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

[Rodent]

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

- 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 ...?

 

[corkybstewart]

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 ...?

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?

 

[Rodent]

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

 

[Rodent]

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

 

[sweetcell]

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.

 

[day_trippr]

And by "low cost" you mean how much per month for Starlink?

Cheers!

 

[Rodent]

as shared in my original post, I'm at $110/month USD (taxes, fees, etc ... included) for the residential service

 

[Rodent]

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

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.

 

[bracconiere]

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....

 

[DuncB]

Wow my unlimited 1000Mbps down and 600 up via fibre optic at 57 US dollar equivalent sounds like a bargain.

 

[Beekeeper]

Wow my unlimited 1000Mbps down and 600 up via fibre optic at 57 US dollar equivalent sounds like a bargain.

It's a bargain, but not readily available to someone living in remote-ville.

 

[bracconiere]

Wow my unlimited 1000Mbps down and 600 up via fibre optic at 57 US dollar equivalent sounds like a bargain.

i think for simplification, when you hit 1,000Mbs, you just call it 'G'....

 

[day_trippr]

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!

 

[sweetcell]

And by "low cost" you mean how much per month for Starlink?

Cheers!

$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)

 

[sweetcell]

The Ethernet adapter has also worked flawlessly

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.

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!

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.

 

[Rodent]

Wow my unlimited 1000Mbps down and 600 up via fibre optic at 57 US dollar equivalent sounds like a bargain.

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.

 

[Rodent]

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!

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.

 

[Boilinginsc]

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

 

[sweetcell]

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

i got my system almost a year after i put the order in... hang in there, it's worth it IMO

 

[day_trippr]

That's some serious latency right there

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!

 

[bracconiere]

That's some serious latency right there

aparently it's easier to make a tesla then a starlink antenna?

 

[bushpilot]

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.

 

[passedpawn]

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.

you say it "works great". But then, it's a challenge. Please explain.

 

[bushpilot]

you say it "works great". But then, it's a challenge. Please explain.

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]

Interesting

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

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.

 

[hout17]

My parents live in rural New Mexico and Viasat was their only option and it's total crap. Starlink has been a godsend for them.

 

[bushpilot]

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.

Well crap, I didn't notice that I wrote that backwards. Down is indeed the faster, as it should be.

 

[bracconiere]

Well crap, I didn't notice that I wrote that backwards. Down is indeed the faster, as it should be.

and i knew that and thought about cracking a joke! (who knows maybe the satellites are being powered by the recievers?)

 

[sweetcell]

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.

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.

 

[Rodent]

the rainy season just started today (FINALLY). will be interesting to see if clouds and storms affect performance.

Interesting thought, as we're experiencing our first rain in quite a while

82 Mbps down
10 Mbps up
33 ms latency

Here at my office at 3:20P on a Fri afternoon