Mbps typical, but verizons awful "smart" router just put everything on 2.4GHz.
So for years she had been paying for 1Gbps, Verizon happily taking her money, while she never saw over 100Mbps. It's also not like they tell you anywhere that the router they give you will only realistically offer 1/10th your Gb speed. Such a dumpster tier company. I can only imagine there are tens of thousands being conned by this scheme.
Anyway, I put in a new router and switched to the cheapest plan. The internet is now much faster.
It's because Musk enjoys it.
Any other tu quoque fallacies to dispense with?
Is this about journalists talking about musk, or about musk himself? I mostly learn about his views through his own tweets that twitter always makes sure to serve me in my home page, and "goes for clicks"/"generating outrage" seems to fit well how musk uses his platform. In any case, his politics seem awful to me even without any journalistic mediation of them.
The Unifi 5G modem for the UK [1] is £378 (~USD500) and that's just the hardware, you still have to pay for a suitable SIM.
I can see why some people are drawn to the Starlink option at 1/3 of that price.
1. https://uk.store.ui.com/uk/en/category/internet-solutions/co...
Open support for right-wing parties and politics all over the world.
You dont NEED a starlink like you need food or being able to commute etc.
Tesla, starlink are more a luxury for an average hn user.
I think it's pretty easy to understand.
You have a service you want, but subscribing to it is a clear and direct way to financially support the advancement of fascist, extremist political groups and regimes pushing alarmingly racist and xenophobic policies not only in the US but also across the world.
Does your convenience justify a totalitarian shift? I don't think so. Do you think it does?
Just look at the whole DOGE mess. Brush aside anything you believe can be brushed aside due to incompetence. Look at the result.
Explain exactly what can possibly lead you to believe that his politics are less extreme than you possibly think.
You're talking about the Nazi salute guy, by the way.
Starlink only makes sense as a last resort if LTE coverage is not available in your area.
If you ever visit Bonaire let me know and I can show you the abundance of life we are stewarding on my land.
It's mostly setting healthy boundaries on what we perceive we can affect. I don't buy American food (except Cocoa Rice Crispies), functionally it's a boycott. Is that the reasoning? No, it just tastes like crap.
Tell me more about how Starlink is a luxury.
Especially considering it's a full $10 less than the monthly robbery by our local Telco.
If you can show me the list of people you boycotted due to open support for left-wing parties we can talk.
Or do we only attempt to silence those that have standpoints we don't agree with?
Let me know, I'm new to this silencing of opinion thing but I notice it's what society will democratically choose for given the loud voices in that direction.
Wisdom is preparing for the shift using any legal means neccesary.
Morals are a mostly internal issue anyway, not based on solely external actions. You know the whole stealing bread to feed hungry children idea.
What you are doing we teach our kids to be virtue signaling. Nobody is saying or at least I am not assuming you support Musk if you have Starlink. I simply think you have need for sattelite internet.
Just like I don't automatically assume your reason for eating meat (if you do) is to show your approval for modern slaughtering practices. Or if you wear clothing... does that mean you support exploitative labour?
Also FYI nobody really cares about American policies outside the US. We're mostly busy insulating ourselves from the effects we're perceiving.
More European food cause your food is now weird, more Chinese stuff since you don't manufacture much anymore, less media content cause they all want to teach our kids about more genders we know about.
But we do love Starlink! Fastest internet we ever had here.
Why did Musk buy Twitter? Do you remember how totalitarian-like Twitter was controlled?
Or do you wish me to forget since it was for the left?
The totalitarian shift is coming from people like you who feel like you have a total control on what is true and right. And from that standpoint you then declare others to be racist and xenophobic without attempting to truly understand their reasoning.
Not to mention the ever-increasing lack of tolerance for religion based views. Is it not your consitution that says that all men are born free, and are free to vote based on their OWN conciousness?
Yet they are labeled right-wingers and publically shamed and marginalized when possible. Even when all they want are federal repeals so each state can decide.
Do you not see that you guys have become the totalitarian ones? Wanting to impose how to view even life itself on others.
The issue isn't just Musk's politics. It's that his actions have been evil, the kind of negative impact that major wars have.
We're talking something like 1 million dead people per year with a quarter of those being children. For a level of assistance that cost the US nothing (0.43% of federal spending). This is an evil that in a few years puts you on the list of biggest mass murderers in history.
For all other cases, you can still try to not give money to people who suck by going for fair trade products and stuff like that.
I recently picked up a Starlink Mini to use as a backup connection for my home network. With the new £4.50 standby plan, it's a great way to keep things online if my FTTP connection fails.
My primary FTTP connection is generally excellent offering 5ms latency at best, having a backup; something that is reliant on a string of satelites 600Km above the earth is just fascinating to me.
Starlink Mini is SpaceX's compact satellite dish. It's portable and for this use case - it can be put into 'Standby Mode' for just £4.50 per month.
In August 2025, Starlink replaced their free 'Pause Mode' with a paid 'Standby Mode'. It's pretty reasonable:
The Starlink Mini itself costs £159. That's reasonable for a satellite internet backup solution, and significantly cheaper than most 4G/5G backup solutions with similar capabilities. It has the advantage of working pretty much anywhere with a view of the sky so no relying on mobile network coverage.



