Fellow country-folk. Starlink

[ve9aa]

I am enjoying reading this thread and now that Starlink seems to be more prevalent than ever, hoping to learn more about reliability and of course, speed. (costs too)

About 8 yrs ago we went from dialup, over to a very expensive cell modem type system intended for peopl on the go (not rural customers) then finally to Xplornet about 6yrs ago. The first few years with Xplornet was fantastic !
Up 99.9% of the time and speeds were fairly consistent most of the time. 20MB down was pretty much normal.

The last ~2 yrs, not so much. I can only imagine that in my area (NB, Canada) they've oversold their product so there's not much consistency anymore.

Here's what I hear in my house almost every weekday evening anytime between 6:30pm and 9pm:

Family members screaming 'It's 8 o'clock! ! !" at the top of their lungs....and not in a good way.

We'll either experience speeds at times, less than dialup (like 20kbs (not MB/S) or possibly get bumped off altogether. This is random. I presume based at least partially on the # of folks connected.

We can "remote into" our outside modem/antenna and see things like signal strength, panel we're connected to at the remote transmitting site, etc. and even that goes down when the overall system bogs.

It's better more than it is lousy, but it's enough to make me want to "explore" other options other than "Xplornet".

Cable, fiber and DSL are not options where I am.

What say ye?

 

[The Evil Twin]

Kind of. You can still make it work, but the wires carrying the power are not normal.

Despite the connectors being proprietary, the underlying technology connecting the router and the rectangular dishy is gigabit ethernet with non-standard PoE(The orange and green pairs are positive, the blue and brown pairs are negative). The cable itself is plain stranded STP CAT5e, suitable for outdoor use. The router acts as a 48V, 2A PoE power supply, so 96 watts are available at the port the router.

I'm assuming the PoE you are speaking of is what powers dishy McFlatface? I need to look into this more if not. Planned on installing some PoE cameras around the property. Don't want the two to clash. Maybe the Starlink ethernet adapter makes this a non issue.

 

[Jchonline]

I'm assuming the PoE you are speaking of is what powers dishy McFlatface? I need to look into this more if not. Planned on installing some PoE cameras around the property. Don't want the two to clash. Maybe the Starlink ethernet adapter makes this a non issue.

That is correct. POE = Power over ethernet. Basically passing low voltage through the Cat5e wires to power the dishy. This is pretty common in the IT networking world these days...much cheaper to power a wireless access point with just 1 cable from the network closet than having to have a separate 110/120v plug for it.

 

[58Ford]

Kind of. You can still make it work, but the wires carrying the power are not normal.

Despite the connectors being proprietary, the underlying technology connecting the router and the rectangular dishy is gigabit ethernet with non-standard PoE(The orange and green pairs are positive, the blue and brown pairs are negative). The cable itself is plain stranded STP CAT5e, suitable for outdoor use. The router acts as a 48V, 2A PoE power supply, so 96 watts are available at the port the router.

Of course it’s PoE. Theres you tube videos now showing how to splice these cables and if you have any IT knowledge you will find it’s easy - like I stated. I pointed this out because some may think they need to replace the cable RATHER than repairing a section like what was posted - chewed by rodents.
Your info on what is powering is interesting but not relevant if you are purely splicing.
Why didn’t you show people how to repair your cable?

 

[58Ford]

I am enjoying reading this thread and now that Starlink seems to be more prevalent than ever, hoping to learn more about reliability and of course, speed. (costs too)

Cable, fiber and DSL are not options where I am.

What say ye?

Would love to help ya but will cost you a defender!

 

[The Evil Twin]

That is correct. POE = Power over ethernet. Basically passing low voltage through the Cat5e wires to power the dishy. This is pretty common in the IT networking world these days...much cheaper to power a wireless access point with just 1 cable from the network closet than having to have a separate 110/120v plug for it.

yeah, I'm pretty familiar with WHAT it is and HOW it works. I had our old house done up with PoE cameras and switches. I play with the stuff at work too.
My curiosity is if the port you are talking about is the uplink to the dish itself. Or, if all of their products (including the separate ethernet adapter) are also done this way. If it is, i will need to rethink my design. Or cut the power pair. Lol.

