I was hoping to get mine today. At 1am last night Fedex was showing it in Wellsville, KS about 90 miles south of me with delivery scheduled for today. As of this evening it now shows in Washington, 1,800 miles away with no scheduled delivery date. Not sure how that happens.
Starlink
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JethroB
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Thanks Lou, I’ll give the 3 quick on/off cycles a try in the morning if I haven’t heard from them. It seems to be in an almost constant recycle state since about 4 am today. For now I’ve reverted back to my old DSL service.
They might argue it was a little more complicated than that but when you’re Elon Musk you can do a lot of things others cannot, even those in the gov’t, not in that timeframe anyway.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
In early February 2021, I think it was the 8th, we ordered StarLink. The shipping date moved out over 2021, and at the end of 2021 we got another date of March 2022. A few weeks ago, we got The Email, ie, do you want StarLink note. 
Well, yes. 
We eventually got a shipping date for March 2. The Dishy arrived yesterday, a day "early."
Just in time because our Verizon link went down for some reason. Was working the morning and then just would not connect to the Internet. I tried power off, various resets, pull out the sim card, etc. but nothing worked. Wifey spend all day, and I do mean all day on the phone with Verizon. When she was finally making progress, they dropped her call.
During the calls, she was doing everything I had done which was not fixing the problem. After the phone call was dropped she repeated the steps and we the Internet from Verizon just started to work. It had to be a problem on their end....
By the time, she got Verizon back up, I was almost done with setting up Starlink. My big problem was getting the cable run in the attic, which went a bit better than I expected, until it was time to get the cable out of the roof vent. I think that took about a third of the installation time but it got done. Plugging in power and the communication cables is easy peasy and we had communication to the Stars, well, ok, StarLink.
The only real problem I had was building the cradle to hold the dish. The cradle is resting on a shallow pitched part of our roof and I used some 2x4 pieces to hold the dish stand. I doubled up two of the 2x4s to sorta match the roof pitch. To double them up I used some wood screws. Then I used the wood screws to hold down the dish stand. The Oh S...t moment was when I used the same screw size on the single 2x4. Moron. To fill the screw hole in the shingle, I put in a stop gap, pun intended fix, but will have to do something better....
I still need the mounting bracket for the roof and the network splitter to finish the installation but it is working as is. I don't like the big router since we have a wiring closet and the router will not fit the wiring closet nor is the router where we want it to be located. Starlink does not have a good solution for those of use with wiring closets. We will have to reconfigure our wireless extenders, I think, to maximize performance but we were getting anywhere from 35 to 181 mbps down and 2 to 15 mbps down.
Rotating the router so it faced where we sit really increased bandwidth.
Our personal laptops are old, like 6-8 years old and they are only getting 35-50 mpbs. My newer, work laptop is getting 150-180ish mpbs down.
So far so good.
Starlink was delivered by FedEx. Which usually means at the end of the day before we get our order, however, he showed up around mid day! I had a long chat with the driver and he said he was delivering Starlinks all over the county. He has 17 of them on the truck that morning. I was the only home owner that went out to get the box from the driver which I found odd. Sounds like Starlink is batch dropping these to areas which is interesting. The Wifey had heard other people in the county were getting their Starlink this week.
Later,
Dan
Well, yes. We eventually got a shipping date for March 2. The Dishy arrived yesterday, a day "early." Just in time because our Verizon link went down for some reason. Was working the morning and then just would not connect to the Internet. I tried power off, various resets, pull out the sim card, etc. but nothing worked. Wifey spend all day, and I do mean all day on the phone with Verizon. When she was finally making progress, they dropped her call.
During the calls, she was doing everything I had done which was not fixing the problem. After the phone call was dropped she repeated the steps and we the Internet from Verizon just started to work. It had to be a problem on their end....By the time, she got Verizon back up, I was almost done with setting up Starlink. My big problem was getting the cable run in the attic, which went a bit better than I expected, until it was time to get the cable out of the roof vent. I think that took about a third of the installation time but it got done. Plugging in power and the communication cables is easy peasy and we had communication to the Stars, well, ok, StarLink.
