Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Calumus on May 11, 2021, 10:04:47 PM
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So, today I set up my first Starlink system for a client. He just built a monster of a house for himself, his wife, and their 5 boys under 13. He never bothered to check if there was cable on the road before he broke ground, and fiber is non existent in his rural corner of NJ so the only option he thought he had was 3mb dsl from Verizon.
Luckily he called me in to tell him what he needed to prewire before he closed up the walls, and I had just spoken to someone who lived about 10 miles from him that had just gotten Starlink and was happy with it. So we signed him up for the beta, and 3 weeks later his dish arrived. Aside from the time it took him to set the pole he was going to mount it on, and to drill a hole through the foundation to the basement utility room, it took 5 mins to set everything up and get him online.
First speed test was 185 down 12.6 up but the Ping was 286. Subsequent tests slowed down to the 80-100mbs range with pings in the low 40’s. I have to say I was impressed. This really could be a game changer if the results stay consistent. You guys who are lucky enough to be out in the boonies, but have suffered with crappy Internet, Starlink could really be a worthwhile investment. The dish was $500 and service is $99/month so not cheap; but if you need some decent speed, worth it. I’ll update this thread over the next couple of months once he has his family in and using it regularly.
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1 month update. So far they’ve been happy with the service. No complaints from the kids or wife so he’s happy. He’s sent me a bunch of speed tests, and they range from about 45-200mbs down and between 13-25mbs up. Ping is ranging from 25-45. Keeping in mind that this is still a beta, and will continue improving I'm pretty happy with it. One thing with the speed tests he sent me was that they were sent at varying times of day, and he had no idea if any or all of the kids were using it at the time.
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Once it’s ready for prime time I’ll be signing up.
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1 month update. So far they’ve been happy with the service. No complaints from the kids or wife so he’s happy. He’s sent me a bunch of speed tests, and they range from about 45-200mbs down and between 13-25mbs up. Ping is ranging from 25-45. Keeping in mind that this is still a beta, and will continue improving I'm pretty happy with it. One thing with the speed tests he sent me was that they were sent at varying times of day, and he had no idea if any or all of the kids were using it at the time.
Did he mention anything about downtime? Most everything else about it at this time sounds superior to what I have now at not much more cost, but I'm wondering what downtime percentages are / will be.
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Did he mention anything about downtime? Most everything else about it at this time sounds superior to what I have now at not much more cost, but I'm wondering what downtime percentages are / will be.
He didn’t mention any at all; but Starlink themselves say there can be occasional outages as updates are pushed. From user reports I’ve read online they seem to be fairly rare, and only last a couple mins when they do happen. One feature for your neck of the woods is that the dish actually has a heating element that it activates when it senses snow. I doubt it’s powerful enough to deal with a really heavy snowfall; but it should work for moderate amounts. The mounting pole the dish comes with is only about 6” tall, so essentially useless. For my client, we just drove a 6’ pipe into the ground between 3 landscape boulders to give the dish some lift and some protection from wandering gocarts...
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He didn’t mention any at all; but Starlink themselves say there can be occasional outages as updates are pushed. From user reports I’ve read online they seem to be fairly rare, and only last a couple mins when they do happen. One feature for your neck of the woods is that the dish actually has a heating element that it activates when it senses snow. I doubt it’s powerful enough to deal with a really heavy snowfall; but it should work for moderate amounts. The mounting pole the dish comes with is only about 6” tall, so essentially useless. For my client, we just drove a 6’ pipe into the ground between 3 landscape boulders to give the dish some lift and some protection from wandering gocarts...
Thanks, that's good info. I didn't know about the snow thing - that's convenient. My current fixed wireless dish is near the top of the roof, but there's no way I'm getting on my steep roof to put a dish up myself, so would likely put the starlink dish on the ground as your client did.
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Is power to the dish provided by Power over Ethernet or something similar? Or is there a separate power line to the receiver?
