4 ms·

Is this used by starlink? A recent video review was complaining about a proprietary Ethernet cable with a weird adapter and high cost.

wyuenho 5y ago
That Starlink adaptor is just a regular RJ45 in waterproof housing. The complain about it has no merit as it's meant to be connecting to the dish outside the house.
exikyut 5y ago
No, that's all firmly within the consumer class end of the spectrum. IIUC (this is speculative presumption, the worst kind :P) the Ethernet port may use a form of USB, or at least what looks like a USB-like connector, possibly to provide power to the module so it can do its <proprietary>-to-Ethernet thing. (I am of course boggled at how the proprietary thing is cheaper than just adding Ethernet full stop.) It would seem sufficiently low numbers of users want an Ethernet port that this strategy is actually cost effective. I'm a little surprised at this to be honest, all the CPE (consumer premises equipment) junk/ewaste I've ever seen is typically littered with 100/1000Mbps Ethernet ports (usually four), regardless of Wi-Fi capability. And this is not to mention the fact that StarLink is touted as a low-latency network, so wouldn't it only make sense to proactively maintain that status quo over the last few feet? I definitely would get just a tad uncomfortable if I were ever handed eg a Wi-Fi only fiber modem...
- octoberfranklin 5y ago
  > (I am of course boggled at how the proprietary thing is cheaper than just adding Ethernet full stop.) I think their hope was that if the cord were to be yanked with enough force, it would not damage the expensive dish module and force the customer to mail that whole thing back for repairs. If you yank hard enough on an RJ45 cable, it will probably damage the female jack. That jack is cheap and can be replaced, but not by customers in the field. The dongle doesn't appear to have any kind of retention clip, so it should just yank out without any damage to anything. And if the dongle gets damaged it's cheaper and less expensive to ship overnight than a whole new dish. This is just my theory.
NelsonMinar 5y ago
There's two major versions of Dishy (and two variants of the first with the same cabling). The first round Dishy has what looks like an ordinary Ethernet cable. But there's a surprise inside! 100W of PoE with a wiring incompatible with every other PoE standards. The second square Dishy has a proprietary connector. But the cable itself is just a Cat5E cable. Again with unusual PoE wiring and a lot of power. The square Dishy v2 ships with no ethernet ports btw; you're supposed to use the proprietary cable between their router and Dishy, then use WiFi to the router. Yes, everyone hates it. You can buy an ethernet adapter for cheap but it's a few weeks to get it shipped. Speculation is this is all related to a parts shortage. Details on the proprietary cable: https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/s0rih3/gen2_dishy_cable_is_just_shielded_cat6a_with/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/s0rih3/gen2_dishy...

wyuenho 5y ago

That Starlink adaptor is just a regular RJ45 in waterproof housing. The complain about it has no merit as it's meant to be connecting to the dish outside the house.

exikyut 5y ago

No, that's all firmly within the consumer class end of the spectrum. IIUC (this is speculative presumption, the worst kind :P) the Ethernet port may use a form of USB, or at least what looks like a USB-like connector, possibly to provide power to the module so it can do its <proprietary>-to-Ethernet thing. (I am of course boggled at how the proprietary thing is cheaper than just adding Ethernet full stop.) It would seem sufficiently low numbers of users want an Ethernet port that this strategy is actually cost effective. I'm a little surprised at this to be honest, all the CPE (consumer premises equipment) junk/ewaste I've ever seen is typically littered with 100/1000Mbps Ethernet ports (usually four), regardless of Wi-Fi capability. And this is not to mention the fact that StarLink is touted as a low-latency network, so wouldn't it only make sense to proactively maintain that status quo over the last few feet? I definitely would get just a tad uncomfortable if I were ever handed eg a Wi-Fi only fiber modem...

octoberfranklin 5y ago
> (I am of course boggled at how the proprietary thing is cheaper than just adding Ethernet full stop.) I think their hope was that if the cord were to be yanked with enough force, it would not damage the expensive dish module and force the customer to mail that whole thing back for repairs. If you yank hard enough on an RJ45 cable, it will probably damage the female jack. That jack is cheap and can be replaced, but not by customers in the field. The dongle doesn't appear to have any kind of retention clip, so it should just yank out without any damage to anything. And if the dongle gets damaged it's cheaper and less expensive to ship overnight than a whole new dish. This is just my theory.

NelsonMinar 5y ago

There's two major versions of Dishy (and two variants of the first with the same cabling). The first round Dishy has what looks like an ordinary Ethernet cable. But there's a surprise inside! 100W of PoE with a wiring incompatible with every other PoE standards. The second square Dishy has a proprietary connector. But the cable itself is just a Cat5E cable. Again with unusual PoE wiring and a lot of power. The square Dishy v2 ships with no ethernet ports btw; you're supposed to use the proprietary cable between their router and Dishy, then use WiFi to the router. Yes, everyone hates it. You can buy an ethernet adapter for cheap but it's a few weeks to get it shipped. Speculation is this is all related to a parts shortage. Details on the proprietary cable: https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/s0rih3/gen2_dishy_cable_is_just_shielded_cat6a_with/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/s0rih3/gen2_dishy...