One thing that caught me out was getting IPv6 working properly. Starlink supports IPv6 natively but it requires a bit of configuration on the UniFi side to work correctly. There's a bug in UniFi that prevents the default IPv6 route from being assigned automatically, which means you'll need to fix it manually.
Starlink uses Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) which makes port forwarding impossible on IPv4. If you're hosting anything this can be solved by using a Cloudflare Tunnel. IPv6 also solves this by giving you a proper routable address space.
Starlink allocates a /56 IPv6 prefix via DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation.
Technical notes (IPv6 configuration)
Here's how to get it working with UniFi gear:
Navigate to your WAN settings (Settings → Internet → Primary WAN):
Apply the settings and you should see an IPv6 address appear in the 'Internet' field. Now enable IPv6 on your LAN networks using SLAAC for address assignment.
At this point you might think everything is working, but if you try to access IPv6 resources from your LAN clients, you'll find they can't route properly. This is because of a bug in UniFi.
UniFi has a problem where it doesn't automatically assign the default IPv6 route. You'll need to fix this manually via SSH.
Step 1: SSH into your UniFi device (UDM, UDM Pro, etc.)
If you need to set SSH keys first, go to Control Plane → Console → SSH and configure them. The username is root and the password is what you set in the console settings.
Step 2: Check if the default route is missing
ip -6 route show default
This will likely return blank, confirming the problem.
Step 3: Wait for a Router Advertisement
Run a TCP dump to capture the Router Advertisement from Starlink:
tcpdump -i eth7 -vvv icmp6
Wait for an RA (Router Advertisement) packet. It'll look something like this:
10:51:39.297010 IP6 fe80::200:6edd:3e00:101 > ff02::1: ICMP6, router advertisement, length 104
The important bit is the IPv6 link-local address at the start (fe80::200:6edd:3e00:101 in this example). This is your default gateway.
Step 4: Add the default route manually
Replace the IPv6 address and interface with your own values:
ip -6 route add default via fe80::200:6edd:3e00:101 dev eth7
Note: eth7 is typically the WAN interface on a UDM Pro. For other UniFi devices it might be different (e.g., eth4 on a standard UDM).
Step 5: Test from your LAN clients
Try pinging an IPv6 address or visiting an IPv6-only website. It should work now.
This fix is not persistent across UniFi firmware updates. If you update your UniFi device, there's a chance the default route will be removed and you'll need to add it again.
You can either:
For a persistent solution, you could create a script at /data/on_boot.d/20-ipv6-route.sh:
#!/bin/sh
# Check if default IPv6 route exists
if ! ip -6 route show default | grep -q default; then
# Wait for RA and add route
# Replace with your gateway and interface
ip -6 route add default via fe80::200:6edd:3e00:101 dev eth7
fi
Make it executable: chmod +x /data/on_boot.d/20-ipv6-route.sh
The beauty of having Starlink as a secondary WAN connection is that UniFi makes failover pretty straightforward. Configure your Starlink connection as WAN2, set up load balancing with failover priority, and you're done. If my primary connection drops, traffic automatically routes via Starlink.
There's another brilliant benefit I hadn't initially considered: power cuts. I have solar battery storage that keeps the house running during power outages, and because Starlink isn't dependent on local infrastructure (which might also be affected by the same power cut), the internet keeps working. My FTTP connection goes through local cabinets and equipment that stop working when the power goes out, but Starlink just keeps going.
If you've set up Starlink failover with UniFi or run into similar IPv6 quirks, I'd love to hear how it went, drop a comment below.
There I read the labels and where possible buy local.
Your assumption lies on the "without realizing it".
If you realize how bad the people are, you can do something about it.
The likes of Musk are extremely bad, and have been personally responsible for many, many abhorrent developments in both national and foreign stages.
Thus, it's natural that people avoid anything which is directly and indirectly tied to the likes of Elon Musk.
Don't you agree?
"My heart goes out to you" with a throwing gesture that ends with your arm outstretched. Of course, only the final position was blasted all over the press.
It's the easiest non support of my life, I don't use Twitter, don't have a Tesla, don't use grok.
You need to be terribly naive to ignore the fact that the guy known for supporting a swath of fascist and far-right groups, to the point the guy even hosts their events, wasn't casually throwing around Nazi salutes.
The problem is you have no idea what people are invested in what companies. How do you know that when you shop at $friendlySustainableCompany that people like Musk do not have shares there?
That's not an argument that justifies in any way ignoring the people you do know.
Do you think it's ok to ignore the far-right activist who has been deeply involved in election fraud?
I, too, have a Starlink account for emergency backup service that I plan to switch over to Amazon LEO as soon as it's available. Lesser-evil principle at work again. Yes, there are things that aren't great about Amazon, but Amazon's practices are largely in sync with my capitalist values.
Musk's businesses are also compatible with my capitalist values, but those values don't include his special additional bonus values of Nazi-adjacent behavior, association with known pedophiles, sabotaging the government, or active subversion of elections. It's not a religious thing, it's just that given a choice, I'd rather support someone else.