Starlink

[sodamo]

Got email saying my Residential SL will arrive 10/12.

 

[3Ts]

I received my "Best Effort" SL 2 days ago. I plugged it in and ran a speed test, got 102.29 Mbps down & 9.82 Mbps up very pleased with that. Ran a speed test at noon today and got 12.90 Mbps down & 10.68 Mbps up. Not nearly as good and actually I'm disappointed it fell that much. I was hoping the lowest it would go would be around 30 to 50 Mbps. But even so, the performance is still better than what I've been using. I plan on monitoring the speeds for awhile to see how it performs over time.

 

[plowhog]

I'm confident they are just cautioning customers about potential challenges. They aren't going to actively block certain traffic types.

I'm not sure how one can have "confidence" in that.

1. It's an Elon Musk company.
2. There are many options to "block" traffic. The most obvious is an absolute "hard" block.
3. But a "soft" block could be done as well. It would not block traffic, but instead make gaming unusable. SL could slow speeds if: a) certain known gaming servers were being contacted, b) if transmitted data signature patterns matched known gaming patterns, or c) if certain ports were being opened or used-- indicating gaming activity. Detecting (most) gaming by SL would not be difficult to do. If the response was then to degrade speed instead of doing a total block, that could be made mostly invisible.

 

[dmccarty]

I received my "Best Effort" SL 2 days ago. I plugged it in and ran a speed test, got 102.29 Mbps down & 9.82 Mbps up very pleased with that. Ran a speed test at noon today and got 12.90 Mbps down & 10.68 Mbps up. Not nearly as good and actually I'm disappointed it fell that much. I was hoping the lowest it would go would be around 30 to 50 Mbps. But even so, the performance is still better than what I've been using. I plan on monitoring the speeds for awhile to see how it performs over time.

Those are pretty much the numbers we have seen when we have done testing. But that is testing. We really don't see any slowdown when using StarLink. It might happen but it is not noticeable. We saw the same speed variations when using a cell based Internet. Starlink is soooo much faster than the cell service and has been far more reliable. Starlink has been more reliable than the cell based internet or DSL. Not even a comparison.

Later,
Dan

 

[JethroB]

I just checked my Star Link signal in my metal shop that’s is 100 feet from the router inside the house. The StarLink app indicated poor connection speeds. It was 10 Mbps. I’ll take that!

 

[3Ts]

When I got the 12.9 Mbps I also ran a speed test on my Hughes net link and got around 1 Mbps down (that is a one followed by a decimal point) so SL is still 10 times faster. I've ordered the pipe adapter and the dongle, they're due here Wednesday. I plan on getting a tripod mount to install on my garage roof and putting it there. Probably keep both networks for a little while yet.

 

[scootr]

When I got the 12.9 Mbps I also ran a speed test on my Hughes net link and got around 1 Mbps down (that is a one followed by a decimal point) so SL is still 10 times faster. I've ordered the pipe adapter and the dongle, they're due here Wednesday. I plan on getting a tripod mount to install on my garage roof and putting it there. Probably keep both networks for a little while yet.

Ditch the Hughesnet. That service is the worse.
Starlink is the best. Better than my 4G cell service these days.
Get the ethernet cable set up.

 

[ponytug]

Has anyone gotten VOIP working via Starlink? If so, which services are you using?

Our landline was down, again, for eight hours last week.

All the best,

Peter

 

[dmccarty]

Has anyone gotten VOIP working via Starlink? If so, which services are you using?

Our landline was down, again, for eight hours last week.

All the best,

Peter

We don't use VOIP to make phone calls, that is what the cell phone is for, and thankfully we have a decent connection to a tower. We have kept the landline to have the phone and dropped the crappy DSL. The cost of the landline is high enough that we are thinking of dropping it as well. We do use Slack, WebEx and Zoom for meetings and have not had any problem with conversations over the Starlink network.

 

[JethroB]

I’ve been using the free app WhatsApp on my cell phone via StarLink recently. Both for audio only and video calls. It works well and you can’t beat the price. There is also a web browser based method for tablets and PC’s once your cell phone account is set up. Both parties must be using the App.

Caution: They really really want access to your contact list. I defeat that (I hope) by manually punching in a phone number each time. WhatsApp is after all a META/Facebook company.