Starlink - anybody finding this the best internet solution for where you're located?

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Rodent

Rodent

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Please keep this discussion contained to the service offering and technology, and refrain from the temptation to make comments of the often polarizing man at the helm.

I'm in ruralness, where my best internet option prior to Starlink was CenturyLink (10M download, data caps, and a whopping $195/mo WHEN it was functioning - no thanks) In early May my queue wait paid off and I became a new Starlink customer. Observations so far

- I average 85-100M download during the working day (6:00A until 5:00P) and 10-12M upload with a 35-65ms latency
- I'm currently connected via VPN to a server on the opposite coast during peak usage time and have these results for my connectivity
1659404895192.png

- no issues running a 25 person Zoom call where everybody has their camera on
- SWMBO is often streaming movies on the tv at the opposite end of the house during working hours
- I've just survived a high of 115F on a clear, sunny day with no discernable wind, and didn't have a thermal protection shutdown. I'm sure radiant temps on the concrete were significantly higher

I'm rolling into month four of service, so I don't have an unending amount f experience, but all has been good so far. good enough that I cancelled my private office lease and accompanying internet service for said office, saving me just under $500/mo

Hardware for a residential system was $600, and it's $110/mo for unlimited data. Compared to the few other options I had available, this so far is the tech that enabled me to relocate out to rural America and still keep functional at my tech day job from a home office.

Next up is to order the roof mounting hardware and also an ethernet adapter so I can connect to my wired security camera system and access remotely.


Anybody else in HBTland also a Starlink user? If so, what's you're experiences, tips, warnings, etc ...?
 
Rodent said:
Please keep this discussion contained to the service offering and technology, and refrain from the temptation to make comments of the often polarizing man at the helm.

I'm in ruralness, where my best internet option prior to Starlink was CenturyLink (10M download, data caps, and a whopping $195/mo WHEN it was functioning - no thanks) In early May my queue wait paid off and I became a new Starlink customer. Observations so far

- I average 85-100M download during the working day (6:00A until 5:00P) and 10-12M upload with a 35-65ms latency
- I'm currently connected via VPN to a server on the opposite coast during peak usage time and have these results for my connectivity
View attachment 776586
- no issues running a 25 person Zoom call where everybody has their camera on
- SWMBO is often streaming movies on the tv at the opposite end of the house during working hours
- I've just survived a high of 115F on a clear, sunny day with no discernable wind, and didn't have a thermal protection shutdown. I'm sure radiant temps on the concrete were significantly higher

I'm rolling into month four of service, so I don't have an unending amount f experience, but all has been good so far. good enough that I cancelled my private office lease and accompanying internet service for said office, saving me just under $500/mo

Hardware for a residential system was $600, and it's $110/mo for unlimited data. Compared to the few other options I had available, this so far is the tech that enabled me to relocate out to rural America and still keep functional at my tech day job from a home office.

Next up is to order the roof mounting hardware and also an ethernet adapter so I can connect to my wired security camera system and access remotely.


Anybody else in HBTland also a Starlink user? If so, what's you're experiences, tips, warnings, etc ...?
Click to expand...
I also live in the middle of nowhere. When we moved in I was working on quality control for an oilfield geological service company based in Houston. The only service I could find was Viasat. It worked well for the first few days of each month but once I hit the data limit it was like driving with the parking brake on. And it was expensive, but the company was paying for it. I retired and found a somewhat local provider using line of sight technology. Luckily our house is the closest to the tower so we have strong signal, strong and fast enough for what we do now. But, I'm ready to ditch Direct TV and go to a streaming service so I don't know if we have enough bandwidth or not. I'm going to look into Starlink,it's the same price as I pay now. Does it support international VOIP?
 
I VoiP via VPN all day long for work, and am often connected across multiple continents (Europe, NAM, Asia) at once without any issues.