The only real problem I had was building the cradle to hold the dish. The cradle is resting on a shallow pitched part of our roof and I used some 2x4 pieces to hold the dish stand. I doubled up two of the 2x4s to sorta match the roof pitch. To double them up I used some wood screws. Then I used the wood screws to hold down the dish stand. The Oh S...t moment was when I used the same screw size on the single 2x4.
Moron. To fill the screw hole in the shingle, I put in a stop gap, pun intended fix, but will have to do something better.... I still need the mounting bracket for the roof and the network splitter to finish the installation but it is working as is. I don't like the big router since we have a wiring closet and the router will not fit the wiring closet nor is the router where we want it to be located. Starlink does not have a good solution for those of use with wiring closets.
We will have to reconfigure our wireless extenders, I think, to maximize performance but we were getting anywhere from 35 to 181 mbps down and 2 to 15 mbps down.Rotating the router so it faced where we sit really increased bandwidth.
Our personal laptops are old, like 6-8 years old and they are only getting 35-50 mpbs. My newer, work laptop is getting 150-180ish mpbs down.
So far so good.
Starlink was delivered by FedEx. Which usually means at the end of the day before we get our order, however, he showed up around mid day!
I had a long chat with the driver and he said he was delivering Starlinks all over the county. He has 17 of them on the truck that morning. I was the only home owner that went out to get the box from the driver which I found odd. Sounds like Starlink is batch dropping these to areas which is interesting. The Wifey had heard other people in the county were getting their Starlink this week.Later,
Dan
kcflhrc
Veteran Member
Not much of anything in Wellsville Kansas but a bunch of Hill Billy's. Everyone there passes around a tooth to use at lunch and very few have ever left.
Lol. Well it made it from Wasington back to Lenexa KS and finally showed up here. Setup was about as easy as you could ask for. Still waiting on my ethernet adapter and permanent pile mount to ship but sitting in the yard works for now. Getting 70 to 80 down and about 10 to 12 up so far.
JethroB
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It took StarLink 2+ days to respond to my service issues email which is disappointing. Said they were monitoring my system remotely and are sending me an entire new system to swap out.
ponytug
Super Member
That is great to hear! There is hope for the rest of us.
I bought and installed and under eave mount from DRM. It is well built, and the inner diameter is supposedly just a few hundredths of an inch larger than "dishy's" mount. I will let you know how it goes whenever I actually get my gear...
All the best,
Peter
I bought and installed and under eave mount from DRM. It is well built, and the inner diameter is supposedly just a few hundredths of an inch larger than "dishy's" mount. I will let you know how it goes whenever I actually get my gear...
All the best,
Peter
dmccarty
Super Star Member
That is better service than we get with Verizon, UbiFit, or CenturyStink.
Not to say that a two day response time is good, but it is better service than we are getting. - DSL and phone went out, it took a week or two for someone to show up...
- UbiFi screwed the pooch, and after a few weeks of vastly reduced service, we went to Verizon.
- At least UbiFi allowed us to cancel quickly. Shame they had a meltdown because it was good, but expensive, while it lasted. Really like UbiFi except for the price.
- Verizon has been down for two of the last three days.
- Wife spent 4-6 hours on the phone with support who really did not do anything. The service started to work again, for a day, and went down again. Going to have to work on it this weekend, like I need another chore.
Later,
Dan
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Those speeds are the high end of what we get on our older laptops. My new work laptop gets higher speeds. Hoping that we can improve the in house network a bit. The StarLink router is in the utility room, in the center of the house, which is good for overall connectivity but I think it limits the speed.
We are waiting on the mount and ethernet adapter too.
Later,
Dan
ponytug
Super Member
Perhaps it is just me, but when I look at other Musk companies (Tesla automotive, Tesla solar, Tesla Powerwalls), none of them seem to have customer service departments that have a recent history of being responsive.
Much as I look forward to Starlink, I expect to receive customer service in line with the other companies. Reason #249 to keep a backup service going.
