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Starlink - What a long, strange trip it’s been…

Animal357

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Minuteman
  • Aug 18, 2020
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    Short version; Starlink is finally up and running.

    Long version; what a long, strange trip it’s been…

    I hired networking company to install my dish on my 12/12 pitch roof, because, well, 12/12.

    First trip, he climbed the roof and ran the cell phone app to check for obstructions. We determined 3 trees needed to come down. I took them down and the next week he checked again. Finding no obstructions, he mounted the dish on the roof.

    Cost to date: two trips and dish mount $500—yup expensive, but 12/12. Tree removal $300.

    Finally got service turned on just over a week ago, and was loosing connection every 2-3 minutes. Checking for obstructions using the actual dish, rather than the app, it showed several small obstructions on the fringes. I was amazed that such limited obstructions would so greatly disrupt service, so often. I was really angry that the phone app didn’t show the obstructions accurately.

    I was unwilling to cut any more trees, especially knowing as others grow they would probably become obstructions, so I had to move it off my roof.

    Having investigated several options, I found them impossible or far too expensive. The only option left was my pond berm. It’s the only spot on my property that has no obstructions, but it’s 450 feet from the house, far beyond the 100’cable that Starlink says cannot be extended. I needed power at the other side of the lake and a bridge to send the signal back.

    I had electric at the house side of the pond for aerators. I ran 380’of 10ga submersible wire to the berm on the other side of the pond. 10ga was used to limit voltage drop over the long distance. After several attempts rowing a johnboat and towing the rope without success, I bought 400 feet of rope and pulled the boat with the rope, while my wife pulled the cable from inside the boat. After lots of sweating and swearing, we got it done. 117 volts at the pond berm, success!

    Cost; $1000 for wire, electrical components and rope.

    Network company installed today. Took almost 2 hours to remove the dish from the roof and patch the holes, because 12/12. Mounted the dish accross the pond and installed the bridge receiver at the house. Power adapters were mounted in a weatherproof enclosure. Everything went fine until we realized that there was no IP address being delivered. We hooked the bridge to the power block output which worked at first, but we lost the IP. Eventually, we figured out that the modem creates the IP and that we needed to use the ethernet port on the modem instead of the port on the power block. We set up a second bridge receiver at another building using the same bridge transmitter.

    Cost; $1100 for bridge and labor

    Speeds are typically 40-90 down and 10-14 up with pings 25-80ish. Sometimes lower, a few down speeds as low as 15 and under 1 for up. Not close to what was promised, but 20 times better than what I had, and so far, far more stable and reliable. The bridge does 150 up and down and I was told it would not slow down Starlink since its speeds were lower (we tested it directly)

    Total cost $2900. If I had no obstructions cost would have been zero.

    Still really angry that the phone app didn’t show the obstructions, but I will eventually get over it.

    Having tried all other rural internet options over the last 8 years of living here, Starlink is a godsend, even considering the cost.
     
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    I have the newer unit in hand but it only came with 75' cable, 150' proprietary cable on order maybe this month, modem no longer has ethernet port, have that on order and then the long roof mount, have that on order with no delivery date last time I looked. It is a process but it's better than a 4G hotspot.
     
    My buddy runs this way Northern WI, near UP. Similar numbers as you stated when it started in the area - access to satellites is geo/grid restricted (last I checked) due to limited satellites in orbit (I'd expect this to change once all sats are up and they are not in beta). Fast forward a year - he is now getting 200-350 down and 50-100 up consistently. His latency is < 50ms regularly (which considering distance to space is not bad).

    He did not have any of the obstruction issues you have had and it is now his go to network. He did drop signal early on, maybe a couple few minutes a day as satellites did handoffs or whatever, but that is now down to less than 30 secs per day with additional satellites.

    I signed up last year in the late Summer for a property I was purchasing (not quite middle o' nowhere, but certainly right next to it!) in TN. Chips didn't flow and service in the area is now estimated at 1st half of this year. Seems I just heard a bunch of his shit fell out of orbit recently, and of course chips are still an issue. Dunno when I see it, but as you said-from my travels-this shit at $100/mo is the best to be had I'd think.

    I got folks in Ireland/UK with it as well - reckon I'll check in with them on their experiences now that you bring it up....
     
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    Close to the terminator, on the dark side, is where you get to see the strings of Starlink satellites as they orbit. Saw one yesterday.
     
