Fellow country-folk. Starlink

[aaluck]

I’m fed up with not being able to connect to the Internet. Anyone who has actual life experience with star link please let me know whether or not it’s worth the money. Right now I’ve got AT&T fixed wireless Internet which is basically a cell phone connection. I’ve given up hope on any major people coming out here to run wire

 

[mikester]

its better than nothing internet

 

[bmblank]

From what I hear its not only better than nothing, but better than a whole lot.
Get it. Chances are you won't be able to get it immediately, but get yourself on the list. I've been on the list since February. Hoping I get it soon, but wouldn't be surprised if it's december before I get it. (Mid to late 2021)

 

[Crash277]

i feel your pain, when i purchased my place there was no internet and cell service wass choppy. "high speed" dsl was installed about 6-7 years ago. i put high speed in quotes because quite often i disconnect from the internet and use my phone data. cell service has improved but internet has not. a few neighbors have ordered starlink. im waiting to see how good their service is before i order it. quite a bit of cash out of pocket for the beta testing.

 

[bmblank]

Check the starlink reddit.

 

[JeremyBX2200]

I hear it is decent. The design should, in theory, reduce the current satellite internet issues.

I tried a couple of different options when I moved out to my property. "Normal" internet wasn't an option. I tried satellite for a while and it was pretty much un-usable. I have since switched to a company called Nomad Internet. They use a data router and you can pick/try different carriers to see which works best. It is unlimited with no throttling.

Not as good as you could get wired, but I can stream video etc with it.

 

[mcfarmall]

I have a deposit on Starlink...waiting for the equipment. My brother in law has Starlink and loves it...way better than dsl that I have. My AT&T dsl goes down about evert 7-10 days. It's so bad that the tech gave me his cell number so I can call him directly when it goes out. AT&T is moving away from DSL and they aren't installing any new accounts so when I finally pull the plug, there's no going back. They are also recycling all the defective modems back into the system per my service technicians statement.

 

[Dwight Bremer]

We have run our IT business in the country since 1995. Internet access has run the gamut from modems on multiple landlines, satellite, wireless, and cellular modems. Then one day (miraculously) the local government in our county received a grant from the State of MN to install fiber optic Internet service through-out the county!

Starlink refunded the deposit I had made back at the very beginning of them accepting deposits.

After 30 odd years (of spending a small fortune on Internet access just so we could live in the country), we have been blessed with fiber gigabit Internet for $100 per month.

 

[random]

I WFH as a programmer so I'm online a lot. I have had Hughes Net for 5 years, got by with it but not great. Just got Starlink.

I average close to 100Mbps on speed tests. We can now stream HD on 3 devices at the same time (haven't tried more). 3 simultaneous video meetings (Teams, Zoom, etc). Ping averages 30ms.

The downsides?

Occasional brief outages: Total of about a minute today, typically lasting less than 5 seconds. These don't even affect streaming because the buffer carries over. Usually due to a satellite gap which will improve as they get more in orbit.

Self-installation: I had to build a platform attached to my roof to get it high enough to clear the trees around my house, and I had to drill a couple holes to run the cable inside. No big deal if you're vaguely handy.

Outright purchase: you buy the equipment, it's not a lease.

That's it.

If given the choice again, I would absolutely get it. It's about $500 for the equipment and $99/month for service. Worth every penny for me.

 

[jimh406]

I use an ATT Home Internet device. I run my house using it and have for several years. We have many devices and TVs that stream.

If you have good ATT connection with other devices/phones etc, you might just need a newer internet device.

But, I’ve heard mostly good things about Starlink and also heard about the outages, so I guess depends which problems you want.

 

[Firefight100]

I have starlink in mid Missouri. I love it. Have had it 6 months now and it works great. One thing is they do not give a permanent ip to you, and they use cgnat which makes it difficult to impossible to use things in your home while you are away. Cameras, Plex server, File servers, ect. Items in your home do work if they broadcast to a web server, such as ring cameras.

 

[mikester]

When it works its great. If you need rock solid reliability then it sucks. It costs an arm and a leg and be prepared for outages that last 30 seconds to 30 minutes. They advertise "better than nothing" service and it is.

I used to have xplornet wireless point to point internet that I paid for 25Mbit down and 1Mbit up. It was severely oversold with old hardware. I would have outages that lasted for days but customer service always made you wait on hold for 30 minutes, then they would make you do the dance of "now reboot your computer, now the router,..." and after an hour of this they would finally admit to a problem 15 hops down on their network because their hardware was choking on the traffic. I was lucky to get dialup speeds at times, especially during covid.

