Starlink experience update

[icepac]

LOS required

I used to install microwave dishes on > 100 ft towers in north fl when I was 19 in 1979 for a single cable channel Showtime for MDU's and then private residence



Eagler

In south florida, it was called "OnTV"

Remember those huge ATT "long lines" towers with the giant horns? 
They were there for continuation of government in case of a disaster.

[Mano]

I asked Gali if there was any way he could present it a little faster. You know how those really slow talkers make you go to sleep. 





 

[CptTrips]

Well, pulled the trigger.

I have some rural land with a cabin and I would spend more time out there (at least in Spring and Fall  ) if I could work remotely from out there.  My current phone hotspot is not reliable enough.

We'll see how it goes.  Not sure how long I'll be waiting in line for my dishy though.

[Mister Fork]

My wait was about 3 months? Still not good enough up here in Canuckland. Will wait until next spring before I turn back on the subscription.

[CptTrips]

My wait was about 3 months? Still not good enough up here in Canuckland. Will wait until next spring before I turn back on the subscription.

That's weird.  I would have expected it to work better in the Northern latitudes.  What was your main problem?  Just no connection?  How long ago was that?

Most of the reviews I've seen lately have been surprisingly positive.  Especially compared to other rural options like traditional satellite internet, which seems to be universally panned.

I am hoping I have waited long enough to avoid the worst of the bleeding edge pain.  But watch them come out with a new dish 1/3 the cost right after I get mine, or Elon just bails on it when he gets interested in the next shiny toy.  That would be my usual luck.

[Gman]

My wait was about 3 months? Still not good enough up here in Canuckland. Will wait until next spring before I turn back on the subscription.

Give me a shout Ed, we have a unit set up on our farm outside of our city home, Lat 50.3 long 105.6, lower central Saskatchewan, and it has been excellent IMO.  There have been downtimes, and it lost connection during a brutal rainstorm for a short bit, but overall it's downtime hasn't been any worse than most ISPs I've had (so far).  Seen well North of 120mps down, average I'd say when I run speed tests is in the high 80mps, and frequently see 100s.  Certainly "better than nothing" as their beta slogan claims, in fact it's better than any other rural option in my area right now, and in Alberta where our primary home is, although I've only seen a couple friends Starlinks in Alberta, we don't have a need for it there.

Cpt Trips,  depending on your location (sounds like you've done the research on this and already are all know'd up), you have a really good chance of being satisfied with it.  We had one of the older satellite phone company connections on the farm, and it sucked, big time.  Then switched to one of the tower line of sight direct connection deals, and it was better, but still sucked compared to our city connections (one fiber 1gb, one cable 1.5gb), where the speed was obviously 20 times slower, the ping times making gaming impossible really, and the data cap VERY low, making viewing 4k or any video extremely expensive in overage charges.

Starlink has provided a pretty steady connection, I've had worse dsl and cable services back in the mid to late 2000s to be frank. While it isn't up to the fiber/cable options we have in town, it's more than good enough for most gaming (not pro level FPS, but everything else is OK IMO), and very good for viewing streaming services.  Cost isn't great compared to city available connections, but it's a hell of a lot better than the other rural options in pretty much every area I know.

IMO give it a whirl, I won't be surprised to see your report back that it's working well for you CptTrips.

[Mister Fork]

Give me a shout Ed, we have a unit set up on our farm outside of our city home, Lat 50.3 long 105.6, lower central Saskatchewan, and it has been excellent IMO.  There have been downtimes, and it lost connection during a brutal rainstorm for a short bit, but overall it's downtime hasn't been any worse than most ISPs I've had (so far).  Seen well North of 120mps down, average I'd say when I run speed tests is in the high 80mps, and frequently see 100s.  Certainly "better than nothing" as their beta slogan claims, in fact it's better than any other rural option in my area right now, and in Alberta where our primary home is, although I've only seen a couple friends Starlinks in Alberta, we don't have a need for it there.

Cpt Trips,  depending on your location (sounds like you've done the research on this and already are all know'd up), you have a really good chance of being satisfied with it.  We had one of the older satellite phone company connections on the farm, and it sucked, big time.  Then switched to one of the tower line of sight direct connection deals, and it was better, but still sucked compared to our city connections (one fiber 1gb, one cable 1.5gb), where the speed was obviously 20 times slower, the ping times making gaming impossible really, and the data cap VERY low, making viewing 4k or any video extremely expensive in overage charges.

Starlink has provided a pretty steady connection, I've had worse dsl and cable services back in the mid to late 2000s to be frank. While it isn't up to the fiber/cable options we have in town, it's more than good enough for most gaming (not pro level FPS, but everything else is OK IMO), and very good for viewing streaming services.  Cost isn't great compared to city available connections, but it's a hell of a lot better than the other rural options in pretty much every area I know.

IMO give it a whirl, I won't be surprised to see your report back that it's working well for you CptTrips.

Will do G.

[CptTrips]

Well, pulled the trigger.

I have some rural land with a cabin and I would spend more time out there (at least in Spring and Fall  ) if I could work remotely from out there.  My current phone hotspot is not reliable enough.

We'll see how it goes.  Not sure how long I'll be waiting in line for my dishy though.

Got it installed today.  Very impressed so far.

The only effort was getting it physically mounted.  Setup took like 5 min from plug in to surfing.

Right now I'm getting 70mbps down and 9.3mps up with 46ms latency.  It's supposed to improve over 24 hours as it maps its available sats at this location. 

Several orders of magnitude better than my phone already!  It would lose connection like every 3 min.

(Yes, the observatory needs a paint job.  I have repairs to do and will paint later this summer.)

This means I can live out here at my cabin for long stretches when the weather is nice.  I don't mind outhouses and rainwater showers.  I only need AC and internet (need to work remotely).

[Shuffler]

I see a lot of disgruntled folks getting letters putting off their shipments over and over. Seems like several areas have reached their max users at this point in time.

New growing pains.

[Eagler]

Wondering what has been anyone's experience with this to date?

Looking like this will be an option shortly when we start spending time with the aging in-laws on their acreage in the country...setting up a fifth wheel next month

Is anyone playing ah with it?

Eagler

[CptTrips]

Wondering what has been anyone's experience with this to date?

Looking like this will be an option shortly when we start spending time with the aging in-laws on their acreage in the country...setting up a fifth wheel next month

Is anyone playing ah with it?

Eagler

I still have mine at the cabin.  Price went up a bit, but cheaper and better than any other option I had of anything near capability.

Haven't played AH with it, but stream movies and Zoom meetings with zero problem.  Can't imagine it couldn't handle AH.

$0.02

[JimmyD3]

Eagler, talk to Slaxer, he uses it when he's down south. Told me it worked fine.

[AKIron]

Daughter in North Idaho has been using it for a couple of years now I think. They like it a lot. Especially compared  to Hughes that they were using before. They are about 70 miles south of the Canadian border.