Anyone else a Starlink beta tester?

[bearbait]

Missed this thread until now. Ive been following starlink development. I have DSL out in the woods, and it is decent considering we are 20 miles from town. We are just 3500feet from one of the DSLAM's so we are able to get 50mbps down / 4mbps up. I would take Starlink over it though I think as it would more than double our download and upload speeds. The kicker with satellite internet however, and where Starlink is a massive game changer, is in latency. Wolfman showed the latency in the traceroute (id like to see a traceroute to Google's DNS if you wouldn't mind posting it. it is at IP number 8.8.8.8) and 23ms on a traceroute is absolutely phenomenal. That is better than many cable options. I would like to see if it sits around that same figure to google's DNS.

I had to go the first 3 years out at my house after I bought it with no internet because DSL wasnt available there yet, and I refused to use hughsnet or exede and I know how bad they suck. They are good for browsing internet and checking email and thats about it. They tend to have massive latencies of over 700ms, often over 1000ms, and the download speed is shotty. Latency is important to me as I actually game online a lot in my free time. Online gaming requires a low latency connection.

The fact that starlink has pulled off satellite and is doing so at pings that rival traditional ground based wired solutions is just mind blowing. They do this by using low orbit satellites and communications in the 12ghz frequency space. There are some issues with the 12ghz space that are being contested at the FCC. To put it short, some companies are opposing starlinks use of the 12GHZ band, so there is some risk that the FCC "could" squash starlink, or severely limit their use of the frequency band. I hope they dont. Starlink could be a MASSIVE game changer for rural property owners. 100mbps+ download speeds with 30ms latencies is just insane. There are many developed cities that cant match that on their wired solutions. The real test however will come when starlink has to provide that same speed and latency to thousands or potentially millions of users. They have plans to take the speed up to 1gbps even. If that were to happen..........It would be the biggest game changer in internet solutions since the internet was founded.

Im in florida so I cant join the beta yet, but Ive been watching it.

EDIT: Also for those concerned about the space clutter, the starlink satellites are much smaller than traditional satellites, and have built it thrusters. Each satellite can be made to de-orbit where they disintegrate in earths atmosphere.

We ran into the same problem here with Xplornet, the latency or ping was crazy high. 16 years ago we applied for a landline which involved crossing a small lake or pond to the cost of $1800.00 plus a monthly bill which we said no to as it was just our cottage. We ended up getting a magic jack which we still have and I must say it's been great until we tried Xplornet. With the high latency it just wasn't usable so back to this painful crap we have to use right now. We are in the process of selling now so high speed internet and good cell service will high on our priority list but until we leave here if we have a chance to get Starlink it'll be a done deal. Thanks for the heads up Wolf.

 

[RCW]

I just sent an email for Starlink updates...

I'm Central New York, southeast of Syracuse, north of Binghamton.

We're at $200/month for internet ($70) and TV ($130) with Spectrum (Charter). Always looking for alternatives for streaming TV.

Honestly, since we are older folks, streaming TV would be very new to us....

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

(id like to see a traceroute to Google's DNS if you wouldn't mind posting it. it is at IP number 8.8.8.8) and 23ms on a traceroute is absolutely phenomenal. That is better than many cable options. I would like to see if it sits around that same figure to google's DNS.

Is this what your looking for?

 

[armylifer]

Is this what your looking for?
View attachment 50625

Try this instead. Ping google.com and see what you come up with.

 

[Tornado]

Is this what your looking for?
View attachment 50625

Yea. That is just phenomenal that they are able to pull off latencies that low with satellite. On my DSL line its about 15ms average to google's dns. My DSL service is pretty decent. its all brand new fiber to the DSLAM's, and I always have pretty good ping times in most things.

I would love to see how consistent the latency is. I notice there is a 3ms jitter just in the 3 pins there, but still its just really impressive.

 

[bearbait]

I just sent an email for Starlink updates...

I'm Central New York, southeast of Syracuse, north of Binghamton.

We're at $200/month for internet ($70) and TV ($130) with Spectrum (Charter). Always looking for alternatives for streaming TV.

Honestly, since we are older folks, streaming TV would be very new to us....

You should have plenty of choices for streaming where you live, Hulu, Sling and Philo which I have here just to mention a few. Doesn't really matter what you have right now with this virus, it's all reruns and commercials.

