Starlink & Zoom

[Tortuga]

We had an unusual problem with Zoom at the KH last night. We have a Mac set up on one side of the literature counter for the Zoom Host to monitor the Zoom meeting and attend to it as needed. We have a PC on the A/V desk to connect the sound system to Zoom and we use Starlink for our internet connection.

 

Last night we couldn't get either of the computers to logon to Zoom. We could access the Internet through the wifi but we couldn't access Zoom. I was "assisting" our IT brother, which means I was whispering dumb questions and trying to stay out of his way and communicate his progress via text to the elders that were trying to connect to the meeting. 

 

I tried to access my personal Zoom account from my phone, and it wouldn't connect, it said the network was unstable. I shut off the wifi and I could easily access my Zoom account using my data plan. I asked one of the elders that was going to attend by Zoom to start the meeting from his location and he was able to start it without any problem. So once we discovered that Zoom worked and could be accessed by my device, the IT brother set up his phone as a hotspot and had the A/V PC log into the Zoom meeting through his device. We had the brother that started the meeting from home be the Zoom Host for the rest of the meeting. 

 

There are two separate KH on the property so after the meeting the IT brother and I went over to the other hall so I could access the wifi there, we discovered it had the same issue. We changed the DNS on my device and I could easily access my Zoom account via the wifi after we changed the DNS.

 

I hope the IT experts here can explain this better than I can but it appears there was a DNS issue and Starlink was blocking access to Zoom.

 

[jwhess]

Maybe Elon Musk just doesn't like you...😄

[Tortuga]

33 minutes ago, jwhess said:

Maybe Elon Musk just doesn't like you...😄

It's the beginning of the GT...

[Pabo]

Firstly,

 

 

Secondly,

 

 

Thirdly, did you pay your Starlink bill?

 

Are the 2 halls have there own Starlink devices with their own Wifi, or do you have a common Starlink device, but then it is connected 2 Wifi Routers?

 

My guess that Starlink had lost connection or fell out of the sky.

 

[Witness1970]

https://news.yahoo.com/starlink-spacex-falling-virgin-orbit-155922151.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAwfUBnMgn-7cRVDHz8x8b7eQ3y7T7YeMN7VCXNc49WaImT5ztGLtauWnKpSfqiWqvTdi2qdonxFjb2Vu9y9__l60kex8Jh0xJ9y71alev7KXl3nS7mDZaY-Zz4nu9bIiSdhUcNAHxPAUhOdf0VOZOJ4X9I3c2QLw7VLdd9t2Fb5

 

😁

Edited April 14, 2023 by Witness1970

[Tortuga]

7 hours ago, Pabo said:

Firstly,

The two KH are separate and have their own Starlink gateway.

We were able to access the internet from the PC, Mac and personal devices through the Starlink gateway, Zoom is the only site that we are aware of that was blocked by Starlink.  

I heard that it worked fine for the meeting for service the next morning.

[Pabo]

6 hours ago, Tortuga said:

The two KH are separate and have their own Starlink gateway.

We were able to access the internet from the PC, Mac and personal devices through the Starlink gateway, Zoom is the only site that we are aware of that was blocked by Starlink.  

I heard that it worked fine for the meeting for service the next morning.

 

That is strange. That means Starlink is monitoring your site connections. Not sure how many brothers there that use Starlink, that may cause them to limit the amount of access they grant to Zoom due to its bandwidth at certain times.

 

Maybe you should consider using a VPN just to mask your Zoom connection. Also having a mobile failover connection available just in case it happens again.

[Tortuga]

44 minutes ago, Pabo said:

 

That is strange. That means Starlink is monitoring your site connections. Not sure how many brothers there that use Starlink, that may cause them to limit the amount of access they grant to Zoom due to its bandwidth at certain times.

 

Maybe you should consider using a VPN just to mask your Zoom connection. Also having a mobile failover connection available just in case it happens again.

Changing the DNS on my device let me access Zoom. What does that mean?

[Pabo]

9 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Changing the DNS on my device let me access Zoom. What does that mean?

 

Changing the DNS on the providers router or your device may allow you to bypass the configuration of the device where the provider may limit, restrict or grant you access to various websites, regions etc. Most will use 8.8.8.8 as their DNS which is Google, but it grants you to search other regions tmother than by your internet providers region. Another one is 1.1.1.1 which is Cloudflare.

 

VPN's are similar but more complex in their approach where they can put your device in another part of the world to where you are actually located. Handy if you wish to view various media outlets or access to other global websites instead of being your your allocated region.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Pabo

[Witness1970]

I am glad that everyone ignored my little joke when I posted that link.

[Qapla]

It is possible that the data file that the DNS was using got corrupted for some reason and that's why changing the DNS worked - it does happen ... I have had it happen on occasion. It may not have been Starlink trying to deny anything, simply a corrupted data file for that DNS that most likely was corrected as soon as they discovered the issue and were able to refresh the data file.

 

 

[Tortuga]

I think Eric Yaun said something about Elon Musk on Twitter that he didn't like...

[Ursula Hoener]

I completely restarted my Starlink network and now zoom woks fine on my computer.  Must just be a little glitch