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Is power to the dish provided by Power over Ethernet or something similar? Or is there a separate power line to the receiver?
Looks like it is PoE:
https://www.theverge.com/22435030/starlink-satellite-internet-spacex-review (https://www.theverge.com/22435030/starlink-satellite-internet-spacex-review)
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It's power over Ethernet. I believe it's a 100' cable. Ben, if you can find some brave soul to climb up there for you, I've seen a good number of people using their old dishes as mounting platforms.
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It's power over Ethernet. I believe it's a 100' cable. Ben, if you can find some brave soul to climb up there for you, I've seen a good number of people using their old dishes as mounting platforms.
Good thought. Though I know at my last place, when I moved, the fixed wireless guys came out and removed both the dish and mount from the roof. Don't know what the current company does.
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I just saw this a few mins ago. Apparently the dish had a thermal limit of 122 degrees. Could be an issue for southerners, and some rooftop mounting.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/06/starlink-dish-overheats-in-arizona-sun-knocking-user-offline-for-7-hours/
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Well, this is one way to use Starlink...
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/02/chp-tickets-driver-with-apparent-spacex-starlink-dish-on-hood.html
I will note that according to the article, Starlink will be coming out with a vehicle antenna, which would be pretty cool, depending on pricing. Besides general mobile high speed wireless, it could be a Sirius/XM killer.
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I just saw this a few mins ago. Apparently the dish had a thermal limit of 122 degrees. Could be an issue for southerners, and some rooftop mounting.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/06/starlink-dish-overheats-in-arizona-sun-knocking-user-offline-for-7-hours/
That might be an issue, but I hope they fix it.
I am paying near $100 a month to get 50mbs max. That would be an improvement.
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5 month update. First client with Starlink is still thrilled. He thinks he’s averaging about 70mbs; but it’s hard to be sure with 7 people in the house all with multiple devices hooked up. He reported An occasional drop during extremely heavy rain; but it’s usually just for a couple seconds. He said it’s usually back up before he runs out of buffer on a Netflix movie.
I set up a second client in the same area with it about a month ago. He replaced Hughsnet with it. He was averaging 1 mbs with Hughs, and also seems to be around the 70mbs range with Starlink. Ping seems to be variable between 25-45; but his son who plays Fortnite and GTA online says that everything’s been fine for him.
As far as the overheating issue above 122*, I’m wondering if people who need to could set up some sort of mister or liquid cooling set up to keep the dish cool.
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I bet some early adopters are kinda miffed. Starlink just released a sleeker antenna and wireless router:
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-new-starlink-rectangular-satellite-internet-dish-pictures-2021-11
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I bet some early adopters are kinda miffed. Starlink just released a sleeker antenna and wireless router:
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-new-starlink-rectangular-satellite-internet-dish-pictures-2021-11
I could see the smaller dish making some people a bit jealous; but the original wasn’t exactly huge. Maybe 18” at most. As for the router, WiFi only eliminates some flexibility. My first client that I set up with it got me in during construction so I was able to wire a bunch of jacks throughout the house and hard wire wireless access points on all three floors. The “data closet” is in the basement, and his Starlink router plugs directly into a 24 port Netgear gigabit switch. The second client had already been in their house for years, so I didn’t have the benefit of prewiring. They had to make do with an Asus Zenwifi mesh system, also plugged into the Starlink router. That being said, both houses are quite large, 4500+ sq ft each, so a more modest place might be fine with just the Starlink equipment.
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I'm still in awe of just how damn fast SpaceX/Starlink has gotten this service off the ground. And how functional it already is.
We haven't even really seen the inroads of it into the Third World where internet is still spotty or nonexistent, or into authoritarian countries with restrictive internet policies.
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We haven't even really seen the inroads of it into the Third World where internet is still spotty or nonexistent, or into authoritarian countries with restrictive internet policies.