Often times my SO is at the other end of our place streaming a movie in HD, and I'm in a Zoom, Google Meet, of Skype video call. Same thing - no issues to date
 
new hardware arrived on Fri afternoon, and I was part way up the ladder to begin install when I noticed I have two large wasp nests under the eaves at that location. Far enough from the edge of the roof that a can of spray won't reach them, and I choose not to be up on the roof and spray. Exterminators heading out for their quarterly pass thru, and then on to a permanent install
 
i'm another very, very satisfied starlink customer. like the OP, i live in the middle of rural nowhere and i was on a CenturyLink single DSL line - getting like 1.3 down, 0.6 up... just barely enough to get by. my workmates got used to my glitches, turning off video, etc. when the stars aligned correctly, i could hold down a 480p stream on youtube - as long as no one else was using the network. often i had to be satisfied with 360p. we had 3 DLS lines coming in to the house, since you can't share 1.3/06 when working from home.

we eventually got cell-based hotspots from Verizon, and those worked relatively well with a cell booster (reminder: we're in the boondocks, very low cell signal too) but they had data limits. if i reserved the hotspot for work only, i could make it through the month. at this point we were dropping almost $400/month on connectivity. we kept telling ourselves this was the price of living in paradise... but something had to give.

starlink has been an absolute game-changer for us. we want 4 things from an ISP: unlimited data, high speed, reliability, and low cost (relatively...)
  • DSL = unlimited data, low speed, high reliability, high cost
  • hotspot = limited data, high speed, medium reliability, medium cost
  • starlink = unlimited data, high speed, high reliability*, and low cost
*in the 4 months we've been using starlink, my call dropped once - maybe twice. reliable enough for me.

i'm a total fanboy.
 
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Rodent said:
new hardware arrived on Fri afternoon, and I was part way up the ladder to begin install when I noticed I have two large wasp nests under the eaves at that location. Far enough from the edge of the roof that a can of spray won't reach them, and I choose not to be up on the roof and spray. Exterminators heading out for their quarterly pass thru, and then on to a permanent install
Click to expand...
Permanent install has been wonderfully issue-free! I used to have one small place where the big Maple tree would occasionally cause a signal blockage issue when the satellite was on the extreme edge of where my dish was aimed. Once I installed up top near the ridgeline I have yet to see any location where I have any blockage. yea!!

The Ethernet adapter has also worked flawlessly, giving me the ability to utilize one wireless port for the fam and the other for my work connection. I now have a hardwire connection out to the wireless port in the shop, connecting all the wireless video cams with a secure path to the home hardware and cloud backup.
 
sounds WAY better then my $120 a month for 4MB/500kbs DSL! lol gotta figure something better out...

i'd get cable but it has a data cap....
 
My dad and I built a small 4 bed/2 bath saltbox chalet up in the NH White Mountains 15 minutes from Cannon Mountain and in an area that minimally has electricity never mind connectivity. The max DSL tier is 25 down/2 up, totally non guaranteed, as in we've often gone a day or two with zero service, full stop.

I have no idea if Starlink would work for us, being pretty much surrounded by mountains, but I think I'll look into it...

Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
And by "low cost" you mean how much per month for Starlink?

Cheers!
Click to expand...
$110/month, with $600 in initial equipment cost. if i spread that one-time cost over 5 years, that's $120/month all-in. cheaper than any of my other options.

i should add that i dropped the cell hotspots, but kept 2 of the 3 DSL lines. until i'm confident that starlink will work all year, in all conditions, i need a backup. i'm dependent on some form of connectivity for my work, so i can't afford to be out of commission because the satellites are having a bad day (if that's even a thing... TBD)
 
Rodent said:
The Ethernet adapter has also worked flawlessly
Click to expand...
i also got an ethernet adapter, to connect the mesh network routers. i need to cover a lot of square footage, and previously everyone had either their own DSL router or cell hotspot. now with a single source, it needs to cover everyone. enter the mesh.

day_trippr said:
My dad and I built a small 4 bed/2 bath saltbox chalet up in the NH White Mountains 15 minutes from Cannon Mountain and in an area that minimally has electricity never mind connectivity. The max DSL tier is 25 down/2 up, totally non guaranteed, as in we've often gone a day or two with zero service, full stop.