    I have the newer unit in hand but it only came with 75' cable, 150' proprietary cable on order maybe this month, modem no longer has ethernet port, have that on order and then the long roof mount, have that on order with no delivery date last time I looked. It is a process but it's better than a 4G hotspot.
    It's great that the new version has a 150' option. Give you a lot more placement options. No such luck on the original. 100' and they say you can not extend it.
    I think its stupid for them to have removed the ethernet port. Converting wifi to ethernet slows down the process.
     
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    Mid-Ohio here.........Still waiting! Fuckers have had my money since spring 2021. Got this bullshit message today

    "Due to excessive levels of inflation, the price of the Starlink kit is increasing from $499 to $549 for deposit holders, and $599 for all new orders, effective today. In addition, the Starlink monthly service price will increase from $99 to $110. "

    I don't even have the service yet and they are raising my price...WTF! I only have 4G cell signal and use my cell phone for internet.
     
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    I am still waiting for my roof mount, 150' cable and ethernet connector, was supposed to be delivered this week, web page has it now bumped to into first week of April, so I get 4G speed with the ground mount and obstruction outages, parts ordered in February.
     
    Finally got my 150' cable, ethernet adapter, roof mount, assume the parts went to Ukraine, then had to wait for an new software update that reenabled the router bypass. Running the system with a commercial router, 5 hot spots in the ceiling, commercial switch and two amps for the 18 pairs of speakers in the home with 6 Sonos zones and two Sonos sound bars at the TV's. System works like a charm and beats the only old unreliable crap cable system available, may see fiber before I kick the bucket. Using a two WAN router so when 5G wireless is available I can test this as well with out loosing Starlink. This beats Hughes and Wild Blue and old copper cable. Customer service has not been needed, it just works. In my AO we have one fiber loop that feeds the old cable, when a rodent cuts it, no-one has anything, but I will.
     
    Any updates on this?
    We are going to have to go this way if it works (BFE), We have 2 separate routers on 2 phone lines and are switching back and forth all day.
    Sucks
     
    I've been using starline for about a year and a half now. I have it on a pole in the front yard, a little obstruction from the crabapple tree once in a while but doesn't cause me any headaches. Once in a while we'll have an outage, but not very often, and not very long. Before starlink we had 10mbit max, and we rarely got that, it was really about 8 Mbit. We range from 50 down, to 200 down, I don't check often, it runs everything we need and that's all I care about.

    Branden
     
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    PSA..... If you live in an area where hail is not rare, avoid putting the dish on the roof. It'll need replacing. Golf ball sized hail took mine out. While I wasn't happy about the non hail resistant dish, it's still well worth the expense. But I opted to put the dish in the backyard. On the ground. So that I can cover it up when hail is expected
     
    Another ? I use ayrmesh to shoot wifi to my barn and my wife uses a VOIP phone for her work.
    From what I can understand it can only use a switched either net that will only allow router or either net not both? (non geek)
     
    Bumping this for fresh info and advice. The wife and I are tired of the slow and sporadic ISP service in the small town we live. No fiber in the foreseeable future here, only wifi style bridge based service giving 20Mbps on a good day and hit all of 1.2Mbps last night. Aside from the $600 equipment cost, it's actually cheaper than what I'm paying now so another potential bonus, but being a research junkie before spending anything over $50, I've got a few questions to get answers to first and don't want the bias typical review sites have.

    1. From all I've read, speeds are pretty good with Starlink, can I at least expect consistent >40Mbps down and 5 up?
    2. I can place it unobstructed, can I expect very minimal downtimes? The wife works online as a counselor, a 30 second blip in service ends a session unpaid because she can't reinitiate it after it drops, and I don't feel like hearing it for making the move only for her to lose money over it. She probably loses $100/mo with the current shitty service, and about $1500/yr when she has to drop an entire day. Will Starlink be at least comparably reliable if not better?
    3. On the hail comment above, are we talking pea-marble size or golfball and larger? We commonly get the smaller stuff, larger maybe once every year or two and I'm not going to get to it right away to protect it. Should I be concerned with this?
    4. Pole mounting 10' up on 2 1/2" galvanized pipe in concrete in Wyoming wind (what current dish in on), it's going to bobble around on me. Is that going to fuck it up? I might be able to anchor it with guy lines, but I don't feel like putting a tripping and clothesline choke hazard in my yard.

    I hate wasting money, especially when going back to the old would cost a service call to install their dish back. What says the Hide?
     
