Latest Tech Support Call - Don’t Use Starlink as Planes Can Block the Satellite Signal 🤪

I highly doubt the Sonos support person told you to “fully dismantle (your) Starlink system.”  Nice try, though.

You are correct and I should have clarified.  His direction was to disconnect and not use Starlink as it is not compatible with Sonos.  I did not get the impression that he was suggesting that I break the Starlink modem and receiver down into individual parts.

Hi @mcs1,

The support agent you spoke with was mostly right; Satellite connections aren’t a supported network type for use with Sonos, our system requirements page lists this as unsupported and has more information about what you do need. The agent was wrong about planes blocking the signal however and I’ve left feedback on the case regarding this.

While Starlink isn’t supported, it doesn’t mean it wont work, just that we are unable to troubleshoot and offer support for these types of systems. I’ve found a few threads that might help you getting Sonos and Starlink playing nicely enough to work:

I hope these links help!

Thanks Jamie! 🍻

A plane can block the signal only when located in a specific spot relative to the satellite and receiver. In general planes need to be moving in order to remain airborne. A block, if any, would be momentary.

Which, oddly enough, was enough to get my friend to dump StarLink. Although I don’t think airplanes were blocking. But he would get an inexplicable drop in signal for about 2 minutes, roughly every hour, so much so that it was interfering with online meetings. Had it been more predictable, I suspect he could have scheduled around it. It was easier to ignore with his Sonos playing Spotify, not a huge issue, but inexcusable for work purposes. The vagaries of being in the boonies without a wired internet connection of any type, I’m afraid. 

Not Starlink but the similar but way older Hughes system. We regularly had connection issues from competing RF signals, some were easy to find, some remained a mystery. 

Sometimes just moving the antenna 20 feet helped  that was once a buried power line and we got lucky picking the direction we moved the antenna.

We found that as long as the system did not lose the connection to the satellite small losses were worked around similar to normal dropped packets.

Not to mention solar storms and heavy rain / clouds.