My average starlink upload speeds are better than xplornet's download speeds. I get more frequent short outages on starlink but in general there are probably less users on the starlink system than with xplornet's.

Your starlink support is limited to a webmail system...if you need someone to hold your hand a talk you through how to plug it into the wall then starlink isn't for you.

My recommendation is to NOT get starlink because you will make my internet slower.

 

[aaluck]

makes it difficult to impossible to use things in your home while you are away. Cameras, Plex server, File servers, ect. Items in your home do work if they broadcast to a web server, such as ring cameras.

Can you elaborate on this a bit? I have Ring doorbells and alarm. Does this mean that I will not be able to access by system or see who is at the door?

What does the underlined sentence mean. I'm not tech savvy...

 

[bmblank]

The ring camera should work without a problem. Most "smart home" sorts of things work over web servers these days, meaning to interact with those devices when away from home, you connect to a web based service. Some devices/services, particularly those that are more techie oriented, when away from the home, you need to connect "directly" to a device located in your home. CGNAT makes that hard to do.

 

[jmhobbs]

I've been looking at Starlink too, since our ADSL (which is never great to start with) has been down for more than two weeks and they're in no hurry to fix it. My main issue is that the gear comes with a fixed 100' cable, which isn't enough to get out of the woods for a decent view of the sky (according to their app). So I'll need to trench power and ethernet out to a shed and go from there. Now I can justify that trenching bucket from bxpanded, probably better get the quick attach system too...

 

[Jchonline]

I’m fed up with not being able to connect to the Internet. Anyone who has actual life experience with star link please let me know whether or not it’s worth the money. Right now I’ve got AT&T fixed wireless Internet which is basically a cell phone connection. I’ve given up hope on any major people coming out here to run wire

I have had it for 3 months now.

1. Remember it is still in beta, which means there will be some service interruptions as they do updates or reposition satellites.
2. If you have it in an unobstructed view of the sky (say on a roof with no trees around) it is doing to do great.
3. Good for all internet uses, almost good for video conferencing (but still some intermittent issues).
4. $500 for the satellite and $100 a month. Remember they could go bankrupt (who knows) so purchase with this in mind.
5. The router they give you isn't the best feature wise, so if you need more you can probably use your own, but you will have to try it. No guarantees it will work.
6. Make sure the cable to the dish is not exposed to critters/water, etc. It carries both power and data, so if it gets damaged you are toast. They have to replace the entire dish/cable assembly. I had a mouse chew mine. Now it is completely enclosed in electrical conduit.

I went from hughesnet and it is night/day difference. I usually get 20 up and 100+ down with latency less than 50 ms.

 

[Jchonline]

I have starlink in mid Missouri. I love it. Have had it 6 months now and it works great. One thing is they do not give a permanent ip to you, and they use cgnat which makes it difficult to impossible to use things in your home while you are away. Cameras, Plex server, File servers, ect. Items in your home do work if they broadcast to a web server, such as ring cameras.

Have you tried setting up a vpn server connection?

 

[Jchonline]

Can you elaborate on this a bit? I have Ring doorbells and alarm. Does this mean that I will not be able to access by system or see who is at the door?

What does the underlined sentence mean. I'm not tech savvy...

I use a host of Arlo wifi cameras and access them all the time when we are away. I expect ring will work fine.

 

[random]

I've been looking at Starlink too, since our ADSL (which is never great to start with) has been down for more than two weeks and they're in no hurry to fix it. My main issue is that the gear comes with a fixed 100' cable, which isn't enough to get out of the woods for a decent view of the sky (according to their app). So I'll need to trench power and ethernet out to a shed and go from there. Now I can justify that trenching bucket from bxpanded, probably better get the quick attach system too...

I think they have an extension cable. It's not possible to go up instead, where you are?

Oh, another point: you can't use just any ethernet cable - you need one that can do "power over ethernet". I don't know the differences anymore but I'm pretty sure a regular cat-5e won't cut it.

 

[random]

6. Make sure the cable to the dish is not exposed to critters/water, etc. It carries both power and data, so if it gets damaged you are toast. They have to replace the entire dish/cable assembly. I had a mouse chew mine. Now it is completely enclosed in electrical conduit.

I went from hughesnet and it is night/day difference. I usually get 20 up and 100+ down with latency less than 50 ms.
View attachment 65036

Oh yeah, that's a really good point!

My cable got torn up and I ended up with a full outage. Had to return it for a replacement. When I got that, I ran the cable through PVC all the way from the dish to the wall penetration. Haven't had a problem since.