    Bumping this for fresh info and advice. The wife and I are tired of the slow and sporadic ISP service in the small town we live. No fiber in the foreseeable future here, only wifi style bridge based service giving 20Mbps on a good day and hit all of 1.2Mbps last night. Aside from the $600 equipment cost, it's actually cheaper than what I'm paying now so another potential bonus, but being a research junkie before spending anything over $50, I've got a few questions to get answers to first and don't want the bias typical review sites have.

    1. From all I've read, speeds are pretty good with Starlink, can I at least expect consistent >40Mbps down and 5 up?
    2. I can place it unobstructed, can I expect very minimal downtimes? The wife works online as a counselor, a 30 second blip in service ends a session unpaid because she can't reinitiate it after it drops, and I don't feel like hearing it for making the move only for her to lose money over it. She probably loses $100/mo with the current shitty service, and about $1500/yr when she has to drop an entire day. Will Starlink be at least comparably reliable if not better?
    3. On the hail comment above, are we talking pea-marble size or golfball and larger? We commonly get the smaller stuff, larger maybe once every year or two and I'm not going to get to it right away to protect it. Should I be concerned with this?
    4. Pole mounting 10' up on 2 1/2" galvanized pipe in concrete in Wyoming wind (what current dish in on), it's going to bobble around on me. Is that going to fuck it up? I might be able to anchor it with guy lines, but I don't feel like putting a tripping and clothesline choke hazard in my yard.

    I hate wasting money, especially when going back to the old would cost a service call to install their dish back. What says the Hide?
    Can you get one of the 5G cell internet routers? TMobile and Verizon both offer it and it’s cheap. Unfortunately, I have zero experience with Starlink.
     
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    "

    I don't even have the service yet and they are raising my price...WTF! I only have 4G cell signal and use my cell phone for internet.
    Capitalism 101. fucke'em then fucke'em some more.
     
    Can you get one of the 5G cell internet routers? TMobile and Verizon both offer it and it’s cheap. Unfortunately, I have zero experience with Starlink.
    Hotspot of cell phones works great until you run out of data. I dont know of any company that offers true 'unlimited' data without a slowdown or price increase past a point.
     
    13 down, 10 up during high-usage period (right now) much faster than 4G cell phone hot-spot, more reliable, doesn't kill the phone battery.

    Have needed to reboot the router/antenna @ 4x/year and heavy rain can cause a service "outage". I probably don't have as many calls as Mrs. Redmanss but have never lost a MS-Teams call and I move GB sized files around.

    Far better than rural DSL (no cable here), far better speeds/$ than other satellite and local microwave.

    50-155 Mbps down 5-6.7 up at 0930
     
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    Finally got my 150' cable, ethernet adapter, roof mount, assume the parts went to Ukraine, then had to wait for an new software update that reenabled the router bypass. Running the system with a commercial router, 5 hot spots in the ceiling, commercial switch and two amps for the 18 pairs of speakers in the home with 6 Sonos zones and two Sonos sound bars at the TV's. System works like a charm and beats the only old unreliable crap cable system available, may see fiber before I kick the bucket. Using a two WAN router so when 5G wireless is available I can test this as well with out loosing Starlink. This beats Hughes and Wild Blue and old copper cable. Customer service has not been needed, it just works. In my AO we have one fiber loop that feeds the old cable, when a rodent cuts it, no-one has anything, but I will.

    If you have cable available they are artificially limiting speeds if it isn't 500+.
    Mine is open, and I see between 700 and 1000mbps depending on traffic. Considering WiFi is highly expensive to break 400mbps with any range, it has zero effect on real world speeds at my devices.

    My sister has fiber through the same provider, and they do limit speed to gigabit to help with network congestion. So fiber isn't the crazy fast thing it's supposed to be if they don't install enough of it anyways.
     
    Haha, 5G in Wyoming…

    Maybe when they roll out 6G we’ll get 5. Appreciate it though.

    Montana has 5g! It's running on the same towers with the same backbone as the 4g network, so it just adds lag time with the shit reception from the higher frequencies.


    I get 1200-1500mbps with my phone traveling where there are good 5guw networks. I see the same 50mbps here as I do on 4g.

    But it wasn't long ago we were paying the same for 10mbps on cable and were lucky to get 3g data service, so I'll take decent 4g speed all day long.
     
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    I get 30-40 down, 3-7 up typically during business hours. Better in evenings
     
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    Hotspot of cell phones works great until you run out of data. I dont know of any company that offers true 'unlimited' data without a slowdown or price increase past a point.
    I’m talking about a specific cellular wifi router, not using your phone as a hotspot. It’s something that Verizon and TMobile are offering for a lot of rural areas.
     
