Starlink

[BigBlue1]

DNS services are decentralized. The main DNS servers are the masters, but are replicated and cached all over the place. If a DNS outage was very lengthy (over a day) it may become a bigger deal as cached entries expire due to TTL settings.

Certainly there are bottlenecks that would cause large disruption but ultimately there are a lot of ways to work around them. Some are automated. Some would require intentional changes.

 

[Cougsfan]

Distributed networking broke through the pitfalls of centralized architecture-- including the problem of having a single failure take everything down.

I am thinking something like a CME event (coronal mass ejection) could care less about decentralization. See Impacts of Strong Solar Flares)

Apparently one happened in 1859 that was quite severe. There have been a few minor ones since then. It is unclear what would happen today if we were to have a CME event identical to that in 1859. If we did nothing it would be bad news. It seems we have the capability of seeing a CME coming a day or so in advance, but if we could or would be able to shut everything off to prevent potentially catastrophic damage to both power grids and electronics would be a question. How well that would even work is also in question. Satellites would be a major point of concern.

In any case, I am not going to lose sleep about it. I could also choose to worry about a giant asteroid hitting the earth, a super volcano like the one that happened 30,000 years ago, or aliens taking over the world. But I won't.

 

[ponytug]

Not a direct Starlink question, but what are you folks using as a back up system for Starlink?

We have no cell service here, and the DSL equipment on the telco's side aged to the point that it wasn't reliable.

With WFH, having a "Plan B" seems important.

All the best,

Peter

 

[cqaigy2]

I kept my mobley because it's so cheap and i was working from home, so wanted secondary Internet access.

 

[John_Mc]

Our Starlink connection is so much more reliable than the DSL we had before that it hasn't crossed my mind that we need to back it up. On the rare occasions where Starlink is down, it's usually minutes. We've had maybe a couple of occasions over the past year when it was out for an hour or more (if there were more, it may have happened at night when we weren't using it). Our DSL would go out for days multiple times per year, and we lost it for shorter terms any time it rained or the wind blew too hard. We were on a first name basis with the DSL repair guy.

In a pinch, we can use our cell phones as a hotspot. The cell signal is weak here, but we can usually make it work, if the phone is in the right part of the house.

 

[scootr]

I keep my cell phone (hotspot) for backup - it works good but datd charges are a killer.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I kept my Verizon Wireless internet plan as backup but I have yet to need it in the 7 months I've had Starlink. I can also use my cell phone hot spot if necessary but the data can get expensive.

 

[plowhog]

Just fyi about 2 inches of overnight snow disabled my Starlink recently. Not sure why-- I verified my app is set to "auto" regarding snow melt.

Brushed the snow off the antenna easily. Nothing was stuck or adhering. It came back online quickly.

 

[scootr]

Maybe the heater is not working? I'll never know if it works on mine

 

[BigBlue1]

I kept my mobley because it's so cheap and i was working from home, so wanted secondary Internet access.

Same for me. I used the AT&T Mobley plan as primary ISP for a couple of years and at $20/mo it was a no-brainer to keep as my backup when I moved to Starlink. I dropped the $90/mo sub-5Mb/s DSL provider at that point, which had been my backup to AT&T. Both Starlink and the AT&T hotspot plan are entirely functional for two of us to work from home with. Now I use the AT&T side for significant downloads after Starlink's 1TB/mo limit started.

 

[JethroB]

I keep my cell phone (hotspot) for backup - it works good but datd charges are a killer.

Same for me. If I want to stream Netflix while using the cell phone as a hotspot I try to remember to turn Netflix quality down to SD from HD.

 

[ponytug]

Just fyi about 2 inches of overnight snow disabled my Starlink recently. Not sure why-- I verified my app is set to "auto" regarding snow melt.

Brushed the snow off the antenna easily. Nothing was stuck or adhering. It came back online quickly.

If it was close to freezing, I wonder if the antenna hadn't yet realized it was snow covered. When it snows again, you could try setting the snow melt function to "ON", either preemptively, or after there is an issue.

All the best,

Peter

 

[TheMan419]

Same for me. I used the AT&T Mobley plan as primary ISP for a couple of years and at $20/mo it was a no-brainer to keep as my backup when I moved to Starlink. I dropped the $90/mo sub-5Mb/s DSL provider at that point, which had been my backup to AT&T. Both Starlink and the AT&T hotspot plan are entirely functional for two of us to work from home with. Now I use the AT&T side for significant downloads after Starlink's 1GB/mo limit started.

Thankfully that is a soft cap and only during peak hours. If you can schedule DL for overnight it does not count against your cap. Once you hit the cap you are deprioritized until your next billing cycle starts.

 

[BigBlue1]

Thankfully that is a soft cap and only during peak hours. If you can schedule DL for overnight it does not count against your cap. Once you hit the cap you are deprioritized until your next billing cycle starts.

All well known and not relevant to my situation. Some situations with my work require multi GB downloads during the day and, with our needs for Internet for WFH, I will not risk pushing SL to the deprioritization point. It's why it is nice to have two reliable ISPs when you live in rural areas and WFH.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Same for me. I used the AT&T Mobley plan as primary ISP for a couple of years and at $20/mo it was a no-brainer to keep as my backup when I moved to Starlink. I dropped the $90/mo sub-5Mb/s DSL provider at that point, which had been my backup to AT&T. Both Starlink and the AT&T hotspot plan are entirely functional for two of us to work from home with. Now I use the AT&T side for significant downloads after Starlink's 1GB/mo limit started.

I'm guessing you mean TB rather than GB.

 

[plowhog]

If it was close to freezing, I wonder if the antenna hadn't yet realized it was snow covered.

Interesting. It did start snowing even though temps were above freezing. Something like 37F.

 

[BigBlue1]

I'm guessing you mean TB rather than GB.

Indeed. Fixed it.

 

[dmccarty]

Not a direct Starlink question, but what are you folks using as a back up system for Starlink?

We have no cell service here, and the DSL equipment on the telco's side aged to the point that it wasn't reliable.

With WFH, having a "Plan B" seems important.

All the best,

Peter

Prior to Starlink, our primary ISP was cell based with DSL, 1.5 mbps, as a backup. The DSL cost a fortune compared to the data rate and reliability, so we canceled it when we saw how well Starlink was working. Our previous cell based provider had major problems just as Starlink arrived. That was a close call. The cost for Starlink and the cell service was the same, so we got faster and more reliable service for the same price. For backup, we added Internet connectivity to our current cell phone plan, which is limited by data usage, but it is cheap.

Ironically, recently we had a 10-15 minute Starlink outage, during which our cell based backup did not work either.

Best laid plans of mice and mine....

 

[tradosaurus]

As long as you understand that the "satellites" providing you internet coverage are nothing more than high altitude balloons.
Satellite envy

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Starlink has applied to FCC for direct from phone to satellite link.