I have no idea if Starlink would work for us, being pretty much surrounded by mountains, but I think I'll look into it...

Cheers!
Click to expand...
you're mostly going to want a clear view of the northern sky. we have some nearby mountains to the north, but they only block a small portion of the northern horizon - mountains aren't that tall. we mounted the dish on the roof of the house. if you've got obstacles - mountains, trees, etc. - plan on elevating the dish. if roof isn't an option, or not high enough, you could think about building a tower.

IIRC, starlink gives you a 30-day trial period. no harm in giving it a try to see if it works, return it for a refund if it doesn't. the starlink app has a feature where you can use your camera to determine how good a given location is for a dish, but results seem to be mixed.
 
DuncB said:
Wow my unlimited 1000Mbps down and 600 up via fibre optic at 57 US dollar equivalent sounds like a bargain.
Click to expand...
I had a similar 'Cadillac service' at my prior residence in densely populated suburbia. A true luxury I took for granted until moving to rural agriculture country. My current location is outside the coverage area for mobile networks, and (as noted in my original post) CenturyLink's vastly inferior offering at twice my current spend is beyond criminal.

To date I have had one Starlink outage event where I had intermittent service over the period of 90 minutes. Sadly it was during my work hours, so I packed up and drove to a location where I had decent mobile coverage and tethered for a couple meetings. That's a few outages less than my previous Cadillac plan would typically have had at my prior residence, so I have no complaints.
 
day_trippr said:
My dad and I built a small 4 bed/2 bath saltbox chalet up in the NH White Mountains 15 minutes from Cannon Mountain and in an area that minimally has electricity never mind connectivity. The max DSL tier is 25 down/2 up, totally non guaranteed, as in we've often gone a day or two with zero service, full stop.

I have no idea if Starlink would work for us, being pretty much surrounded by mountains, but I think I'll look into it...

Cheers!
Click to expand...
If you do a lot of camping trailer type traveling, there's also the new mobile unit designed to take on the road.

https://www.starlink.com/rv
The RV option has the ability to pause/unpause on a monthly basis as needed, so you can avoid billing during months where you don't need it.
 
I’m on the list and was supposed to get mine mid summer this year, I received a notice saying they ran out and it will be next year now.
I’m encouraged even more after reading this
 
That's some serious latency right there :D

I appreciate all the info provided in this thread. The "RV Option" is especially intriguing.
Next time I'm up north I'm definitely going to give the cell phone tool a try and hopefully get past Zero :)

Cheers!
 
I have had Starlink since March 2021. It was amazing in beta, and works fine most of the time now. Streaming works great, my wife's work (from home) is a challenge sometimes. I think it is mostly a latency problem for her.

We get probably 50-80 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up, on average.

Edit: corrected my ups and downs.
 
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bushpilot said:
I have had Starlink since March 2021. It was amazing in beta, and works fine most of the time now. Streaming works great, my wife's work (from home) is a challenge sometimes. I think it is mostly a latency problem for her.

We get probably 50-80 Mbps up and 10 Mbps down, on average.
Click to expand...
you say it "works great". But then, it's a challenge. Please explain.
 
passedpawn said:
you say it "works great". But then, it's a challenge. Please explain.
Click to expand...
Two statements ...
  • Streaming works great,
  • My wife's work (from home) is a challenge sometimes. I think it is mostly a latency problem for her.
 
DuncB said:
Interesting

I'd prefer more download speed than upload there's quite a difference you are showing and that might not just be latency that's giving you the issues.
Click to expand...
Well crap, I didn't notice that I wrote that backwards. Down is indeed the faster, as it should be.
 
just ran a few speed tests within a few minutes of each other. even within this one "snapshot in time" there is a lot of variability, but these results are typical.

1666389188696.png


averages:
ping 33
down 60.5
up 6.4

highest that i remember ever getting was 90 down. the rainy season just started today (FINALLY). will be interesting to see if clouds and storms affect performance.
 
