Starlink

[buckeyefarmer]

Thanks plowhog. Good info. I think I’ll just keep my regular home SL order ( since I can’t seem to cancel it) , and have it and RV one. I’ll probably just stop RV one when home system comes. Good to know gotta swap both dish and router.

 

[Fallon]

I just had a nice long conversation with several Starlink security engineers here at DEFcon today.

There are no technical differences between a static system & RV system. The static accounts just get priority if there are bandwidth limitations. The RV systems or static systems that have mobility enabled will work in locations other than their home location.

Interestingly any Starlink station will go active & send out packets to the network. The satellites will even route them. It's just the ground station that won't route them out to the Internet.

Engineers like to hang out on Reddit & have heard lots of complaints about lack of Ethernet. Next one is likely to have integrated Ethernet again. The AP unit is weatherproof & they couldn't easily get a stock ethernet plug tp seal well so went with the propitary plug they could seal.

The AP unit just runs a customized version of OpenWRT. It's a normal AP with extra PoE juice & and a TPM chip for authentication. The dish itself spits out standard ethernet packets over the cable back to the AP.

 

[ponytug]

Great info! Thank you!!

 

[plowhog]

I’ll probably just stop RV one when home system comes.

That was the key for me ordering the RV model-- the ability to pause service. If that wasn't possible I probably would not have ordered it.

btw, 260mbps this morning via Starlink- in Nevada, just before 4am. I've seen 260 here before, also early morning. 260mbps seems tip top speed-- so it might represent a hardware/equipment limit.

In CA, top speed is typically 1/3 of that. I used remote desktop and checked the CA speed this morning-- ranging from mid-80's to 91. That's actually very good for the CA system; also, you have to factor any mbps overhead the remote desktop is taking so it's actually a little better than indicated.

 

[LittleBill21]

Interestingly any Starlink station will go active & send out packets to the network. The satellites will even route them. It's just the ground station that won't route them out to the Internet.

Can you explain this a bit better?

 

[newbury]

From testing with Fast.com I think some devices are self limiting as to speed...

In a side by side the Moto is always 40 and the old Apple 6S always 200 to 240...

This is one reason I don't think paying for gig speed is a benefit many would realize unless many users at the same time?
th
For myself and a lot of my neighbors we have found optimal locations in our homes for cell wifi hotspots...

Moving 20 feet across the room can be night and day as in no service to 2 bars...

All is not lost as there continues to be incremental improvement because only a few years back we had no bars.

Different chips for different ships.
My 2019 Dell laptop won't due over 50Mbps up/down on WiFi and 10 ft from the router with no obstruction, My 2020 Android phone routinely reports 100+ Mbps.
Seems some laptops have chips that are not built for over 50 Mbps.
The same laptop gets over 100 Mbps when connected directly to the router with Cat 6.

 

[LittleBill21]

My 2019 Dell laptop won't due over 50Mbps up/down on WiFi and 10 ft from the router with no obstruction

i own about 10 dell laptops, almost all of them if they are ac based, will do over 600mbit. you have a problem.

 

[BigBlue1]

While I was waiting for bootup, I looked around at the new questions and answers on the SL app. Now, in response to the question as to whether there are any data caps, the answer is "not at this time."

The data cap answer is somewhat alarming to me-- I'm pretty sure it used to say "No." I hope there are no rude data cap "surprises" in the future ....

It has said "not at this time" since the very beginning. They've left themselves open to whatever changes they choose to do.

 

[plowhog]

It has said "not at this time" since the very beginning.

Starlink's web page describing its own service levels is still active. Each says "No Data Caps."

Regardless, it looks like SL is already rolling out some data caps ....

Starlink Imposing High-Speed Data Caps in France (But Monthly Cost Will Drop)

Under the new policy, users in France may experience slower speeds once they exceed a 250GB data download limit, according to a message SpaceX sent to customers.

www.pcmag.com

 

[ponytug]

Don't you wonder why just France?