Why Is My Starlink Slow? 5 Causes and Solutions

If you’re noticing that your Starlink internet isn’t living up to the promise of high speeds, there are a few common reasons behind it, and most have straightforward fixes.

Starlink speeds can drop because of hardware issues, local network issues, or even your virtual private network (VPN) settings. This guide will help you identify the exact cause of your Starlink slowdown and show you how to fix it. 

Is My Starlink Slow or Is It Just Me?

Starlink promises download speeds between 25 and 220 Mbps, and many users see well over 100 Mbps under normal conditions. But those numbers can fluctuate, sometimes quite a bit, depending on your location, time of day, and satellite load.

If your speeds dip below 50 Mbps now and then, it doesn’t necessarily mean your Starlink is “slow.” It’s often just the normal variation of a satellite network doing its thing. That said, consistent lag or speeds far below 25 Mbps, especially during non-peak hours, may signal a real issue.

Here’s a quick self-check you can run to figure out where you might stand:

1. Test your speed: Run speed tests using a third-party tool like speedtest.net at different times of day to account for both peak and non-peak hours. 
2. Compare results: Check your results against Starlink’s USA-wide median. This shows what most Starlink users in your country are getting.
3. Gauge results: If your results are close to the median, your setup’s fine; if they’re consistently much lower, it’s worth a closer look.

Why Is My Starlink Slow? 5 Common Causes

Starlink connections can slow down for a number of reasons. Here is a list of common causes and solutions you can use to figure out how to improve Starlink speed: 

1. Network congestion during peak hours: Speeds often dip in the evening when more users are online and total bandwidth is shared across the network.
2. Bad weather: Rain, snow, or fog can absorb or scatter satellite signals, causing temporary slowdowns or interruptions.
3. Obstructions and dish placement: Trees, buildings, or other structures can block your dish’s line of sight to the sky, disrupting signal strength.
4. Wi-Fi or router bottlenecks: Older routers can’t handle Starlink’s full speeds.
5. VPN settings or location: Some VPNs route traffic inefficiently, which can increase latency.

How to Diagnose and Manage Network Congestion with Starlink

Network congestion occurs when a lot of users in your coverage area are online at the same time. Slowdowns can happen because there is a limited capacity of bandwidth available. 

Network congestion is usually the worst between 6 and 11pm local time. You may see speeds dropping as much as 50% and experience more lags and buffering while streaming during these hours.

You can easily observe this when you monitor your internet speeds throughout the day. Here are some ways to diagnose the issue:

1. Monitor your internet speeds throughout the day: You will notice predictable slowdowns by as much as 50% in the evening, then see them recover during off-peak hours.
2. Check your plan type: Users on the Roam/Mobile plan are often deprioritized first and will notice the biggest slowdowns. 
3. Look for all day slow downs: Starlink connection speeds should stay between 50 and 200 Mbps throughout the day. Faulty equipment may play a role if speeds consistently drop below this range at different times of day. 
4. Compare wired connection speeds against Wi-Fi speeds: Plug your device directly into your Starlink router using an ethernet cable. Now run the same test over Wi-Fi. If the speeds stay the same, then the issue is network congestion, not your Wi-Fi router. 

How to Make Starlink Faster During Peak Usage

You may not be able to avoid network congestion altogether, but you can work around it by making some simple changes. Here’s how: 

1. Consider upgrading your plan: Users on the Starlink Residential plan get higher priority during congestion than users on the Roam/Mobile plan, who have the lowest priority and will be impacted the most. Priority or Business plans have bandwidth reserved for times of network congestion, but are more expensive, as you would expect. 
2. Use ethernet or upgrade your Wi-Fi router: Wi-Fi interference can slow down your connection, so try wiring your device directly to the router. You can also try upgrading to a wireless router with better coverage. 
3. Prioritize important tasks: Give work meetings and work VPNs priority and save streaming or downloads until off-peak hours.

How to Tell if Bad Weather is Affecting Starlink and Boost Speeds

Starlink usually performs well during mild weather conditions like fog or strong winds, but heavy rain or snowfall may lead to temporary signal loss or slowdowns. That’s because moisture in the air can absorb and scatter radio signals, leading to heavy latency (lag times and buffering). Heavy rain, snow, ice, and even dense fog can block signals and impact your Starlink connection.