All the best,
Peter
Much as I look forward to Starlink, I expect to receive customer service in line with the other companies. Reason #249 to keep a backup service going.
All the best,
Peter
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Customer service is lacking these days...
I really don't see StarLink being any different. We have been running two Internet services to have backup for the inevitable outages. It is going to happen and it will take a while to fix.
Now, with Starlink, we will drop DSL, which will almost pay for Starlink, or to put it another way, drop two 1.5 mbps lines to get, worst case, 40 mbps, for a bit more money per month. We will keep the Verizon Internet since it is only costing us a $10-20 per month on our cell package. Much cheaper than what we were paying for DSL and UbiFi.
Later,
Dan
LouNY
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This is the long eave mount that I used;
This is looking in a westerly direction which shows a bit of interference, one day I'll move it 5-10 ft further North,
This is looking in a westerly direction which shows a bit of interference, one day I'll move it 5-10 ft further North,
dstig1
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Lou - change out those white zip ties for black ones, or the UV from the sun will destroy them in a year or two at most. Unless you found outdoor rated white ones, then nevermind....
LouNY
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No those are cheap ties that were easy to reach, I'll have to get some of my good ones when I think of it and am in the shop
bdhsfz6
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Elon Musk must have read my last post and decided to throw me a bone. I received an email this morning stating my Starlink equipment was being processed for shipment!
Now begins the task of deciding the best place to put the dish. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The Google Earth image below shows 3 possibilities:
Location #3
You can see the tree line along the top which causes problems. The corner of the deck would be the ideal location since it provides easy access to the dish for clearing snow & ice. I don't know if this is a problem with the Starlink dish or not but it is with my satellite TV dish. It needs to be cleaned of sleet or heavy wet snow. The Starlink app indicates a lot of obstructions in this location however, which would considerably limit performance.
Location #1
This spot is quite a bit better but there are still minor obstructions. Cleaning the dish would also be a problem since roof access is required.
Location #2
The dish could easily be mounted on an existing tripod base once used for an old antenna but cleaning the dish would be a big problem.
There are no obstructions here and this spot provides the best signal according to the Starlink app. The main problem is, it would require an aerial span of 52". I'm not sure if the cable provided by Starlink would support it's own weight plus any added by ice build up. I would also prefer not to have an overhead wire if it can be avoided.
I have A/C power to the garage so the router could be placed there providing it will withstand the -10F temps we often get. I don't know if it will reach all the devices I use though, some of which are over 100' away. I also have 42 connected devices and I don't know how many the Starlink router will support.
Using a wireless WiFi system to connect Starlink with my existing router in the house is a possibility but I know there can be a considerable loss of speed doing this. There is also the low temperature factor to consider for a garage mounted WiFi transmitter.
I could install a heated electronics enclosure in the garage but I would prefer to avoid the installation hassle & expense.
Another possibility, which would provide the best performance, is Location #4.
It's a pedestal on top of the mountain used to house my weather instruments. It's 410' line of sight to the house with no obstructions. It has a near perfect 360 degree view of the horizon.
It also has A/C power with easy ground level dish access. A heated weather enclosure could be installed if necessary to house the Starlink router & wireless WiFi transmitter.
I considered a ground mount for the dish but getting an underground conduit to the house would be very difficult due to concrete walkways surrounding the building.
I know this is a lot of information to consider but any thoughts you can provide would be a big help.
Now begins the task of deciding the best place to put the dish. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The Google Earth image below shows 3 possibilities:
Location #3
You can see the tree line along the top which causes problems. The corner of the deck would be the ideal location since it provides easy access to the dish for clearing snow & ice. I don't know if this is a problem with the Starlink dish or not but it is with my satellite TV dish. It needs to be cleaned of sleet or heavy wet snow. The Starlink app indicates a lot of obstructions in this location however, which would considerably limit performance.
Location #1
This spot is quite a bit better but there are still minor obstructions. Cleaning the dish would also be a problem since roof access is required.
Location #2
The dish could easily be mounted on an existing tripod base once used for an old antenna but cleaning the dish would be a big problem.