 

[johnjk]

yeah, I'm pretty familiar with WHAT it is and HOW it works. I had our old house done up with PoE cameras and switches. I play with the stuff at work too.
My curiosity is if the port you are talking about is the uplink to the dish itself. Or, if all of their products (including the separate ethernet adapter) are also done this way. If it is, i will need to rethink my design. Or cut the power pair. Lol.

From the basic drawings on the Starlink sight it looks like they just strip out Ethernet and run everything else back to the router. 1G limit on this feed as well

 

[The Evil Twin]

Thanks @johnjk
That, and a little more research shows that the SL ethernet adapter is not a PoE switch. So I can use my own PoE router as needed. My router uplink port would go to the SL adapter. From there, I can create my own VLAN for the security system on the PoE plus my own subnet for wireless and hardwired PCs.

 

[Jchonline]

Of course it’s PoE. Theres you tube videos now showing how to splice these cables and if you have any IT knowledge you will find it’s easy - like I stated. I pointed this out because some may think they need to replace the cable RATHER than repairing a section like what was posted - chewed by rodents.
Your info on what is powering is interesting but not relevant if you are purely splicing.
Why didn’t you show people how to repair your cable?

I had no need to repair. Starlink replaced the entire dish/cable assembly at no cost. I had it in a week. I also have the original round dish.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

We are Starlink / SpaceX's first customer, from Beta On.

We've had quite a few Q and A Video chats with Starlink / SpaceX, it's been very interesting and an honor to say the least.

We have nothing but rave reviews on service and performance.
It's been incredibly reliable and fast for us.
There hasn't been any conflict with any equipment we use either.
We have computers, phones, TV's, devices, appliances, Cameras, WIFI signal boosters to cover the whole property, and other things.
Even with everything running we have no noticeable slowdowns or loss.

I fully recommend it for anyone that's in a rural area with no solid connection options.
Price / speed / quality has been top notch in our opinion.

 

[ve9aa]

Thanks for this info NIW !

 

[aaluck]

We have computers, phones, TV's, devices, appliances, Cameras, WIFI signal boosters to cover the whole property, and other things.

Can you run your own router? I have the EEROs and absolutely love them. I want to make sure I can still use that system as I am now by just plugging the ethernet cable into the "main" EERO.

 

[bearbait]

Can you run your own router? I have the EEROs and absolutely love them. I want to make sure I can still use that system as I am now by just plugging the ethernet cable into the "main" EERO.

Yes you can use your own router. We are running an Asus router and also a VPN. The VPN slows it down quite a bit but if you are outside the US and want to bring in Us programing you will need the VPN. We can get faster and much cheaper internet here now however after the last hurricane went though it sure was nice to have Starlink, at least we still had internet and TV when we ran the generator.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Newer Starlink WIFI routers require an adapter to add a hard network connection, but yes as bearbait said you can run your own router in addition to their router.
The new Starlink router supports WIFI 6.

 

[johnjk]

I’ve had it now for almost 2 months. Speeds have been great. The only buffering has been when the dish repositions to pick up the next bird coming over the horizon. On average it buffers for around 6 seconds and then never skips a beat.

 

[dclauria]

I've been using Starlink since about Feb 2021. I quit using the Starlink router almost immediately, and I have the Starlink antenna installed on my pole barn for clear line of sight with the Starlink power brick inside the unheated pole barn (in N. Mich - no problems). Then 300' fiber cable underground to the house with adapters on both ends. Feeds a Ubiquiti Unifi dream machine router and hard wired access points. Typically over 20 devices connected including streaming tvs and my 2 sons gaming pcs.
Flying colors!