Starlink

[JESSE1]

The people at the T Mobil store said that the availability of 5G internet is very limited now, they're limiting the number of customers per cell tower. I actually have a T Mobil cell tower in my pasture, only about 1000 feet away from my house. They installed new antennas on the tower this summer. I've checked availability in the past but it's just recently become available to my address.

 

[TheMan419]

Don't forget 5G may require device upgrades.

Yeah the "Trash can" has ports for external antenna, but you need to get "creative" to get to them and use them. I have a friend who is an engineer and good at that kind of thing.... I am not so good at it

 

[TheMan419]

I'm also rethinking the Starlink plan.

I just got Verizon's Wireless Gateway Home Internet at $52/mo to replace my $67/mo DSL service. My speed went from 2 down, .5 up to 42 down, 8 up. Sure it's still slow compared to FIOS, cable and satellite systems but to my wife and I, it's a minor miracle. We can now stream 4K video, exchange Hi Def video with friends & family, surf the net at lightning speed (compared to DSL), all on multiple devices.

I really don't understand this "need for speed" when it comes to broadband. I suppose in large households with many users streaming video simultaneously or for data intensive home businesses, a faster connection may have value. For my wife and I though the 42/8 we're getting now is perfectly adequate.

Things could change in the future but right now, paying twice as much for Starlink may not be practical.

I totally get that. We have a WISP provider that is putting up a tower near us that we might be able to get line of sight to. They have a 30/mb plan and a 100/mb plan both with unlimited data. Hell the 30 would be a huge improvement for us.

We are getting like 15 down and 7 up right now. Just the two of us. It will work for streaming on two tvs, or whatever browsing we need to do.

If we need a huge download, like updating the phone OS or something, we just set it to run overnight, or i update mine at work.

The wife works from home, but the 15/7 we get is fine for what she needs to do. Especially when she has that pipe all to herself and I am at my physical office.

 

[newbury]

<snip>

I really don't understand this "need for speed" when it comes to broadband. I suppose in large households with many users streaming video simultaneously or for data intensive home businesses, a faster connection may have value. For my wife and I though the 42/8 we're getting now is perfectly adequate.
<snip>

Seems like you have speed.
Try 6 down. .6 up.

 

[bdhsfz6]

These wireless internet plans from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile etc. do seem attractive now considering the price and the speeds they provide. This could change in the future though. Right now, these carriers are limiting the number of customers on a tower site to keep the speed up. I suspect this will change over time as the price of the service increases and speeds slow as more customers per tower are allowed.

I know this because I ditched Verizon's DSL and got their wireless Gateway Home Internet. When my neighbor saw the system performance, he tried to do the same thing. Even though he lives next door, he was told the service wasn't available. I was an engineer at Verizon before I retired and still know some of their tech folks. I called one I used to work with and he told me this candidly.

Starlink may do the same thing over time but with the speeds they offer now, some slowdown wouldn't be noticed, at least by me anyway.

We'll see what happens in the future.

 

[JESSE1]

I'm not giving up on Starlink, I probably will go with them when they are available. When I tested my T Mobil this morning I actually hit nearly 300 gbps but it will drop during the day although so far the slowest I've seen is 75 gbps. Up load is 50-75. The T Mobil store tech told me they were limiting the number of people on each cell tower, I was lucky to qualify.

 

[IXLR8]

We don't have T-mobile here, I just picked up Verizon LTE Home Internet. If I am in the same room with the unit I get 35Mb/s down and 12Mb/s up, if I go to the farthest point in the house from the unit, I get 0.8Mb/s down and 0.3Mb/s up. Works good enough for us in 80% of the house. If I could find a way to boost the signal throughout the house, I might just cancel my Starlink order. I am totally surrounded by 80-100 ft trees and the Starlink app keeps telling me to find a different place to mount the unit. When I suggested cutting some of the trees, SWMBO said no way. She said if they did come down I would have to hire a tree service considering how tall they are and how close to the house they are. I even tried on my roof and got the same result. I am having a dock built in July, I should have good coverage there but I can't wait that long to get decent internet access.

 

[ponytug]

Try a tp-link WiFi repeater to extend the signal. WiFi speed is highly dependent upon signal strength.

All the best,

Peter

 

[LittleBill21]

We don't have T-mobile here, I just picked up Verizon LTE Home Internet. If I am in the same room with the unit I get 35Mb/s down and 12Mb/s up, if I go to the farthest point in the house from the unit, I get 0.8Mb/s down and 0.3Mb/s up. Works good enough for us in 80% of the house. If I could find a way to boost the signal throughout the house, I might just cancel my Starlink order. I am totally surrounded by 80-100 ft trees and the Starlink app keeps telling me to find a different place to mount the unit. When I suggested cutting some of the trees, SWMBO said no way. She said if they did come down I would have to hire a tree service considering how tall they are and how close to the house they are. I even tried on my roof and got the same result. I am having a dock built in July, I should have good coverage there but I can't wait that long to get decent internet access.

try this.

place it about half way from the router

https://amzn.to/3oKP8Yd

 

[bdhsfz6]

We don't have T-mobile here, I just picked up Verizon LTE Home Internet. If I am in the same room with the unit I get 35Mb/s down and 12Mb/s up, if I go to the farthest point in the house from the unit, I get 0.8Mb/s down and 0.3Mb/s up. Works good enough for us in 80% of the house. If I could find a way to boost the signal throughout the house, I might just cancel my Starlink order. I am totally surrounded by 80-100 ft trees and the Starlink app keeps telling me to find a different place to mount the unit. When I suggested cutting some of the trees, SWMBO said no way. She said if they did come down I would have to hire a tree service considering how tall they are and how close to the house they are. I even tried on my roof and got the same result. I am having a dock built in July, I should have good coverage there but I can't wait that long to get decent internet access.

