Starlink

[NoTrespassing]

I have pretty much given up using Starlnk. My daughter and granddaughter were here a few weeks ago and had brought her Xbox and connected through the Starlink. I watched the progress line as she tried to download a large file. It started out fast, but at about 33% it started to slow down. it was like somebody was turning off a faucet. By the time it got to 50% the data had stopped flowing. Tried it three times and failed. Switched to the local wireless ISP and it downloaded it flawlessly. It was initially a bit slower, but by the time it got to 25% it was obviously faster than Starlink at that point.
I've had the same problem streaming videos. After a while Starlink throttles the feed and I end up trying to watch an HD video on an 4K TV in 480p.

My son and I update/download games on two Xbox's all the time and never have a problem.

 

[scootr]

Maybe you didn't have enough room on the PC for the game? Or you hit your data limit?
Or maybe try in off peak times.
I have downloaded a couple of war games - one is 80 plus gigs no problems
This Monday late AM 187 down and 19 up Plenty good enough for games.

 

[Oaktree]

Imagine if the federal government quit subsidizing Amtrak because of the high per rider costs. It would cease to exist. I'm not in favor of either btw.

Not sure how big of a loss it would be. Maybe if you commute in the Boston-Washington corridor it has it's use, but otherwise it seems a rather inconvenient way to get anywhere.

Not going to happen anytime soon with the new government travel requirements for employees requiring train travel.

What would those be? Only thing I could find is that government employees get a discount for business travel.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Not sure how big of a loss it would be. Maybe if you commute in the Boston-Washington corridor it has it's use, but otherwise it seems a rather inconvenient way to get anywhere.

What would those be? Only thing I could find is that government employees get a discount for business travel.

White House asks employees to travel by train, EVs when possible​

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-asks-employees-travel-by-train-evs-when-possible-2023-12-14/

 

[newbury]

And "high per-subscriber cost"?? Do you live in rural areas? The $90 I pay for Starlink is cheaper than any other rural ISP option out there.

I live in a rural area, northeast Ms. My 100 Mbps up/down costs $54.90/month but I could get 1 Gbps up/down for $84.90 (and no equipment cost). Which is still cheaper than $90.

 

[BigBlue1]

I live in a rural area, northeast Ms. My 100 Mbps up/down costs $54.90/month but I could get 1 Gbps up/down for $84.90 (and no equipment cost). Which is still cheaper than $90.

You're fantastically lucky then. Here in rural MN there are typically no other options than DSL (within a certain radius of towns, due to copper line limits) or fixed-point wireless. Neither is typically less than $100/mo. Obviously cellular hotspots are available but those normally are near $100/mo too.

 

[LouNY]

Around my area the fixed wireless is running less then Star Link. That was what I had previously, I'm paying $30-$40 more a month and am having serious doubts if it's worth it.

 

[BigBlue1]

Around my area the fixed wireless is running less then Star Link. That was what I had previously, I'm paying $30-$40 more a month and am having serious doubts if it's worth it.

The fixed wireless option here would have required approx $1500 initial investment in an antenna tower to get the receiver above the height of other area groves and hills. Way more $$ than Starlink for much lower speeds in our case. Folks should be lucky if you have other good options to choose from. Many people don't. Especially out in more sprawling western states (not the coast).

 

[LouNY]

The fixed wireless option here would have required approx $1500 initial investment in an antenna tower to get the receiver above the height of other area groves and hills. Way more $$ than Starlink for much lower speeds in our case. Folks should be lucky if you have other good options to choose from. Many people don't. Especially out in more sprawling western states (not the coast).

There are a lot of areas that have very poor and or limited Internet services available to them. I may be in upstate New York but I can guarantee you that many people up here have almost no access to high speed internet. It is actually harder here then many areas because of all the hills and valleys. You may think of your area as more sprawling but don't count on it. Today I went to my "local" big box store for a curb side pickup, left the house at 10:30AM and went straight there and straight back didn't make it back 1:00 PM and the only traffic lights were in Glens Falls all 4-5 of them.

 

[stumblinhorse]

No wired internet in my area at all…. Starlink, Hughesnet, 4G hotspot or Microwave are my only options.

 

[newbury]

Perhaps those of you that don't have decent high speed land networks are more limited by politicians not obtaining funding.
For example where LouNY lists his location (Washington County, New York) the population density is about the same as northeast Ms (Itawamba County) where my house is located. But the politicians swung it so BOTH the electric co-op AND the telephone co-op do fiber to the home and many county residents had their choice of either, years ago. Seems like an enormous waste of funds, but it's reality.