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    I'm currently fighting the obstructions at my cabin. one little red leaf in the app and fuck it we slowing your speeds down, I just don't understand.
    I'm not willing to cut the trees down, we've been losing trees like crazy over the last couple years. I am going to try moving it to the beach and see if that helps. I believe the cable will reach so that's a bonus. Just haven't had the time to try it out.
     
    If you have a lot of trees around the house and do not want to cut them, then get an antenna tower and mount the starlink dish on top of it.

    Photo from https://www.starlinkhardware.com/will-starlink-work-in-a-wooded-area/
    4172C102-A4C7-44C6-AC2F-05B38F4B3383.jpg
     
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    I'm currently fighting the obstructions at my cabin. one little red leaf in the app and fuck it we slowing your speeds down, I just don't understand.
    I'm not willing to cut the trees down, we've been losing trees like crazy over the last couple years. I am going to try moving it to the beach and see if that helps. I believe the cable will reach so that's a bonus. Just haven't had the time to try it out.
    I had a hell of a time with that. I went up on the roof with the Starlink app and tested it before installation. It showed 3 trees that needed to be cut. I hated to do it, but I needed internet more than the trees. Tested it again with the app and it showed no obstructions.

    Mounted the dish on the roof and there are obstructions. The app did not match the dish. Fuck my life.

    Was not going to keep cutting trees that I couldn't even identify as problematic. I ended up putting on the other side of my property on the bank of my pond. Ran marine cable through the lake for electric.

    Bought an weatherproof electical box for the electronics and hired an IT company to instal a bridge to send the signal to my house.

    Work fines, but an expensive pain in the ass.
     
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    Can you get one of the 5G cell internet routers? TMobile and Verizon both offer it and it’s cheap. Unfortunately, I have zero experience with Starlink.
    Hotspot of cell phones works great until you run out of data. I dont know of any company that offers true 'unlimited' data without a slowdown or price increase past a point.

    I’m talking about a specific cellular wifi router, not using your phone as a hotspot. It’s something that Verizon and TMobile are offering for a lot of rural areas.
    I dont live in an isolated rural area but my road doesnt have any hard wire internet; fiber optic or cable. We use the T-mobile cellular Wi-Fi router. I dont have any T-mobile phones, just the cellular WiFi router. Had it for a couple years now and its been fast and reliable. 110MBs fast. Verizon is offering the same thing now. If you have cellular signal where you live one of these would probably work. And its $55/month, unlimited data.
     
    Damn... I ordered one in Dec. 2022. Put it up myself in about an hour. Ran the wires and the router. Had the system running in my barn before noon!

    But must just be lucky with a great view of the satellites....

    Love the system. And they 'cut my price' after 2 months because our area isn't sold out, so they are giving us a break of $20 a month until the area reaches capacity.

    Awesome!

    Cheers,

    Sirhr

    PS. Survived the winter, 70 MPH winds... never loaded with snow. Always working. And 10x the upload and download speed for less price then my ISDN provider.
     
    Been running Starlink about a year only problem was a blown starlink router in a lighting storm, it seems to be sacrificial, bypass router and all the rack equipment was protected, works in the snow, wind, a little flakey in very heavy rain, but allows me to surf while the wife streams at night. Satisfied.
     
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    An update to my own endeavor with Starlink. Last weekend I got fed up with my shitty ISP service pushing an abysmal 5Mbps average down, so I pulled up the purchase page once again and saw Home Depot had a $100 off deal for the V2 dish (deal is gone now), so $500 lighter in the account I dropped the order last Sunday and had my new dish in hand on Friday.

    Researching up mounting options I'm looking to use (have 15' above ground 1.5" SCH 40 pipe already installed outside for current ISP dish), one thing that pissed me off is you cannot buy Starlink accessories until you have a Starlink account, and you can't start an account until you have a Starlink. I have no idea why this is, gray market protection? Whatever, but the $35 pipe adapter mount I want from them is ordered with an estimated ship date of 2-4 weeks, now updated to 2-3 weeks. While I was at it I ordered a $25 ethernet adapter to potentially use the mesh router setup I already have. I looked around for other pipe adapter mounts, found one I was interested in but holy shit did they have the worst blown snot weld displayed in their item page photo, so hard pass on that, I'll wait another couple weeks for a good one.

