5/11/2023

Starlink App for iOS gets remote control VPN

The title might not be quite accurate, but the Behavior is the same.

When your away from home, or not connected to your homebase Starlink network, you can "still" use the Starlink App "remotely" to connect back to your homebase and control your Starlink router.

I have mine set to only fire up at certain times of the day rather than run all night long burning up kilowatts when I'm not there or I'm asleep. 100 watts can add up over time, and I can failover to a cheaper backup provider for when I decide to pause service in RV mode.

The app doesn't "expose" this capability right away, its not intuitive. Perhaps they will update the online docs later.


Tapping on the "word" > NOVUS (cloudy symbol)

Produces a new set of options;


Notice how option one, the Top - has a "go to" > arrow 

Notice how option two, the Bottom - has a "ready to connect" > checkmark

 

Top or "Local" assumes you will shortly be connecting to a Local Wifi to find your Starlink router.

Bottom or "Remote" knows your far from home, but is ready to connect back over the Internet (cloud) to your homebase.. its "VPN" ready since your not at home.

But in both cases I have (red dots) because my Starlink router is currently {powered down} based on its offline power saving mode. Its not really offline per sec.. its "sleeping" and therefore not communicating. It should be waking up in about one hour and then the [Remote] option should go (green dot) and be ready for a virtual private network remote session to update and configure its settings.

This is my best guess at this time.

Its a powerful option if correct.

I began investingating this path due to finding a recent blog entry here;

https://www.starlinkhardware.com/how-to-remotely-connect-to-starlink-app/

Update:

 


 

I was able to remotely connect, it did go (green dot) but the Sleep Schedule setting is not Adjustable remotely, you can't even disable it. Currently it reports you must be connected locally in order to edit the sleep schedule.. which points to this not being  a comprehensive VPN like solution for remote management, rather its a targeted remote command system, which probably depends on some sort of bespoken API based on REST or some other post apocalyptic , web 2.0 protocol.