I had the same range problem with my Verizon LTE Home internet. I bought a fairly cheap Netgear router and connected it to one of the two Ethernet jacks on the Verizon router. I now get a strong signal throughout the house and even out to my garage.

Verizon tech support advises against doing this but it seems to work fine.

 

[IXLR8]

I had the same range problem with my Verizon LTE Home internet. I bought a fairly cheap Netgear router and connected it to one of the two Ethernet jacks on the Verizon router. I now get a strong signal throughout the house and even out to my garage.

Verizon tech support advises against doing this but it seems to work fine.

I thought about doing this, I have extra routers, but there is no Ethernet port on the Verizon LTE box that I have.

 

[IXLR8]

Thanks for the WiFi repeater/extender suggestions. They look like what I need, I will look into those. They are cheap enough to try to see if they will do the job or not.

 

[BigBlue1]

We don't have T-mobile here, I just picked up Verizon LTE Home Internet. If I am in the same room with the unit I get 35Mb/s down and 12Mb/s up, if I go to the farthest point in the house from the unit, I get 0.8Mb/s down and 0.3Mb/s up. Works good enough for us in 80% of the house. If I could find a way to boost the signal throughout the house, I might just cancel my Starlink order. I am totally surrounded by 80-100 ft trees and the Starlink app keeps telling me to find a different place to mount the unit. When I suggested cutting some of the trees, SWMBO said no way. She said if they did come down I would have to hire a tree service considering how tall they are and how close to the house they are. I even tried on my roof and got the same result. I am having a dock built in July, I should have good coverage there but I can't wait that long to get decent internet access.

Look into wifi mesh systems. Much better coverage and no signal loss like wifi repeaters. You'll be very happy with one.

 

[rekees4300]

This article has best 2021 mesh systems and a list of Black Friday deals.

The Best Wi-Fi Mesh Network Systems for 2021

 

[Oaktree]

I thought about doing this, I have extra routers, but there is no Ethernet port on the Verizon LTE box that I have.

Well that's stupid. Don't they realize that desktop computers and some other gadgetry needs an ethernet connection? Other than a Roku (which is hard-wired too) and a laptop I don't think I have anything that uses wi-fi. Laptop has an ethernet jack too, but I mostly use it away from home.

 

[BigBlue1]

Well that's stupid. Don't they realize that desktop computers and some other gadgetry needs an ethernet connection? Other than a Roku (which is hard-wired too) and a laptop I don't think I have anything that uses wi-fi. Laptop has an ethernet jack too, but I mostly use it away from home.

Any modern (Windows 7+ or Linux) desktop computer with only an ethernet port can be switched over to wifi very easily with a sub $20 USB wifi adapter. I have a lot of tech an I don't believe there is anything that isn't wifi capable.

That said, if you absolutely need a wired ethernet connection in an environment with only wifi, get a wifi repeater with an ethernet jack. Set that up near the wired device and connect it to the device.

Rob

 

[Oaktree]

Any modern (Windows 7+ or Linux) desktop computer with only an ethernet port can be switched over to wifi very easily with a sub $20 USB wifi adapter. I have a lot of tech an I don't believe there is anything that isn't wifi capable.

Yes, but it's another gadget you need to buy that hogs a USB port. Why is it such an imposition to put a couple RJ45 jacks on the modem in the first place?

 

[IXLR8]

Look into wifi mesh systems. Much better coverage and no signal loss like wifi repeaters. You'll be very happy with one.

Spent some time looking into a mesh system, so far all that I have seen require a WAN connection. My Verizon LTE box doesn't have an Ethernet port so I can't connect to the WAN port on the mesh system. Unless I am missing something.

 

[ponytug]

Spent some time looking into a mesh system, so far all that I have seen require a WAN connection. My Verizon LTE box doesn't have an Ethernet port so I can't connect to the WAN port on the mesh system. Unless I am missing something.

Some can; look for "WiFi as WAN". As @BigBlue1 points out, you can use a WiFi repeater with an Ethernet jack to generate the port you want, if you have no other way.

All the best,

Peter

 

[BigBlue1]

Yes, but it's another gadget you need to buy that hogs a USB port. Why is it such an imposition to put a couple RJ45 jacks on the modem in the first place?

Likely for cost reasons and the fact that most devices out there are wifi capable these days so they go with the 'works for majority' situation. The solutions to the issue are easy and cheap for those of you that need it. USB wifi adapters are ubiquitous and cheap. USB hubs are ubiquitous and cheap if ports are scarce.