I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
jeffgeerling.com
I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
1–10 of 258 posts
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#2No built-in ethernet, so WiFi-only? And no WiFi 6? Proprietary $60 cable?
Woof.
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#3I get it. If you already have internet, then Starlink is not for you. There are lots of questionable design choices (particularly in version 2), it's picky about placement, etc. etc.
But if your other choice is HughesNet or its competitors, that throttles you after 15 GB (2 days of non-streaming usage for me), or 50 GB, the Starlink "shortcomings" are irrelevant. With Starlink, if you can get it, and if you can site it without blockages, you have "real" internet. Reasonable speeds and no caps/throttling.
The massive over-subscription (presumably by people who have no functional alternative) suggests it serves a need.
Just not a need for people who have a non-DSL wired alternative, like Jeff Geerling.
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#4No built-in ethernet, so WiFi-only? And no WiFi 6? Proprietary $60 cable? Woof.
That's not correct. I haven't quite got all the way through the article, but yeah - not correct. It has wifi that you use to manage it, but it also has an ethernet port that you can use. I have it as one of 3 internet devices at my home in rural Arkansas. I would turn off the wifi entirely, if they allowed me, for less interference.
The cable is kind of a bummer, but at least it's super high quality. I wasn't too happy about having to use a giant step bit to drill holes, as I wasn't about to cut the ethernet jack off the end of it when I ran the cable in the attic.
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#5No built-in ethernet, so WiFi-only? And no WiFi 6? Proprietary $60 cable? Woof.
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Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#6No built-in ethernet, so WiFi-only? And no WiFi 6? Proprietary $60 cable? Woof.
That's not correct. I haven't quite got all the way through the article, but yeah - not correct. It has wifi that you use to manage it, but it also has an ethernet port that you can use. I have it as one of 3 internet devices at my home in rural Arkansas. I would turn off the wifi entirely, if they allowed me, for less interference. The cable is kind of a bummer, but at least it's super high quality. I wasn't too hap…
That's how the first version router was (the one I have). The new 2nd gen router has WiFi (ac), but Ethernet is not built in. You have to buy an extra dongle that costs $20 and goes inline to the dish.
The new router does have a bypass mode, so you can get around using it at all (though it still needs to be plugged in as it's the PoE source through the proprietary cable). The reset method is a bit weird, since it doesn't seem there's a button. I think you have to plug and unplug it three times within a certain time period.
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#7I get it. If you already have internet, then Starlink is not for you. There are lots of questionable design choices (particularly in version 2), it's picky about placement, etc. etc. But if your other choice is HughesNet or its competitors, that throttles you after 15 GB (2 days of non-streaming usage for me), or 50 GB, the Starlink "shortcomings" are irrelevant. With Starlink, if you can get it, and if you can site…
Starlink is a game changer if you don't have decent wired broadband. We had about 1 Mbps download and were the last house on the road who could get it. Then we didn't even have that. Verizon hotspot was "ok" but data was expensive so you had to watch your usage. Starlink isn't perfect--had a couple of days downtime over Christmas--but basically it works fine with 20+ Mbps bandwidth.
With the prior DSL, I couldn't have worked from the house in a meaningful way. (My AT&T wireless is also very marginal.) Now I mostly could.
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#8Article looks and sounds like clickbait. One of the fundamental aspects of starlink is the internet access and speed you will get. That doesn't seem to be covered here. You took down your starlink because you couldn't transfer it to someone else, are afraid of the damage starlink is doing to astronomy, and you don't like the design decisions about the new dish that you don't even have? Sorry, this doesn't make any sense.
Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#9No built-in ethernet, so WiFi-only? And no WiFi 6? Proprietary $60 cable? Woof.
That's not correct. I haven't quite got all the way through the article, but yeah - not correct. It has wifi that you use to manage it, but it also has an ethernet port that you can use. I have it as one of 3 internet devices at my home in rural Arkansas. I would turn off the wifi entirely, if they allowed me, for less interference. The cable is kind of a bummer, but at least it's super high quality. I wasn't too hap…
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Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)
#10$240 per month for internet, wow. I didn't realise things were that expensive for people living in remote areas.
I'm currently paying ~$40 (converted from EUR) per month for a 100Mb/s fiber connection.