I'm kinda surprised that Musk hasn't thrown a few billion into distributing Starlink and laptops throughout some third world countries, just for the PR and to annoy everyone on the left that hates him and his money.
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I'm kinda surprised that Musk hasn't thrown a few billion into distributing Starlink and laptops throughout some third world countries, just for the PR and to annoy everyone on the left that hates him and his money.
They couldn't care less what good he does for the world with his money, they hate him because he doesn't give THEM his money.
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:rofl:
Be advised there's a cold weather issue with running Cat 5 to the Starlink dish.
https://twitter.com/ICannot_Enough/status/1477296544265031680
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So, how many more "Starlink" satellites does Skynet need before it goes active?
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So, how many more "Starlink" satellites does Skynet need before it goes active?
Too many. I need better internet, and Starlink is my only hope in the foreseeable future.
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Did someone post this up and I missed it? 40 of the 49 are toast!
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/40-spacex-satellites-hit-geomagnetic-storm-expected-fall-back-toward-earth-and-burn
Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink experienced a devastating space-weather impact last Friday when a geomagnetic storm forced "dozens" of newly launched low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites into "safe-mode" where they experienced "deorbiting" and will or already have crashed back to Earth, according to a SpaceX blog post.
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Did someone post this up and I missed it?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/40-spacex-satellites-hit-geomagnetic-storm-expected-fall-back-toward-earth-and-burn
I posted something in the SpaceX thread
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I posted something in the SpaceX thread
Oops, missed it
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Really needs to be here
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Scott Manley just released a video
Watching now
SpaceX Loses 40 Satellites To Solar Storm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kIcEFyEPgA
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I'd order it tonight if they'd somehow manage to lower the hardware cost.
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I’d order it tonight if they’d ship before “late 2022”.
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Huh, that's the anticipated ship date for my area too.
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My cousin, who i convinced to sign up, just got his dish a couple days ago after about 10 months wait. He’s in northern Ontario, and getting 440mb down and 200 up. I told him he probably has the fastest connection within about 200 miles of his house.
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Dish Network is seeking permission to operate a high-power mobile service in the 12 GHz band and according to tests conducted by SpaceX this will interfere with Starlink and other provider's internet service.
SpaceX warns 5G plan would deny Starlink to most Americans
https://spacenews.com/spacex-warns-5g-plan-would-deny-starlink-to-most-americans/
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Got our Starlink system yesterday. We watched Empire Strikes Back in 1080p, while I transferred 20GB of data at the same time. And it all worked! I’m not quite sure what to do with myself.
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Kind of a tangent. Absolutely dumb luck, but I happened to be outside at 2045MDT to let the dog do his business. I had my NODs on and looked up at the North sky, and there was a train of satellites moving across the sky. I wasn't sure, but looking it up later, they turned out to be Starlink satellites (Starlink-61). I couldn't see them with my naked eyes, but they really popped with the NODs. I was watching some unknown but larger sats crisscrossing the Starlink train as well. There is a whole lot of stuff in orbit. Starlink-60 are supposed to be passing over at 2015 tonight, so I'll be checking those out too.
This is the link if you want to check out Starlink sats in your AO:
www.findstarlink.com
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I can't even remember if I was aware of this when they first announced it, but Amazon is competing with Starlink. They just debuted their antenna lineup, though the system won't be "on" until 2024.
I'm not sure if I want sat internet from a penis rocket company. Funny side note, they're using someone else's rockets to launch their sats. :rofl:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/14/amazon-first-look-project-kuiper-satellite-internet-antennas.html
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I'm not sure if I want sat internet from a penis rocket company.
That suffers from erectile dysfunction
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Some Starlink news
SpaceX gets E-band radio waves to boost Starlink broadband
https://spacenews.com/spacex-gets-e-band-radio-waves-to-boost-starlink-broadband/
Last year, SpaceX said using E-band radio waves for backhaul would enable Starlink Gen2 to provide about four times more capacity per satellite than earlier iterations, without elaborating.