 

[drumminj]

No wired internet in my area at all…. Starlink, Hughesnet, 4G hotspot or Microwave are my only options.

Same here, not too far outside of Nashville.

Telcos won't run DSL and cable companies won't run new lines. So it's satellite or fixed wireless until fiber makes its way out here (probably still two years out)

 

[BigBlue1]

There are a lot of areas that have very poor and or limited Internet services available to them. I may be in upstate New York but I can guarantee you that many people up here have almost no access to high speed internet. It is actually harder here then many areas because of all the hills and valleys. You may think of your area as more sprawling but don't count on it. Today I went to my "local" big box store for a curb side pickup, left the house at 10:30AM and went straight there and straight back didn't make it back 1:00 PM and the only traffic lights were in Glens Falls all 4-5 of them.

I'm confused. Are you agreeing with me? My point was that No option here is better performance at lower price than Starlink. And that is true for many places around the US. As for "sprawling", I was referring to out west - like Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, etc. Though I live pretty much an hour away from most 'big box' style shopping too. But where I live there are small cities all over - maybe every 10 miles. Way different from out west.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

Maybe you didn't have enough room on the PC for the game? Or you hit your data limit?
Or maybe try in off peak times.
I have downloaded a couple of war games - one is 80 plus gigs no problems
This Monday late AM 187 down and 19 up Plenty good enough for games.

The Xbox had lots of room. It has a terabyte of storage. It might be the northern location, it might be the ground link, but it was literally like someone slowly turning down a faucet. The loss of streaming signal was sort of random, but I seldom see that problem with the wireless broadband service.

 

[plowhog]

The loss of streaming signal was sort of random, but I seldom see that problem with the wireless broadband service.

I have streamed TV via Starlink for about a year. Only starting about a month ago has it started dropping out. Only here and there, but it does.

What is odd is I usually check other devices, or my router, when it stops streaming. A few times it was a total outage, but most of the time my other devices have an outside connection but the TV no longer streams.

From now on, I will add a speed test from the other devices and see what that reports.

 

[ponytug]

I have streamed TV via Starlink for about a year. Only starting about a month ago has it started dropping out. Only here and there, but it does.

What is odd is I usually check other devices, or my router, when it stops streaming. A few times it was a total outage, but most of the time my other devices have an outside connection but the TV no longer streams.

From now on, I will add a speed test from the other devices and see what that reports.

We have had the same issue over last three or four months. The <1 second outage page is filled with network outages, drops and occasional alleged obstructions (not real). Before, we would a week or two without noticeable interruptions. Starlink tech support thought it might be a double NAT issue at first and then decided that wasn't it. They then asked me to bypass our Starlink router for a day or two, and I have been waiting for a window of time where I don't mind being outside next to the router with a laptop monitoring the network performance.

As the problem doesn't seem to have gotten worse in the last three to four months leads me to suspect either a firmware issue in the Starlink router, or something systematic in how Dishy looks for and tracks satellites. So, bypassing the router might cure one of the two potential issues.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Cycledude]

Has anyone heard anything about Amazon possibly launching their own satellites ?

 

[3Ts]

Has anyone heard anything about Amazon possibly launching their own satellites ?

Yes, I heard that a while back, but I have no information on it.

 

[ponytug]

Has anyone heard anything about Amazon possibly launching their own satellites ?

They are still working on it and have bought a few launches from SpaceX and others. At the moment, their target audience appears not to be end users, but resellers and community ISPs, at least so far.

Kuiper Systems - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Basically, don't hold your breath; they believe it will take them a decade to launch the 3,268 or satellites to have service.

All the best,

Peter

 

[BigBlue1]

We have had the same issue over last three or four months. The <1 second outage page is filled with network outages, drops and occasional alleged obstructions (not real). Before, we would a week or two without noticeable interruptions. Starlink tech support thought it might be a double NAT issue at first and then decided that wasn't it. They then asked me to bypass our Starlink router for a day or two, and I have been waiting for a window of time where I don't mind being outside next to the router with a laptop monitoring the network performance.

As the problem doesn't seem to have gotten worse in the last three to four months leads me to suspect either a firmware issue in the Starlink router, or something systematic in how Dishy looks for and tracks satellites. So, bypassing the router might cure one of the two potential issues.

All the best,

Peter

The 0.1s outage page has always been full of entries. Those occur as the dish transitions between sats. My dish is 0% obstructed and the 0.1s outage page always contains a long list. I have no service issues. We stream a lot during the evenings and two of us work all day long over VPNs with lots of non-bufferable Teams/WebEx/Zoom meetings. No disruptions. Don't focus on the 0.1s outage page for your issues...