I had just heard the PNW was bereft of rain of late. fwiw, my first year living on the Olympic Peninsula side of Hood Canal 4 decades ago was the driest in decades which had left me wondering where that soggy reputation came from. Payback came the following year, one of the wettest in recent history ;)

Cheers!
 
I don't have it but have a coworker that does. He regularly breaks up on Teams calls, esp with video. Obviously way better than the DirecWay dish I had 20 years ago at a rural location but its no replacement for the 1.2GB/40MB cable I have today at a suburban location.

I spent 7 years at that rural location working from home with a 3G card, then a $$$ 3G service with proprietary hardware, then DSL that might have been worse than 3G, then finally cable. We put the house up for sale before the cable line was even buried. I've talked to the new owner of that property a couple times and they've had reliability issue with the cable despite it being a full new fiber buildout for miles. I bet I could count on my fingers our outages at this location in the last 8 years.

Eventually we'll probably move again and will consider reliable internet as critical as electricity.
 
sweetcell said:
  • starlink = unlimited data, high speed, high reliability*, and low cost
Click to expand...
welp, looks like "unlimited data" is about to get an asterisk:

Starlink Logo
To ensure our customer base is not negatively impacted by a small number of users consuming unusually high amounts of data, the Starlink team is implementing a Fair Use policy in the US and Canada in December 2022.

Based on your data usage over the last six months, this policy will have no impact on your service if your usage patterns stay the same.

Under the Fair Use policy, all Residential customers will receive unlimited data, and will start each month with Priority Access, which means their data usage will be prioritized during times of network congestion.

Customers who exceed 1 TB of data use on a monthly basis (currently < 10% of users) will automatically be switched to Basic Access for the remainder of the billing cycle, which means their data usage will be deprioritized during times of network congestion, resulting in slower speeds.

Data used between 11pm - 7am will not count towards your Priority Access.

Starting today, you can now monitor your data usage on your account page. Read more in Starlink’s Fair Use policy and in the Terms of Service.

Thank you for being an early customer and for your continued support of Starlink!

Starlink Team
Click to expand...
 
So price went up, wait till next year is the message I got, and now this.
I might have to pass at this point.
 
I just moved to T Mobile 5g internet and it is better than my fiber was. I have had no issues. I dumped TV for steaming a couple of years ago and was amazed at how easy and cost saving it was. I mostly watch Prime Video or Netflix (free with my T Mobile phones. It also includes Apple TV and Paramount plus.) Tubi and Feevee provide plenty of movies for free as well. I never was a big fan of standard network shows so it was easy for me.

The cost is only $50 total per month where FIOS was $79. (I actually get it for $30 with my Military Magenta Max Plan).
 
1 TB is a hell of a lot of data. in my house two people use it for work-from-home, AKA constant video calls all day monday to friday. all our TV comes over the 'net (Prime, Netflix, Disney+, etc.). every night i watch several hours of YT vids at 1080p or higher... and yet last month we used under 0.6 TB. per the email Starlink sent, over the past 6 months we haven't hit 1 TB, so i'm unconcerned. this data cap is theoretical for us - hence the asterisk.
 
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Comcast has a 1.2TB limit which we've never even come close to hitting despite 2 of us working from home and all our entertainment being streamed. I spend roughly half my work week on calls, mostly Teams. The rest of the time I'm utilizing remote resources, and rarely transfer large files these days. My wife's work is almost completely through Citrix. Our peak has been 746GB and 600 is more typical. Summer before last when our 20YO daughter is home we came close but she turned of wifi on her phone and it magically improved. I'm fairly convinced on of the social media apps the kids these days use is extremely data intensive, even compared to Netfilx/YouTube/Peacock/Hulu.
 
Survived a cold, often snowy/icy winter and never had an issue with ice build up on the dish. Even a blizzard type snowfall one Jan afternoon didn't cause issues with my VPN connection and video calls with customers.
 

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