Starlink Question

[aaluck]

Soooo, it looks like I may finally be getting close to my order being filled--just in time for the price hike. Here is my question.

I'm in Alabama and from what I understand from reading, the vast majority of the satellites are either directly above me or to my north. The app backs this, when I do a scan of the sky--for those of you that have used this app you know, the area you need a clear view of is a different shade than the rest of the sky.

Anyway, when I do a scan during the day it says this would be a "great place to mount" no obstructions. When I stand in the exact same spot at night I says I need to find a better place. On both scans (day/night) the app is covering the exact same area of the sky. The photo below is facing due north and my spot is actually to the left (west). There is not a tree in sight above or to the north. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

The day shot is the one that works, as it's a visual test.
Doing it at night is not accurate.
FYI, Once they set they don't move, there isn't a different orientation at night.
They will move if they reconfigure coverage, which they randomly update.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Measure the distance from the dish to the location where you will have the router (indoor) as there are a couple of options for wire length on the new dish.
If you run pipe for the wire you want a minimum of 1 1/2" and medium sweeps. I like 2" makes it where you can pull the cable either direction.
There are also a multitude of mounts that are now available.
I have one dish on a pole and one dish mounted to the side of the house up high.
We have 2 dishes, the original round dish ( Dishy McFlatface ) and the Gen 2 rectangle ( Stinky ).
If your running a wired network get the ethernet adapter.
If you have a big house or remote shops that you work in, you can get additional routers to Mesh the network to give it bigger coverage.
We have mesh in several rooms and we have an exterior antenna, works great for tractor work or mowing.
Buy all equipment directly from SpaceX / Starlink as you get full warrantee, if you buy from other sellers you have no warrantee.
Their customer service is excellent, we had one of our dishes get glichy and go down.
I did all the trouble shooting I could then sent a ticket and within 5 min they had tested it and sent me new parts to get it going!

 

[aaluck]

If your running a wired network get the ethernet adapter.

Okay. So that is actually my other big question. I already have a great mesh network (EERO, six of them spread out everywhere) that covers everything--shops, gate opener, gate ring, etc.

From what I understand I can simply remove the old ATT fixed wireless ethernet and plug in the Starlink, with that ethernet adaptor, and be done. Is that correct?

Also what kind of speeds can I actually expect?

 

[johnjk]

My speeds have been around 120-160 Mbps upload around 40. I repurposed my old Viasat mounting pole with the Starlink adapter and mounted it up off the ground. Trenched the cable back to the house. Coverage for me is good. I did split bands on their Wi-Fi to keep older devices from dropping. If I need a mesh network I will get another access point from Starlink

 

[aaluck]

Trenched the cable back to the house.

This is what I think I will do. I actually have a 10x24 flower bed about the same distance as yours looks to be from the house. Ill probably plant a post there--actually I also think I have the old Viastat pole laying somewhere--thanks for the idea.

Did you use pipe or bury directly?

 

[The Evil Twin]

Okay. So that is actually my other big question. I already have a great mesh network (EERO, six of them spread out everywhere) that covers everything--shops, gate opener, gate ring, etc.

From what I understand I can simply remove the old ATT fixed wireless ethernet and plug in the Starlink, with that ethernet adaptor, and be done. Is that correct?

Also what kind of speeds can I actually expect?

As long as you can get into your old router (or it is already set up DHCP) so that it will obtain a IP from the Starlink router you'll be good to keep your own LAN as it is. That is exactly what I did. Starlinks devices are OK but not great. On top of that, there are no port forwarding options or static IP reservations unless you get the business plan. I also like to make my own network rules and not rely on their equipment.
John is getting great speed there. Mine is not super. Best I've seen is 101/34 in the middle of the day. High congestion times like now it's 36/12.

 

[johnjk]

This is what I think I will do. I actually have a 10x24 flower bed about the same distance as yours looks to be from the house. Ill probably plant a post there--actually I also think I have the old Viastat pole laying somewhere--thanks for the idea.

Did you use pipe or bury directly?

I buried direct and then ran it in pipe up the house from about 1’ out in the grass. May regret that later but for now it will do. Get the pole adapter from Starlink to mount on the Viasat pole. I also used that foam stuff to set the pole rather than concrete. Works great

 

[Smokeydog]

Had ATT slow wire internet. Watch a movie was iffy.

Beta tested Starlink system. Great speed…when connected. Would loose connection at different times. App had good connection site. Asked repeatedly what the problem was? Obstruction? Satellites? Poor CS. Told they were going to launch more satellites. $450 down and $120/mo. Got a CS call 10 minutes after request to return. CS could actually see my house and satellite dish trying to talk me out of returning. Sent back and eventually got full refund. ATT ran fiber at the road. Took awhile and effort to get them to run 1/2 mile to the house. $20/mo twice the speed of Starlink at its best. Dropped 30 years of Direct TV and switched to streaming at half the cost. Game changer for our farm.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Had ATT slow wire internet. Watch a movie was iffy.