 

[RCW]

You should have plenty of choices for streaming where you live, Hulu, Sling and Philo which I have here just to mention a few. Doesn't really matter what you have right now with this virus, it's all reruns and commercials.

True, we do have alternatives. Many don’t have much for options. It’s all foreign to me how that streaming stuff works. Never used it, but I think we have a Netflix account.

 

[bearbait]

True, we do have alternatives. Many don’t have much for options. It’s all foreign to me how that streaming stuff works. Never used it, but I think we have a Netflix account.

Without being there to help you and walk you through it I'm afraid I'll just confuse you even more. It really isn't very difficult but nothing is I guess if you know how. Maybe when this pandemic is over you may be able to find a neighbor or a relative that can help.

 

[RCW]

Without being there to help you and walk you through it I'm afraid I'll just confuse you even more. It really isn't very difficult but nothing is I guess if you know how. Maybe when this pandemic is over you may be able to find a neighbor or a relative that can help.

We do have a passel of 20-something year old kids and daughter- and son in law’s. One SIL is an IT guy.

For all them it’s second nature. Unfortunately, they’re all 100’s or 1,000’s of miles away.

 

[Daren Todd]

We do have a passel of 20-something year old kids and daughter- and son in law’s. One SIL is an IT guy.

For all them it’s second nature. Unfortunately, they’re all 100’s or 1,000’s of miles away.

Our grandsons are our IT experts If the 11yo can't figure it out, the 13yo can

Especially if it's phones or the TV. Either way, you got me looking over their shoulder going "How the heck did you get it to do that????"

 

[random]

Just for comparison, here's Hughes

Tracing route to google.com [2607:f8b0:400f:800::200e]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2001:5b0:41cb:a158:280:aeff:fe92:62c7
2 628 ms 537 ms 625 ms 2001:5b0:4100:1600::1
3 578 ms 648 ms 592 ms 2001:5b0:4100:fffa::105
4 600 ms 604 ms 614 ms 2001:5b0:4100:fffa::10a
5 637 ms 592 ms 637 ms 2607:f498:4100:16::1
6 656 ms 618 ms 644 ms 2607:f498:4000:43::1
7 615 ms 614 ms 648 ms 2607:f8b0:8251::1
8 590 ms 615 ms 626 ms den02s01-in-x0e.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:400f:800::200e]

Trace complete.

BIG difference.

 

[Tornado]

Just for comparison, here's Hughes

Tracing route to google.com [2607:f8b0:400f:800::200e]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2001:5b0:41cb:a158:280:aeff:fe92:62c7
2 628 ms 537 ms 625 ms 2001:5b0:4100:1600::1
3 578 ms 648 ms 592 ms 2001:5b0:4100:fffa::105
4 600 ms 604 ms 614 ms 2001:5b0:4100:fffa::10a
5 637 ms 592 ms 637 ms 2607:f498:4100:16::1
6 656 ms 618 ms 644 ms 2607:f498:4000:43::1
7 615 ms 614 ms 648 ms 2607:f8b0:8251::1
8 590 ms 615 ms 626 ms den02s01-in-x0e.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:400f:800::200e]

Trace complete.

BIG difference.

Yep, and those are on the low end of what you tend to get. It is why I never personally would every use hughsnet. If all you wanted to do was browse the internet then it would work fine. If you want to do any gaming though online then hughsnet is a complete no go. You simply cant play an online game with 500+ ms latency.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Yep, and those are on the low end of what you tend to get. It is why I never personally would every use hughsnet. If all you wanted to do was browse the internet then it would work fine. If you want to do any gaming though online then hughsnet is a complete no go. You simply cant play an online game with 500+ ms latency.

Before Starlink, Hughesnet was the only possible internet solution we could get and it was horrible!
My latency was consistently in the 1000ms+ range and the last speed test I got was 2.9mps and that was sporadic at best.

 

[Tornado]

Before Starlink, Hughesnet was the only possible internet solution we could get and it was horrible!
My latency was consistently in the 1000ms+ range and the last speed test I got was 2.9mps and that was sporadic at best.

