I have an older (circa 2015) Pepwave Max BR1. I’m having trouble with the WAN port not working.
I initially tried my Starlink connection over it and the green light by the port does not come on. Admin just continues to say “Connecting…” but that never changes. I also tried hooking up my cable modem to the WAN port which responded the same way.
I tried a factory reset on the Max BR1 and changed no settings but got the same result. Is there a specific setting in the Peplink interface that is required for the WAN port to negotiate a connection or is my WAN port dead or simply just too old?
Thanks for anyone’s help!
Try a small switch in between the peplink and the starlink.
Do you get a green light in both directions?
Is your starlink in bridgemode or router mode?
Try the starlink in router mode, so the router at least gives you an ip address independent of the dish.
Thanks for the help! I’ll try picking up a small switch and see if that helps. No green light on the Pepwave at all from either WAN input.
Did adding a switch work?
Can anyone explain why it works?
Sadly it didn’t work. I’m still unclear if my WAN port is dead or if it’s simply unable to negotiate the right type of connection. I did end up ordering the Max BR1 Pro but it hasn’t arrived yet. Hoping that resolves the problem
I believe I have it working (without the switch). I’ll post my experience here as it may be useful for you. I suspect multiple issues were causing my lack of throughput.
I knew I had something going on (other than the lack of an unmanaged switch) when I removed the Peplink Pepwave router from the system by plugging my laptop into the data side of the POE injector without getting data throughput. If you haven’t tried this, you might find it informative.
The change I made that allowed me to first experience higher throughput was to move the Starlink Ethernet adapter, the POE injector, and associated cables from my battery/electrical distribution center box (in a truck camper) to another compartment, leaving only the step up converter in the original place.
Improvement, but unstable. Sometimes it worked, then would stop, with or without the switch.
The guide I had used calls for building your own RJ-45 ends to adjust for the proprietary wiring used by Starlink. I’ve built cables before, but I think the mistake I made was to use old “in-wall” cat 5e cabling I had laying around. I purchased a true patch cable (flexible wiring) and swapped out one of the ends.
After bringing the system back up, I had data to the Pepwave. And we were able to watch the latest episode of Ted Lasso 
.
Yesterday I purchased another cat 6 patch cable long enough to reach from my Pepwave to the POE injector, and I modified one of the ends as required for Starlink. I removed the switch from the equation and all seems to be working well.
I suspect one of two things is what is making me not need a switch. 1) The older Max BR1 doesn’t require it (but why???), 2) the switch makes modifying the cable unnecessary. If #2 is the case, then modifying the cable may make the switch unnecessary. Unfortunately, I would need another unmodified patch cable to test this hypothesis, and I don’t have it/need to.
So perhaps look for points of interference or redo your cables using high quality patch cables?
If you are having issues with the location of your kit making a difference then I suggest using shielded CAT6a or CAT7.
I’ve also been having some issues with my Starlink connected directly to my Max BR1 Pro 5G WAN port - no Starlink router involved. I made up all the cables myself using some CAT7 shielded cable I had already and did the conversion between T568B and Starlinks swapper pairs version. I think shielded cable is important.
Mine all works - but I do occasionally seem to lose connection from the Peplink to Starlink and then need to reboot the Starlink. It gets stuck on obtaining IP.
I think there is just some general DHCP weirdness going on between Peplink and Starlink when configured this way. No one else seems to have this problem with other routers so I assume it must be something to do with Starlink swapping between a private address and CGNAT address if connection is lost.
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Interesting. Have you tried adding a switch between the Pepwave and the POE injector?
I’m still having some issues where when I first set up, I’m getting a “No cable connected” message on the Peplink. I have to unseat/seat cables at the POE injector or the antenna to get it recognized. Not sure yet if the issue is from the pos Starlink cable or the pos RJ-45 connectors I got: they won’t clip into the female connector.
Ha, yes the Starlink cable is some pos weird shielded CAT5 cable - its cheap and hard to crimp.
Im happy crimping cables but I was concerned that sending 48v PoE into the wrong pin could damage the dishy as you cant cable test it.My solution was to use this at the dishy end;
Then I knew the pins would all be properly matched up. Then I used CAT7 shielded on everything else. I also had the No Cable message, and I think Im only conected at 100mb to dishy so am assuming I may still have a bad crimp somewhere. I recrimped my connections and it definately improved but not 100% solved.
So perhaps its all very fussy but I do think shielded cable helps, and then there is some kind if DHVp issue on top that Peplink have not acknowledged.
Also to add Ive not used the Switch idea. Im wondering if that helps by reintroducing shielding at the port.
I cable tested all my crimps and they all passed except of course I cant test the dishy connection but it looked fine.
Further update - this random connectivity issue is almost certainly a Peplink issue. I’ve had several drop outs in the last 24 hours and simply rebooting the MAX BR1 brings the connection back everytime instantly. Without a reboot Peplink sits on No Connection.
I therefore assume the issue is Starlink occasionally drops connection and Peplink does not recover, probably due to a DHCP handling issue.
Update on my end since I started this thread…finally received my MAX BR1 Pro 5G and it immediately fired up the connection with Dishy. It’s been running for 24 hours with no issue. I do think there was likely something wrong with my WAN port on my old MAX BR1 or it simply was unable to negotiate a connection with Dishy. In case it’s helpful, I’m using the same POE that everyone uses, the MEAN WELL DDR-120A-48 tuned to 50V and all Starlink cable for the run and patch between the POE and router.
Excellent 
Mine has run for days without issue and then just randomly dropped the connection. Sometimes it recovers - sometimes it doesn’t its very odd.
Seeing as we are using identical hardware and setup (I’m using the same PoE injector) let us know how you progress over the next few days!
My dishy is flat mounted on the roof of the van - so it never moves unless the van moves and Starlink app reports no dropouts.
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Mine has run for days without issue and then just randomly dropped the connection. Sometimes it recovers - sometimes it doesn’t its very odd.