Starlink Terminal Details: WiFi, Bypass, Usage & Billing

Summary Open any dish from the dashboard (View more) to run it from one page. The header holds Remote access, Temporary access and the Actions menu. Eight tabs cover health and telemetry, billing — including pausing or cancelling the service — data usage, the router’s WiFi, bypass mode and snow melt, the Starlink account’s users, Custom DNS, attributes and team notes.

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Get here by clicking View more on any device row in the Fleet Dashboard. The page opens on General Information.

The dish’s nickname sits at the top with a status dot — green when the dish is online, grey when it isn’t — and three controls:

Control	What it does
Remote access	Signs you into the dish’s Starlink account with a dedicated member: e-mail, password and a one-time code.
Temporary access	Creates a link you can hand to a technician. The Starlink session it opens ends on its own.
Actions	Update (sync this dish now), Move to site, Reboot and Forget Device.

A side panel walks you through three steps: Open Starlink, copy the e-mail and password, then copy the OTP code when Starlink asks for it. The code keeps refreshing, and Generate new code issues a fresh one (at most once a minute). Setting up the member can take up to about two minutes the first time; opening the panel again reuses the same credentials.

End access removes that member from the Starlink account. Cancel or × only hides the panel — the access stays. More in Remote & temporary access.

For someone who shouldn’t keep access afterwards:

1. Pick a Session duration, from 15 minutes to 48 hours.
2. Optionally protect the link with a password, and optionally choose the Starlink sign-in password (12 to 64 characters). Otherwise a strong one is generated.
3. Click Generate link to share and send the link — plus the passwords, if you set them.

The technician has 24 hours to open the link. The clock starts only when they press Start, and their Starlink member is removed within about a minute after the session ends.

• Update — pulls fresh data for this dish from Starlink now, instead of waiting for the next sync.
• Reboot — restarts the dish. Like the other actions, it asks you to confirm first.
• Move to site — files the dish under another site. It organizes your fleet; it doesn’t change who can see the dish.
• Forget Device — stops syncing this dish and takes you back to the dashboard. You can adopt it again later.

Tab	What you’ll find	Where the data comes from
General Information	Health, telemetry, plan, location and recent events	The periodic sync
Subscription	Balance, payment method, invoices and e-invoices — and, for admins, pausing or cancelling the service	The periodic sync (the PDF is fetched when you download it)
Data Usage	This billing cycle, day by day	Read when the page opens
Connectivity	WiFi networks, connected devices and bypass mode	The router, read when you open the tab
Users	Starlink account members and who has access to this dish	Starlink, read when you open the tab
Custom DNS	The DNS servers the router hands out	The router, read when you open the tab
Attributes	Your own labels for the dish	StarController
Observations	The team’s notes	StarController

• Internet usage — data used this billing cycle against the plan (∞ on unlimited plans). The arrow opens Data Usage.
• Ping success, Latency and Throughput (download and upload) — the latest readings from Starlink.
• Obstructions — the share of sky blocked, with a Clear or Obstructed badge.
• Antenna alignment — elevation, azimuth and tilt, flagged Aligned or Needs adjustment.
• Connected devices — how many devices the router reports.
• Recent events — what the sync noticed (online, offline, alerts), four per page.
• Plan — the Starlink plan and its monthly price.
• Map and Location — country, city and street.
• Observations — how many notes the team has left.
• Technical details — Starlink ID, serial number, software version, kit number, last update and uptime.

An Open invoice banner appears at the top when the dish has an unpaid invoice. Cards that have nothing from Starlink yet say so instead of showing a zero.

• Debt balance, Available credits, Payment method and Next due date for this dish.
• Service — administrators see the line’s status and plan here, with Pause service and Cancel service. See Pause or cancel the service.
• Invoice history — status (paid, pending or overdue), dates, invoice number, type, total and balance, with Download for the PDF.

Invoices are paid in Starlink. For every dish at once, see Finance & invoices.

On invoices in Brazilian reais (BRL), Download opens a menu with three files: Invoice (PDF), E-invoice (PDF) and E-invoice (XML). The e-invoice is the Brazilian nota fiscal (NFCom).

Administrators can pause a Starlink line or cancel it from the Service card on the Subscription tab. Both take effect at the end of the period already paid for, both can be undone from the same card, and both act on the line’s Starlink subscription — never on your MKController subscription. On the dashboard, these lines carry a Standby, Standby booked or Ends badge.

▶ Pause or cancel a Starlink line, and undo it — video in English, with captions.

Pause service pauses the line’s Starlink subscription, not your MKController one. It keeps the line but stops normal internet at the end of the period already paid for. What happens next depends on the line:

• Lines with a standby plan switch to Standby Mode: low-speed data for emergency messaging and easy reactivation. The dialog shows the standby price and the credit Starlink works out for the rest of the period.
• Lines without a standby plan simply pause — no plan change, no standby — and the dish has no service while paused.