I bought my house in 2011. At that time There was no cell service there, and no internet options at all aside from hughesnet or exede satellite. I chose to go without internet for 3 years rather than use them. Eventually I had a cell tower get put in about 2 miles from the house so I got cell service, which enabled me to buy a Jetpack from Verizon and I used that as my home internet for a long time. I hooked it up to an external antenna outside to get a stron 4GLTE signal. Speed was good, latency was average (sporadic given wireless). The downside to using cell phone internet of course is it costs tremendously, so you cant download any big files, and you certainly cant stream any video. I remember one time My PS4, which I rarely used, I had turned it on one day for something and forgot to turn it off, It ended up downloading all these patches for a couple games on there, several gigabytes worth of data, all while I was sleepping. I ended up with over $200 premium on the phone bill that month. You had to be really careful about this when on jetpack wifi, amake sure you disconnect things when not using them etc so you avoid surprises. FINALLY after several years, the local phone/DSL company finished their project of running Fiber Optic all over the county and I was able to get DSL. I now have 50MBPS DSL, with excellent latency. 50MBPS is fast enough that me and my wife can live comfortably on that, but I would take more if I could get it. ALl of our tv and stuff now is internet based. We dropped dish network tv when we got DSL. Just the savings in TV service paid for the DSL bill.

 

[random]

No options for me. As I mentioned, my DSL was only like 100k and very intermittent. No cable or any other hard-wired options. I'm in a rural area at the end of a mile-long private road (only me on the road). Nearest hardline other than DSL is over 5 miles away. No cell service here either.

I'm a programmer and work from home, so I MUST have internet. When Hughes came out with their Gen5 and offered better caps, I went for it. Aside from the lag it hasn't been too bad, but it takes getting used to typing on a remote console and not seeing anything you type for a couple seconds...

I get decent download speeds, clocked at times as high as 30mbps, average around 10. I can live with it until there's another option, but you can bet I eagerly awaiting that other option!

 

[Daren Todd]

I bought my house in 2011. At that time There was no cell service there, and no internet options at all aside from hughesnet or exede satellite. I chose to go without internet for 3 years rather than use them. Eventually I had a cell tower get put in about 2 miles from the house so I got cell service, which enabled me to buy a Jetpack from Verizon and I used that as my home internet for a long time. I hooked it up to an external antenna outside to get a stron 4GLTE signal. Speed was good, latency was average (sporadic given wireless). The downside to using cell phone internet of course is it costs tremendously, so you cant download any big files, and you certainly cant stream any video. I remember one time My PS4, which I rarely used, I had turned it on one day for something and forgot to turn it off, It ended up downloading all these patches for a couple games on there, several gigabytes worth of data, all while I was sleepping. I ended up with over $200 premium on the phone bill that month. You had to be really careful about this when on jetpack wifi, amake sure you disconnect things when not using them etc so you avoid surprises. FINALLY after several years, the local phone/DSL company finished their project of running Fiber Optic all over the county and I was able to get DSL. I now have 50MBPS DSL, with excellent latency. 50MBPS is fast enough that me and my wife can live comfortably on that, but I would take more if I could get it. ALl of our tv and stuff now is internet based. We dropped dish network tv when we got DSL. Just the savings in TV service paid for the DSL bill.

We did the same thing when they ran the new fiber around our area. We had switched from cellular internet to dsl to get away from the high costs and accidental large downloads. But we were at slow download speeds of 1 to 3mbps. Since I was an existing customer at the low speed. They gave me the 50mbps download speed at 1mbps price when they turned the fiber on. We just had to have them run a new line and install a new phone jack. They had to update the wifi modem as well.

I got a letter from them a few months ago, stating they bumped us up to 100mbps speed. Still at the original price of $70 per month.

Talked to the renters that moved in last year. They are paying $130 for the 50mbps speed. The 100mbps speed costs even more.

Some times it pays to be patient and deal with the slower speeds for a bit.

I haven't paid for satellite TV for a few years now. I have an antenna on the roof for the local stations and Netflix for movies.

 

[HectorGg]

I haven't even heard of this casino. However, I think that's because it's not Asian. I only prefer Asian casinos. They are considered more reliable, and to tell you the truth, I haven't lost or failed since I started playing, which is very interesting. I usually use 1houseofpokies to find good casinos. In general, I like poker. It's a game you play when you're smart, you know, that's what my dad used to say when he was gambling. The truth is, he never won... On the other hand, he had fun and didn't lose that much money.

 

[D2Cat]

We live out of town a ways but close enough to be within T Mobil's reach for DSL. We usualy get download speeds from 120-180 mbps. Total cost is $50 month. We were paying $75 for download speeds that maxed at 10mbps with Century Link.