Why Starlink drops packets differently
Starlink connects through satellites in low orbit, around 550 km up, moving fast across the sky. Your dish is constantly handing over from one satellite to the next, and the network reschedules which dish talks to which satellite at regular intervals. Each handover is a moment where packets can be delayed or lost. The result is a distinctive pattern: short bursts of loss or latency spikes at fairly regular intervals, with clean connection in between.
That pattern is very visible on the 60-second stability test, which draws each packet on a timeline. A typical Starlink run shows a steady ping of roughly 25 to 60 ms with narrow clusters of red marks or tall ticks every so often. A cable or fibre connection would show a flat strip.
Obstructions are the biggest fixable cause
The dish needs a clear view of a wide patch of sky. A tree, chimney or roof edge inside that patch blocks satellites as they pass behind it, causing drops of a second or more. The Starlink app has an obstruction check that maps your sky view; any red area on it is a source of drops. Moving the dish higher or to a clearer spot usually does more for packet loss than anything else.
- Run the app's obstruction check and move the dish until the map is clear.
- Mount the dish above roof lines and away from trees, which grow and block more each year.
- Check that heavy snow or debris is not sitting on the dish.
The rest of the chain still matters
Starlink loss is often blamed on the satellites when it is actually the wifi. The Starlink router is a wifi router like any other, and all the usual causes apply: distance, walls, crowded channels. Test on a cable plugged into the router (older kits need the Ethernet adapter) and compare it with wifi. If the cable run is clean apart from the brief regular handover blips, the wifi is responsible for the rest. See wifi versus ethernet.
What to expect for games and calls
Most video calls handle Starlink well, because their buffers ride out short handover blips. Competitive gaming is harder: a brief spike at the wrong moment shows as a hitch, and the verdict on the test will often rate a Starlink connection "fine" rather than "great" for gaming for that reason. If you see long drops, frequent loss above 1%, or loss that has increased over months, check obstructions first, then contact Starlink support with the app's statistics and a test result.