How to Remove Devices From Starlink: Apart from fast and reliable internet, another amazing aspect of the Starlink network is the ability to connect several devices.
For example, you can connect smart TVs, phones, smartwatches, laptops, cameras, doorbells, and other internet devices in your household.
However, given that Starlink allocates a certain amount of bandwidth to each router, your devices share this allocation.
While this seems good, it can spell problems for activities like streaming that require much bandwidth.
For this reason, I will show you how to remove devices from Starlink to ensure enough bandwidth for live streaming.
What Do Unknow Devices In Your Starlink Network Mean?
First, let’s talk about the state-of-the-art Starlink app. As you may know, you need this app to manage your network and view connected devices.
So what happens is that once you connect devices using your credentials, your Starlink network detects it automatically.
Upon doing so, it assigns the new device a name depending on the manufacturer. For example, if you connect a smart speaker from Google, the app identifies it as Google Nest.
However, not in all cases can the app identify the manufacturer of the connected device. A WiFi network identifies and assigns device names depending on the MAC address.
However, if the manufacturer is new or relatively unknown, the MAC address information may not be enough to identify them.
For this reason, your network identifies these devices as unknown and labels them as such.
Unknown devices representation
Is It Risky To Have Unknown Device In My Network?
In most cases, it is not risky to have unknown devices in your Starlink network is not risky.
It simply means your system couldn’t identify the device automatically, so you will have to assign a name manually.
However, it is always advisable to keep your login information, especially the password, safe. Do not share it with people beyond your household so you can control who uses your network.
If you suspect some unauthorized individuals have access to it, I recommend changing it ASAP.
Also note that if your wifi is password-free, you risk unauthorized network use and hacking.
An illustration of a risky network
How Can I Secure My Starlink WiFi Network?
This section will secure your Starlink WiFi network in simple steps. But before that, remember each Starlink WiFi router comes free from security to aid in the initial setup.
- After the initial setup, the Starlink WiFi appears as STARLINK or STINKY in your device network section. The first step is to connect your device to this network.
- Then launch the Starlink app from your Android or Apple smartphone
- Log into your Starlink app account using the credential you registered during the ordering process
- Now go to the app menu and click the settings
- Locate the network section, identify your WiFi name, and tap on it
- From there, the wifi name will be editable, and all you need is to type a unique SSID name
- Then move to the edible password section and type a strong password
Ensure you keep the password safe in the password manager of your Android, Windows, or Apple devices.
Also, ensure the password is not so common or reused from other accounts. I would recommend a mixture of lowercase and uppercase characters, plus numbers and special characters.
You Can Try to Identify Unknown Devices Manually
If you recall, I said earlier you have to identify these devices manually. I will now show you how to do exactly that in this section.
The only problem is that this is a trial-and-error method. In addition, unlike other routers, the Starlink app does not allow the option to edit connected device names.
However, this manual identification is vital if you can use it successfully instead of updating the devices in the network. With that said, let’s put the manual identification process in the form of simple-to-follow steps:
- First, take a notebook or a piece of paper and a pen
- Now, move around all the areas in your premises, identifying all your WiFi-enabled devices.
- From there, note all these devices, starting from the most obvious ones, such as laptops, smartphones, TVs, and cameras.
- Now go to others that aren’t obvious, such as smartwatches, thermostats, extenders, smart speakers, smart lights, and the fridge.
- After that, compare your list with the device list on the Starlink app.
- Tick or eliminate the devices on the app, and you can identify them on your list.
- Once your list is with unknown devices only, try to switch each off at a time and see if it disappears from the app.
- Do this for all the devices until you can identify all or at least know if there are foreign devices in your network.
A smart thermostat
How to Remove Unkown Device from Starlink
Now, it has come to the section you have been waiting for on removing the unknown devices.
But first, note that the Starlink WiFi router is a simple device that lacks elaborate networking capabilities.
While this may be good for initial setup, the problem is that you can’t remove just the unknown device.
You can’t remove any device without affecting other connected devices. For this, I recommend bypassing the Starlink router and using an aftermarket one with enhanced features.
With that said, let’s see how you remove unknown devices. By the way, it involves changing the password, which logs out all the connected devices. You can easily connect the required device by configuring it to the new password. Here is how to do exactly that in a few steps:
- Start with launching the Starlink app from your phone or Windows PC
- Now go to the menu and select settings
- Scroll to the network section and click your Starlink network
- While here, you can change the name and the password of your network
- The most important step is to choose a new password depending on the criteria we established earlier.
- Now proceed to save; this will remove all the devices, including unknown ones.
Resetting a password from a laptop
Wrap Up
After you have changed the password to remove all your devices, the router will reboot for a minute. Lastly, you can use the new credential to connect the known devices that you require.