It’s pretty easy to detect bad weather and determine if that is causing your Starlink slowdown. Here are two of the easiest and fastest ways to check:

1. Check the weather: This is kind of a no-brainer, but if there is currently a storm happening in your service area, bad weather is the most likely culprit.
2. Use the Starlink app: The Status page may show “Obstructed” or “No Signal Received” if weather is blocking transmissions.
3. Watch for temporary drops. If speeds recover once conditions clear, the issue was atmospheric, not equipment.

How to Make Starlink Faster During Bad Weather

Bad weather is unavoidable in most cases, but you can still maintain a good internet connection even if the odds are against you. Here are a few tips to make Starlink faster even during the worst weather:

1. Keep the dish clear: Brush off snow, ice, or water so it can maintain a signal. You can even enable Starlink’s built-in capability to melt snow and prevent service degradation. 
2. Angle for runoff: Tilt the dish slightly so rain and melted snow slide off instead of pooling.
3. Secure the dish: Strong winds can shift alignment; tighten mounts if needed.
4. Use Ethernet indoors: A wired connection helps you get the best possible speed when signal quality drops.
5. Pause background activity: Save bandwidth for critical tasks like work calls or streaming during storms.

How to Find and Fix Starlink Dish Obstructions 

Your dish needs a clear, unobstructed view of the sky to communicate with Starlink satellites. Even small gaps in visibility caused by trees or buildings can interrupt your connection.

It’s not always easy to spot an obstruction. Even small things like a single tree branch or a chimney tower can block communication with the Starlink satellite if it blocks your dish’s line of sight. Here are some ways to spot interference:

1. Use the Starlink app: The Obstruction tool can show whether something is blocking the dish’s view.
2. Look for repeating drops: Frequent, short interruptions throughout the day often point to satellites moving behind nearby obstacles.
3. Inspect the area: Check for trees, buildings, or structures above or near the dish’s angle to the sky.

How to Make Starlink Faster by Fixing Obstructions

Obstructions or poor dish placement are easy to fix in most cases. It often comes down to common sense measures like removing branches or relocating your satellite dish. Here are some steps you can take to give your dish an unobstructed view of the sky:

1. Trim or remove obstructions: Cut back branches or move small barriers out of the line of sight.
2. Raise the dish: Use a taller mount or place it on a roof to clear surrounding objects.
3. Relocate if needed: Move the dish to an open area with full sky exposure – ideally with a wide northern view in most of North America.

How to Check and Fix Wi-Fi or Router Bottlenecks with Starlink

Starlink often provides faster internet speeds than competing service providers. But many Wi-Fi routers, especially older models, can’t fully handle Starlink’s top speeds. That means you may experience issues like high latency or packet loss even if your Starlink connection is healthy. This problem is even more common if you have multiple devices using the same connection. 

Identifying Wi-Fi/router issues takes a little bit of technical know-how, but you don’t need to be an expert to perform a few simple checks. Here are some basic tests you can run to confidently diagnose Wi-Fi/router issues:

1. Test with Ethernet: Connect your device directly to the Starlink router with an Ethernet cable. If the speeds improve, the Wi-Fi is the bottleneck. 
2. Disconnect all but one device from the network: If the connection speed improves, that means your Wi-Fi network is oversaturated. 
3. Check your router’s Wi-Fi protocol: It should have either Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 protocol to support higher speeds and multiple devices. Underpowered routers (Wi-Fi 4 or lower) can contribute to Wi-Fi bottlenecks.

How to Make Starlink Faster by Fixing Wi-Fi Issues

Wi-Fi issues can be easy to fix in many cases. Here are some quick and easy ways to stop Wi-Fi performance from hindering your online activities:

1. Use an Ethernet connection: A wired link avoids Wi-Fi interference and gives you Starlink’s full available speed.
2. Upgrade your router: Choose a modern router that supports Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 to handle faster speeds and multiple devices.
3. Relocate your router: Place it in a central, open location for even coverage. Avoid putting it inside cabinets, closets, or near large metal objects.
4. Limit device usage during peak hours: Pause big downloads or disconnect devices you aren’t using, like smart TVs or game consoles, to free up bandwidth.