    Here's that aftermarket adapter from "The Satellite Shop", no fucking way am I spending money with an outfit that puts some shit like this on their site, and for well more shipped than Starlink's is at that.

    1-58-OD-to-Starlink-Quick-Pipe-Adapter-for-V2-Square-Starlink-Dish-2.jpg


    Just keep in mind if you need any mounting accessories to DIY it, find someone with a dish already to get the order moving early or you'll be waiting, potentially for weeks to finally install and run internet off your dish. I would think they could certainly change this, or at least partner with Home Depot for accessories as well as the dishes. Perhaps when they get better stock available, who knows, but it's an inconvenience to say the least to have to start and pay for an account before the majority of users can install and run their service.

    Anyhow, I didn't feel like waiting that long to at least set up the dish and op check it, so I put the dish on the included four leg stand, set it on the hood of the work truck in the driveway where it has a fairly clear view of the sky away from the house, and fired it up. It's pretty neat how it has internal motors to align it, no measuring azimuth or declination involved, it does it on its own and relatively quickly at that. It fired up, set up the new router info, log into the Starlink account, download the update, let it restart and pretty much up and running from scratch in 30 minutes. A couple speed tests and I'm pulling 150-200Mbps down and 15-25 up, far more than I'll need anytime soon. I connected the TV to it with the router outside with the dish, pulled up a HD movie and could tell instantly how much faster it is. I push play and it instantly starts playing, jump around and instant response with less than a second of buffering. Holy shit, what a concept...

    All in all, thumbs up from me. Thanks to those who chimed in with their own experiences, it definitely helped make the decision.
     
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    We got Starlink in January.

    Set it up myself, after using the placement app, plopped dish down in the back yard, up an running in about an hour

    After two months they lowered my monthly from $110 to $90/month

    Got rid of Dish Network $175 savings /month

    Got rid of satellite internet from phone company $85 savings /month

    No more limited data or slowed down speeds

    It works great, never lost signal through the nasty blizzards we had this year.

    moderate snow melts off, heavier than shit snow, just squeegied it off

    Got a Roku and tv is all free now.

    Best thing we ever did.
     
    I've been ok but generally unimpressed with Starlink. Lower latency but the reliability hasn't been great either in semi-rural high plains Colorado.

    Available bandwidth varies greatly. As I write this at the start of the business day, I am getting 94 down and 24 mbps up. That uplink is way better than normal. In the evening's I get a lot more inconsistency, higher latency, micro-outages, and throughput can be as low as 60-70mbps down.

    I am a tech wonk so I have prosumer level gear that monitors my internet constantly.
     

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    I've been ok but generally unimpressed with Starlink. Lower latency but the reliability hasn't been great either in semi-rural high plains Colorado.

    Available bandwidth varies greatly. As I write this at the start of the business day, I am getting 94 down and 24 mbps up. That uplink is way better than normal. In the evening's I get a lot more inconsistency, higher latency, micro-outages, and throughput can be as low as 60-70mbps down.

    I am a tech wonk so I have prosumer level gear that monitors my internet constantly.
    Don't disagree, but what is better?
     
    Don't disagree, but what is better?
    Varies by area. I am JUST close enough to a federally designated "metro area" (Greeley, CO) that we dont get rural broadband dollars. Literally one more town 4 miles up the road has federally subsidized fiber! Gah.

    Terrestrial wireless I did before starlink has limitations in the tech right now in that they almost universally have to be line of sight, and there are very real limitations that are probably half of what manufacturer rated maximum link distances are stated as.
    I've gotten connected with the CTO of one of the local wireless companies, when he rolls out next gen tech, Ill take another look.

    I've thought about adding T-mobile 5G home internet as a second link to test that out. I can go dual-WAN with failover on my router but I need to do some more testing over time with the 5G before I will put more eggs in T-mobile's basket.
     
    Ebay has a shit load of Starlink accessories and parts.
    The pipe adapter I need is $35 shipped from Starlink or $99 shipped from eBay. I’m perfectly good waiting a couple weeks instead of letting some scammer fuck me with a nearly 200% markup.

    I have bought a whole two things off eBay in my life, most recently a decade ago, and even that was for a very specific vintage toy that was part of a prank. I’d rather buy from Amazon, and that’s in the “I’d rather get kicked in the nuts” category and hasn’t gotten a dime from me in several years.
     
    Starlink is the greatest thing since sliced bread for me. My other option is Hughesnet...complete crap. And...I can take it with me when I am out at my hunting property.