Beta tested Starlink system. Great speed…when connected. Would loose connection at different times. App had good connection site. Asked repeatedly what the problem was? Obstruction? Satellites? Poor CS. Told they were going to launch more satellites. $450 down and $120/mo. Got a CS call 10 minutes after request to return. CS could actually see my house and satellite dish trying to talk me out of returning. Sent back and eventually got full refund. ATT ran fiber at the road. Took awhile and effort to get them to run 1/2 mile to the house. $20/mo twice the speed of Starlink at its best. Dropped 30 years of Direct TV and switched to streaming at half the cost. Game changer for our farm.

Glad to hear you had other options, some of us don't.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I would suggest conduit all the way, the cables are not meant to be buried and critters love to munch on that type of cable, and if you need to replace the cable, it's snap to change it out if it's in conduit.
If you run the conduit up the inside of your pipe the cable will not be exposed to the elements at all.

And yes I do believe you are right on your Plug and Play mesh network.

My speeds vary, never what I would call slow or lagging.
I'm running 32 devices on my network, can stream 4k movies and play online games all at the same time and never an issue!

The pole adapter is simple but works great!

 

[CiscoRanger]

Okay. So that is actually my other big question. I already have a great mesh network (EERO, six of them spread out everywhere) that covers everything--shops, gate opener, gate ring, etc.

From what I understand I can simply remove the old ATT fixed wireless ethernet and plug in the Starlink, with that ethernet adaptor, and be done. Is that correct?

Also what kind of speeds can I actually expect?

Yes, you can do this. you just need the Ethernet adapter.

We have EEros (7 in total) connecting the house, guest house, shop, and another out building through P2P ubiquity links, and also have another internet provider as a backup to our starlink (we both work from home and need the redundancy).

if the starlink goes down in a storm we just move the eero cable to the other isp device. Back and forth. And it works great.

you’ll likely have to restart/reboot your entire eero system when you do it tho.


as to speeds it’s always above 50, usually 80 for us. Sometimes 200.

 

[Smokeydog]

We have miles of underground utilities. Conduit with mule tape is always a smart play.

 

[JeremyBX2200]

I got mine earlier this year and love it. Of course I am in an internet blackhole. No wired options. Other satellite is terrible, P2P is not an option, Only one cellular data carrier has a signal at my place and only get about 5Mbps down.....plus SIM cards that die every few months.

With the starlink I range from 30Mbps down to 130Mbps down depending on the time of day etc. I was able to mount mine on the roof using the provided mount. I have had a couple of outages, but overall my service has been really good.

 

[johnjk]

We are cornered in by CSX and no one wants to pay to cross the tracks. I’ve heard it said that the railroad owns the space above the tracks to heaven and below to hell. You can go either way but it will cost you. The next nearest town that has conventional broadband is 25 miles away. No money for a cable company there.

 

[aaluck]

@North Idaho Wolfman how long of a run of cable is sent with the kit?

 

[jimh406]

@North Idaho Wolfman how long of a run of cable is sent with the kit?

The standard antenna cable is 50ft.

You can buy direct burial ethernet cable that can be buried. I suppose it's possible for a rodent to eat it, but in my area, there are lots of things to eat instead. I bought a short distance to go from my nonattached garage to my house. It's the most North building and saved mounting the antenna on the top of my two-story.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KKJZ9H1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

@North Idaho Wolfman how long of a run of cable is sent with the kit?

The cable that comes with the gen 2 (rectangle dish) is 75 ft and you can get a separate cable that is 150 ft.
and remember if you want LAN you need to order the ethernet adapter.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

The standard antenna cable is 50ft.

You can buy direct burial ethernet cable that can be buried. I suppose it's possible for a rodent to eat it, but in my area, there are lots of things to eat instead. I bought a short distance to go from my nonattached garage to my house. It's the most North building and saved mounting the antenna on the top of my two-story.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KKJZ9H1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

The standard cable is 75ft not 50ft.
The Starlink cable is NOT ethernet, it's a proprietary cable between dish and router, with distinctive plug ends and no compatibility with other systems!

 

[jimh406]

The standard cable is 75ft not 50ft.
The Starlink cable is NOT ethernet, it's a proprietary cable between dish and router, with distinctive plug ends and no compatibility with other systems!

Thanks for correcting the length of the antenna cable.

I know the Starlink antenna is not ethernet. I didn't say it was. I said you can buy ethernet that you can bury. The point is you can run ethernet from the Starlink unit to your mesh in another building. That's exactly what I did.