How To Spot VPN Slowdowns for Starlink and Speed Up

VPNs protect your privacy by encrypting your data, but that extra step takes time and can reduce your overall speed. They also reroute your internet traffic through VPN servers, which adds distance and latency, especially if the server is far away or overloaded. Together, these two factors can slow your Starlink connection.

Most home VPNs are very user-friendly these days, which makes testing your connection speed easy. You can use these easy tests to determine if your VPN is slowing down your Starlink connection:

1. Test speeds with and without your VPN: Disconnect from your VPN and run a speed test using a third-party tool like speedtest.net. Then reconnect to your VPN and run the test again. If the speeds are dramatically different, the problem is most likely your VPN. 
2. Try different VPN servers: Connect to different servers that are closer to your physical location. If local servers have higher speeds, the problem is most likely with your VPN server. 
3. Test with different VPN protocols: Some VPNs will allow you to switch protocols. You may find that some VPN protocols are more efficient and better equipped to handle Starlink speeds. 

How to Make Starlink Faster by Fixing VPN Settings

Once again, making changes to your VPN settings is fairly painless. Here are some options you can explore to improve your connection speed without sacrificing your online privacy:

1. Choose a faster VPN protocol: If available, switch to WireGuard, which has a low encryption overhead and better performance on high-speed connections.
2. Use nearby servers: Connect to servers close to your physical location to reduce latency. PIA VPN even color-codes server latency in the apps (green = good ping, orange = worse ping), so you can instantly spot faster servers.
3. Limit VPN use to sensitive tasks: Keep your VPN active only for activities that truly need privacy, like banking or work access.

When to Contact Starlink Support

If you’ve already run through all the suggestions listed above and still haven’t found a solution, you may want to contact Starlink support for assistance. 

Here are a few times when Starlink can help diagnose the problem faster:

• You experience persistent slow speeds throughout the day with no clear pattern or explanation. 
• You experience repeated disconnections or sudden drops that aren’t related to weather or network congestion. 
• If your Starlink app reports hardware issues or your dish has been physically damaged.
• You want to change plans but have specific questions. 

Only contact Starlink if you’ve ruled out local issues. Since Starlink can’t help with these problems, you want to save this step as a last resort. Try to provide them with as much detailed information as possible about the issue and the different tests you’ve run to help diagnose the problem faster. 

How to Prevent Future Starlink Slowdowns

Whether it’s dropped connections, slow speeds, or frequent lags, problems with your Starlink connection can be a major headache. And while some slowdowns may be unavoidable due to bad weather or network congestion, many can be minimized or prevented altogether. 

Here’s how to prevent future Starlink slowdowns.

1. Optimize Dish Placement

Place your dish in a spot where it will have zero obstructions year-round. Make sure the dish is pointed toward the sky and keep your trees trimmed to prevent blocked signals. You can also elevate the mount if you are surrounded by tall buildings or vegetation. 

2. Upgrade Your Router

Use a newer router with Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 protocols that can handle multiple high-speed devices efficiently. You should also look for one that uses gigabit Ethernet ports to handle faster wired speeds. Finally, place your router in a central location within your home to provide even coverage to all devices.

3. Use a Multi-WAN Setup

You can minimize the impact of network congestion by implementing a multi-WAN setup, which allows your system to use multiple internet connections simultaneously. Basically, this kind of setup will automatically switch you to a back up internet connection if your primary connection slows down or drops. This can be especially useful if you need to access remote work tools like video conferencing or cloud-based applications during peak hours of usage. 

4. Manage VPN and Bandwidth Hogs

VPNs can add latency and reduce internet speeds in some cases. You may wish to disable your VPN temporarily or choose a more efficient protocol like WireGuard instead. You can also use a feature like split-tunneling to choose which apps or websites use the VPN connection to reduce load.

Another thing to consider is scheduling connected devices to perform backups and uploads during non-peak hours. 

FAQs