There are no obstructions here and this spot provides the best signal according to the Starlink app. The main problem is, it would require an aerial span of 52". I'm not sure if the cable provided by Starlink would support it's own weight plus any added by ice build up. I would also prefer not to have an overhead wire if it can be avoided.
I have A/C power to the garage so the router could be placed there providing it will withstand the -10F temps we often get. I don't know if it will reach all the devices I use though, some of which are over 100' away. I also have 42 connected devices and I don't know how many the Starlink router will support.
Using a wireless WiFi system to connect Starlink with my existing router in the house is a possibility but I know there can be a considerable loss of speed doing this. There is also the low temperature factor to consider for a garage mounted WiFi transmitter.
I could install a heated electronics enclosure in the garage but I would prefer to avoid the installation hassle & expense.
Another possibility, which would provide the best performance, is Location #4.
It's a pedestal on top of the mountain used to house my weather instruments. It's 410' line of sight to the house with no obstructions. It has a near perfect 360 degree view of the horizon.
It also has A/C power with easy ground level dish access. A heated weather enclosure could be installed if necessary to house the Starlink router & wireless WiFi transmitter.
I considered a ground mount for the dish but getting an underground conduit to the house would be very difficult due to concrete walkways surrounding the building.
I know this is a lot of information to consider but any thoughts you can provide would be a big help.
ponytug
Super Member
What does the obstruction scan on the Starlink app say? (At locations, #1, 2, 3, at the actual height where you plan to put the antenna?)
The app matches the device for obstructions. The app is very helpful, and really the only way to determine if a location works.
Given your location, I doubt that you would ever need to clean the "dish" which is more of a cookie tray.
From using the app, I can tell you that the app was very helpful to figuring out what might work for me. Some "obviously" great spots turned out to have obstructions that I had not thought of. Did I mention it is very helpful?
Unless #1 is obstructed, it has my vote, but check it with the app. I doubt that #4 will work due to the power poles. Maybe #5, on the outbuilding on the hill, if you can not find something on your house that works.
All the best,
Peter
The app matches the device for obstructions. The app is very helpful, and really the only way to determine if a location works.
Given your location, I doubt that you would ever need to clean the "dish" which is more of a cookie tray.
From using the app, I can tell you that the app was very helpful to figuring out what might work for me. Some "obviously" great spots turned out to have obstructions that I had not thought of. Did I mention it is very helpful?
Unless #1 is obstructed, it has my vote, but check it with the app. I doubt that #4 will work due to the power poles. Maybe #5, on the outbuilding on the hill, if you can not find something on your house that works.
All the best,
Peter
LouNY
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Also the antenna has it's own built in deicing heater, clearing snow or freezing rain is not an issue.
That is also why using the provided cabling is required.
That is also why using the provided cabling is required.
LittleBill21
Elite Member
location 4 is my vote.
buy this
plug one side into a wired port on the star link (buy the adapter if need be)
put one on the other side. and buy a regular access point (not a router) and plug it into that side. the mikrotik stuff is plug and play and requires 0 configuration. these are rated to be outside.
starlinks have ice melters in them .
this allows you to have wireless at location 4, and at a seperate network in the house.
using the mikrotik will have 0 performance loss. they are rated at 1gbit each way.
buy this
plug one side into a wired port on the star link (buy the adapter if need be)
put one on the other side. and buy a regular access point (not a router) and plug it into that side. the mikrotik stuff is plug and play and requires 0 configuration. these are rated to be outside.
starlinks have ice melters in them .
this allows you to have wireless at location 4, and at a seperate network in the house.
using the mikrotik will have 0 performance loss. they are rated at 1gbit each way.
JethroB
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As StarLink suggests and based on my month of experience, I would go with temporary setups initially. This way you can test out various locations for obstructions and test the equipment for bugs. The rectangular flat-faced dish and its four legged stand are quite stout and heavy. Mine is just sitting on the ground with the cable run through a window. Good thing as I will be swapping everything out (cable too) when the replacement arrives. And keep your old ISP for a while as a backup.
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