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Setting up Starlink

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Setting up Starlink

#101

Post by geerlingguy »

notaplumber wrote: post #94
freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

Can you setup Starlink without the app, i.e: no cell phone? I'm getting real tired of devices that have no management/setup UI of their own.

Their router uses OpenWRT and supposedly you can hit it at 192.168.1.1, but when I try that I get a redirect to www.starlink.com

Re: Setting up Starlink

#102

Post by geerlingguy »

BurningFrog wrote: post #56
Gwypaas wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aiming for 20 ms later this year. (Elon time) A bigger dish would not lower latency but may increase signal strength leading to better throughput. But it's not a simple parabolic antenna. It is the first consumer oriented phased array antenna tracking the satellites as they move across the sky, so that would increase the antenna cost even more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array

I read that as "future versions of the antenna will be much improved", in price and performance. I know Moore's Law is being repealed, but that's still how new types of electronics work, right?

I think in the antenna's case, the primary goal would be to reduce costs for now (while still maintaining reliability), since the things currently cost $1500 per unit to make (SpaceX takes a loss on each new customer initially, for now).

Re: Setting up Starlink

#103

Post by geerlingguy »

gameswithgo wrote: post #19
bserge wrote: post #2

Wow, I'm impressed! I thought it would take more than a decade to implement when it was announced, but it's here and it works. Just amazing. 100/16 Mbps is pretty decent I guess, hopefully it doesn't go down as the number of users goes up. The latency is great imo, 40ms using satellites? I don't think anyone has achieved that before. Would a bigger dish work better or not?

The latency may well be better than landlines in some cases. For instance, data from an edge cache in your city will be faster than starlink. But data from china? Starlink may win. I wonder if it could improve gaming/video conferencing with people far away.

I know my Spectrum cable connection gets high 30s range for latency. Starlink is close at low 40s, and as they get more sats up, that latency average may go down.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#104

Post by freedomben »

darksaints wrote: post #99
freedomben wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't because the nearest city to me with 5G is several hours away. The 4G at my house is super spotty. I've used it for Webex calls when my home internet went down and it will mostly handle that, but I would never want to rely on it for my primary connection.

Have you tried T-Mobile? I don't know what they have configured, but they certainly own a lot of midband 2.5mhz spectrum in east idaho. They have 140mhz in Idaho Falls and Twin Falls, and 180mhz in Pocatello, and at least 60mhz everywhere else in east idaho. It looks like they have a decent amount of sites too. I'd have to dig a bit more but if you don't have access to 5g on T-Mobile today, it's not gonna be more tha…

Fascinating! I go to Idaho Falls fairly often. My phone is Verizon but my wife's in T-Mobile (MVNO). I don't think her phone is 5G capable though.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#105

Post by Fiahil »

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

How is the power consumption compared to a regular router + fiber/ADSL dongle ?

Re: Setting up Starlink

#106

Post by freedomben »

geerlingguy wrote: post #101
notaplumber wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you setup Starlink without the app, i.e: no cell phone? I'm getting real tired of devices that have no management/setup UI of their own.

Their router uses OpenWRT and supposedly you can hit it at 192.168.1.1, but when I try that I get a redirect to www.starlink.com

I did the same thing and got the same redirect. I haven't experimented with anything except GET / but it would be interesting to try throwing some params in there and trying other paths.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#107

Post by geerlingguy »

boardwaalk wrote: post #100
tyingq wrote: post #3

Aside: The router design is as impractical as it is futuristic. The thing would fall over if you looked at it sideways, and the solitary LED on the front was hard to see unless in a dark room or looking closely, straight at it. Hopefully a 2nd iteration will be better! Wow, he's right about the shape of the router. It also looks like it forces the ethernet cable in front if you want to be able to see the LED, and the…

Acting like the LED not being bright is a /negative/ thing is odd to me. Why would you care if it’s lit up unless you’re investigating an issue and you’re right in front of it anyways? Just seems well designed to me.

I absolutely detest bright LEDs, but in this case, it's a dim LED set back in a recessed hole in the router that is hard to make out at all unless viewing it straight on.

Better this than a blaring blue LED I guess, but it would be nice to just have it easier to see in general. Having a shiny brushed reflective surface to the router (instead of, say, black or pure white) exacerbates the problem.

The router looks 'cool' like the Cybertruck, but could use some refinement physically. The shape also makes it hard to mount on a wall, or even to place it horizontally if the need arises.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#108

Post by freedomben »

notaplumber wrote: post #94
freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

Can you setup Starlink without the app, i.e: no cell phone? I'm getting real tired of devices that have no management/setup UI of their own.

I do not believe so. I hate it as well but decided to tolerate it because at least once it is setup, I don't have to continue using it.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#109

Post by DecoPerson »

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

At first I thought “30s” meant “30 seconds” rather than “thirties (ms).”

My opinion of Starlink and what it means for the world was being completely reshapen until I read your comment again!

Re: Setting up Starlink

#110

Post by geerlingguy »

oxplot wrote: post #68
tyingq wrote: post #3

Aside: The router design is as impractical as it is futuristic. The thing would fall over if you looked at it sideways, and the solitary LED on the front was hard to see unless in a dark room or looking closely, straight at it. Hopefully a 2nd iteration will be better! Wow, he's right about the shape of the router. It also looks like it forces the ethernet cable in front if you want to be able to see the LED, and the…

Note that one can use any router with the dish. Basically the dish provides you with a NATed private IP which you can assign to the WAN interface of your router of choice and go from there.

I haven't tested this yet, but apparently if you use your own router you may be able to get an IPv6 address assigned.
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