Starlink

[fatjay]

I'm currently in 3rd world rural thailand, and i have the highest 5g package with full bars. When i run speed test i get 150/50mbps down/up, but in reality, i don't get anything close to that. websites are slow and images are slower. and sometimes not at all. My only guess is they're somehow optimising speed tests for the sale, then not delivering on content.

i know starlink is sending kits over to ukraine for internet coverage, and that got me wondering, if i got starlink here, would it work?

 

[IXLR8]

I have sketchy Cell coverage at my house and use Starlink to do WiFi calling all the time, which is basically VoIP.

 

[sodamo]

Fedex delivered my Residential Starlink late this afternoon. I will swap out with my RV setup in the morning.

 

[BigBlue1]

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.

Well, I've been a SL customer since Feb 2021 and I've been actively paying attention to the offering for 2 years. I participate on several SL discussion forums, including multiple subs on Reddit. They've done nothing in that time to control or impact any type of traffic. Nobody in these forums has ever indicated they've noticed anything like that. The only 'quality of service' things they appear to do involve the 'best effort' and 'RV' service classes.

You can worry all you want and fret over what they may or may not do. That's your prerogative. Two of us use our SL service for full-time WFH, stream many types of TV, do non-buffered Zoom/WebEx/Teams meetings with audio & video, and the kids play PS and X-Box games. None of that has seen impact since SL moved out of beta in mid-2021. That's where my confidence derives from.

 

[BigBlue1]

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

For my work (and my wife's) we use VOIP via Zoom/WebEx/Teams as well as plain VOIP desk phone service. And we stream video on those types of meetings. It's always worked great over SL. I don't have personal phone VOIP but no reason to think it wouldn't work just as well. Should be even better since it wouldn't be funneled over company VPN.

 

[ponytug]

For my work (and my wife's) we use VOIP via Zoom/WebEx/Teams as well as plain VOIP desk phone service. And we stream video on those types of meetings. It's always worked great over SL. I don't have personal phone VOIP but no reason to think it wouldn't work just as well. Should be even better since it wouldn't be funneled over company VPN.

Which "plain VOIP" are you using? I asked, because I installed VOIP system, which worked for dial out, but not dial in, due to CGNAT. A belatedly discussion with tech support confirmed that they don't support CGNAT installations (e.g. Starlink), and have no intention of doing so.

Thanks!

All the best,

Peter

 

[BigBlue1]

I *don't* have plain, personal VOIP service. I use various voice streaming services via Teams, Zoom, WebEx meetings and also WebEx Calling for corporate VOIP (which has an actual external phone number and can be called direct and make outbound calls to anywhere. They all work fine on SL. I'm no expert in the underlying technology that makes them work though.

 

[Citydude]

I must be missing something, I use WiFi calling. What's the advantage of using something different?

 

[JethroB]

I must be missing something, I use WiFi calling. What's the advantage of using something different?

Gets confusing doesn’t it, at least for me. I do miss the old copper landlines and desk speaker phones for good quality audio. And the ease of old school faxing if needed.

 

[scootr]

Faxing he said faxing.
I was laughing about this with a couple of game friends online the other night. We were remembering waiting on the dialup tone. lol