Either way the dish stays with the customer and nothing is sent back. To confirm, type the line number.

Once the pause is booked, the card reads Standby booked for the end of the paid period. Restore plan brings the plan back, before the standby starts or after.

Cancelling ends the Starlink line at the end of the period already paid for. The dish stays with the customer, and nothing changes for them until that date. Starlink requires a reason; you also describe it in a sentence and type the line number to confirm.

Once the cancellation is booked, the card shows Service ends on and the date. Call off cancellation keeps the line.

The current billing cycle — the total against the plan limit, or Unlimited — and a graph of daily usage.

The router’s side of the dish, in four cards: WiFi networks, connected devices, bypass mode and snow melt. WiFi and bypass are read from the router when you open the tab, so the dish has to be online.

▶ Starlink Wi-Fi, bypass and snow melt, without a truck roll — video in English, with captions.

One row per network name, with its bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and, when it can tell, how many devices are on it.

• Rename — up to 32 bytes (accented letters count as two). Every connected device drops and has to join the new name; the password doesn’t change.
• Change password — 8 to 63 characters, with upper- and lower-case letters, a number and a special character. Every device drops and has to rejoin with the new password. The same dialog can switch the network to Open network — no password.

Both apply to every radio: if 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz have different names, a rename merges them into one network. The current password is never shown — Starlink doesn’t give it back.

The devices on the router, three at a time — See all opens the full list. Each row shows the device’s name and vendor, its MAC and IP address, and how it connects (Wired (Ethernet), Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz or Wi-Fi 5 GHz) with its signal. The list comes from the periodic sync, so a device that just joined can take a few minutes to show up.

Bypass hands the connection to your own router: the Starlink router stops running WiFi and routing and passes the internet straight through its Ethernet port. Use it when a router of yours — a MikroTik, say — runs the site.

Turning it on asks for a confirmation that spells out what will happen:

1. The Starlink router restarts and doesn’t answer for about 2 minutes.
2. Its WiFi turns off — it names the networks and how many devices drop.
3. The router on the Ethernet port takes over — it names the wired device it found.
4. Internet comes back through that router, in around 6 minutes in total.

You confirm by ticking I checked the cable and the router is set up to take over. If the Starlink router sees nothing on its cable, step 3 turns into a warning and the button changes to Turn on anyway.

While bypass is on, the WiFi networks and Connected devices cards leave the tab — the Starlink router no longer runs them. To undo, switch it off on the same card.

Choose how the dish uses its own heat to melt snow and ice — the same setting as in the Starlink app (Settings › Starlink › Snow Melt). Pick a mode and click Apply; the change takes effect in seconds and doesn’t restart the dish.

Mode	What it does
Automatic	Heats only when it detects snow. Recommended by Starlink.
Pre-heat	Keeps the dish warm so snow doesn’t build up. Uses more power.
Off	Never heats. Snow can build up and interrupt service.

The current mode is marked current.

Everyone on the dish’s Starlink account — the same list on every dish of that account — marked as belonging to MKController or to the Customer, with its purpose: the connection created at adoption, remote access, temporary technician access, or the customer’s own member.

Remove deletes a member from the Starlink account. You confirm by typing the member’s e-mail (pasting is blocked); the removal then runs in the background for up to about two minutes and is recorded. The member that keeps StarController connected is marked do not remove and can’t be removed.

The remote and temporary sessions opened on this dish — who is responsible, their status, when they were created and when they end.

Choose the DNS servers the Starlink router hands out to connected devices: switch on Enable Custom DNS and enter a Primary DNS and, optionally, a Secondary DNS (IPv4). Saving asks for confirmation because it may briefly interrupt the customer’s WiFi; the router applies it within about a minute. Switch it off to go back to Starlink’s default resolvers.

Give the dish values for your company’s attributes — the same attribute library you use on your other devices. List attributes offer their options in a picker; text attributes take free text. The values show as columns and filters in the Devices list, and + New attribute adds one to the library.

A running log of notes on the dish — each shows who wrote it and when. Use it for field history: “repositioned dish”, “swapped router”, “customer reported rain fade”. Create observation adds one. Notes can be removed but not edited.

• About every 5 minutes, StarController syncs status, plan, location, telemetry, recent events, invoices and the connected-devices list.
• When you open a tab, Connectivity, Users and Custom DNS read straight from the router or from Starlink. Data usage is read when the page opens.
• Update, in Actions, syncs this dish on the spot.

When the dish is offline, anything that needs the router tells you: The antenna is offline, so its router can’t be reached.

• The current WiFi password can’t be displayed, and the network name can’t be hidden.
• A rename or password change always applies to every radio.
• Custom DNS takes up to two IPv4 servers.
• Invoices are paid in Starlink, not in StarController.
• Pausing and cancelling are for administrators only, and both start at the end of the period already paid for.

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• Remote & temporary access — field access in detail.
• The Fleet Dashboard — back to every dish at once.
• Finance & invoices — billing across the fleet.

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