Starlink

[dfkrug]

Just got my Frontier fiber working this week. 500Mbps up and down, $48/mo. Replaces dual-bonded copper DSL, 28M/2M for $90/mo. Does not really seem any faster, tho I only run one device at a time, using web browsers or streaming with Roku.

The real test is when I upload another video to Utube. My last 3min chainsaw vid took 30 min to upload. I don't run any games.

Upgrading to fiber took a year. Maintenance on the copper has really gotten bad. I mainly want the fiber for better reliability and lower cost.

I considered Starlink, but I have too many trees.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Unless you run a business from home or have a houseful of kids who game & stream video, most homes don't need that much bandwidth.

I went from 2MB down & .5MB up DSL to 30/5 wireless internet and noticed a big difference in performance. When I switched to 200/50 Starlink, there was no noticeable improvement at all. It's just my wife and I who surf the net and stream the occasional movie though so YMMV.

 

[ning]

Every jump in net performance I've had has been significant in number, and until the last one, in "feel".

My previous, which was just hotspotting the LTE off my phone for a few years, I would get about 10-14Mbps down, and everything was fine... videos took a discernible amount of time to download, but that was a relatively rare thing, and it was only 5-10 seconds most of the time.

Now with a "5G home internet" (which according to the cell monitor app it's really a very fast 4G LTE, idk) that's 2-300Mbps, I can set a funny video to download, switch apps and send it to someone and the download is done before I get to the place where I can send it.

For everything else, like real work, I don't notice a difference... in fact, for most of my work things got better as soon as I stopped using Starband (geostationary satellite up & down) because of the killer latency - the T1 line I moved to at that point filled every need, only the emergence of so much photo & video sharing in non-work has made any difference to what I use.

 

[nikdfish]

Starlink now supports the ability to add a guest Wifi network with residential accounts. I guess it was in a recent firmware update. You just go into "settings" on the starlink app & click on the "add network" option. There is a slider button to enable the "guest" option then set up a network name & password.

Guest network users can access the internet but not the local network or star link functions.

 

[ultrarunner]

I keep getting solicitations for fiber. i can see the tower, but last look they wanted over $50k to run to property, to house supposed to be free. Can buy a lot of Starlink for that.

I was 15k to run Comcast and the crew was simply amazing all underground bore with several boxes along the path…

The cost was rolled into a $330 month plan for 5 years.

 

[JRH02]

The wife and I have lived in the forest and off grid for many years. We thoroughly appreciate our wildlife and try to minimally disrupt any and all wildlife. We are not tree huggers except for the armloads of firewood up to the house for winter heat. We have heard about cell phones causing bat wierdness to happen. I can't verify that because we don't have a cell signal. I have heard similar stories blaming WiFi. But this morning the wife says she now believes the StarLink antenna is causing the bats to avoid our abode. Sigh....

I'm not one to put an anti-radio interference sticker on my phone to protect me from the evil RF. To this day I have yet to find any scientific study or data related to any of this let alone StarLink. Any links to REAL data would be appreciated.

 

[Torvy]

I considered Starlink, but I have too many trees.

I live on my pine plantation. Trees are 14-15 years old and close to the house. Starlink works fine.

It was just OK until I mounted the dishy on top of my barn lean-to.

Every neighbor has Starlink as well. They cleared more around the house, but we all have huge trees.

 

[dfkrug]

I live on my pine plantation. Trees are 14-15 years old and close to the house. Starlink works fine.

It was just OK until I mounted the dishy on top of my barn lean-to.

Every neighbor has Starlink as well. They cleared more around the house, but we all have huge trees.

I just paid a climber to help me remove 2 more douglas firs. One that I measured looks to be about 175' tall and 80y old. Cleanup will take more than 6 mo. at my pace.

There is a Starlink app for cellphones that shows you the moving Starlink satellite paths and calculates if you have enough exposure to the sky to get a good enough signal. It was demoed to me at a friend's house that is a lot less wooded than mine. No good.

 

[3930dave]

The wife and I have lived in the forest and off grid for many years. We thoroughly appreciate our wildlife and try to minimally disrupt any and all wildlife. We are not tree huggers except for the armloads of firewood up to the house for winter heat. We have heard about cell phones causing bat wierdness to happen. I can't verify that because we don't have a cell signal. I have heard similar stories blaming WiFi. But this morning the wife says she now believes the StarLink antenna is causing the bats to avoid our abode. Sigh....

I'm not one to put an anti-radio interference sticker on my phone to protect me from the evil RF. To this day I have yet to find any scientific study or data related to any of this let alone StarLink. Any links to REAL data would be appreciated.

The answer (to my next point) may be in the Starlink manual, but addressing SWMBO's perceived issue might be done by pushing the receiver head out to the physical connection limit. Standing lumber (trees) in your area may mean that is a huge project, on the civil-engineering side.

Total guess on my part (lazy) - but I'm thinking the Starlink freq's are way above the sonic frequencies bats use.... ergo, small likelihood of interplay.

I read a good book on Whales, and the communication networks subs use. < That, is a case where there is a possibility that the frequencies are proximal enough (and, power levels high enough), that there may be an effect in-play.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I just paid a climber to help me remove 2 more douglas firs. One that I measured looks to be about 175' tall and 80y old. Cleanup will take more than 6 mo. at my pace.

There is a Starlink app for cellphones that shows you the moving Starlink satellite paths and calculates if you have enough exposure to the sky to get a good enough signal. It was demoed to me at a friend's house that is a lot less wooded than mine. No good.

Pay climber to install a Starlink @ top of healthy fir ?

JK (mostly).... but I hang-out here to see what inventive things people are doing, not just on Tractors.....

Rgds, D.