I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled) • Hacker News Board

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#121

Post by BugsJustFindMe » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:40 PM UTC

fastaguy88 wrote: post #3

I 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…

> 15 GB (2 days of non-streaming usage for me)

This sounds exceptionally high. What do you do that uses so much?

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#122

Post by stickfigure » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:42 PM UTC

ncallaway wrote: post #113

stickfigure wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking a wild guess here: Standard PoE+ is 30w, and even the newest PoH maxes out at 90w. The new hardware draws more than that, so Starlink made up their own PoEish standard with proprietary cable/connectors. The $20 dongle is probably a custom PoE adapter. The good thing about this setup is you only need a single cable run up to your roof. Adding an RJ45 jack directly to dishy might actually complicate the construc…

> Adding an RJ45 jack directly to dishy might actually complicate the construction It wasn't an additional jack on dishy. It was an additional jack on the router. See here for an example of the router: https://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/file... One of those ports connects to the Starlink (through another box which provides the POE), and the other is labeled `aux` and is available for LAN. My unde…

In that case, I truly have no idea. You're right, it's weird.

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#123

Post by ianai » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:43 PM UTC

reportingsjr wrote: post #54

jacquesm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of satellite internet if you can't move the dish around? That would seem to be one of the USPs...

Due to the design of satellite based internet they are fundamentally limited on how many dishes they can support in a certain area while still achieving advertised bandwidth rates. There is a very, very high probability that if they allowed people to move starlink transceivers/dishes around that a number of areas would end up with higher concentrations than wanted, and starlink would have a lot of angry customers.

I wonder if a minimal location change rate or policy would work? If if your coordinates don’t change often enough then you get rate limited gradually down to a HughesNet rate. Want mobility? Then it’s 1/10th the speed while you’re outside your home region. Stay in a region long enough and you get the worst rates or a change of region. Oh and charge differently for different regions.

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#124

Post by zimbatm » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:44 PM UTC

The pre-order queue might not be a thing anymore. At least for me, I ordered the antenna in January 2022 and got it the same month.

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#125

Post by AcerbicZero » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:44 PM UTC

I ran our satellite internet service out of Iraq when I was deployed there* - I think it was HughesNet or Bently Walker. It was one of the only ways to get unfiltered open source internet at the time, which was a requirement for our mission, and a nice bonus for us in general. Compared to no internet, satellite internet is pretty good. Compared to anything else? Take anything else.

*To be fair this was also like, 10 years ago now, and Iraq sucked anyway - but I'm pretty sure bandwidth needs for general internet usage haven't gotten any lighter since then so I suspect the performance is just as atrocious as I remember.

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#126

Post by phkahler » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:46 PM UTC

>> These connectors are dumb, and I can't think of a good reason they exist. There are ways SpaceX could improve networking hardware, but proprietary non-standard connectors ain't one of 'em.

Did he ever think they might be weather proof? Looks like some rubber seals on those connectors. You know, since the dish is outdoors and has to deal with rain, sleet, or snow. I certainly wouldn't put a standard RJ45 on it.

I'd like to have Starlink at my condo, do they care if I split costs with a few neighbors? Do they have group plans? It seems like having higher usage from a single terminal would be better for them vs having multiple terminals.

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#127

Post by swah » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #7

fastaguy88 wrote: post #3

I 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 hav…

For those of us outside US, how far from the urban area you have to be to not have good LTE and/or fiber internet? (Also, does Amazon deliver in those places?)

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#128

Post by swah » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:51 PM UTC

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #121

fastaguy88 wrote: post #3

I 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…

> 15 GB (2 days of non-streaming usage for me) This sounds exceptionally high. What do you do that uses so much?

Probably 4k video content ?

> The download size of a 140-minute 4K video, for example, would be approximately (14 GB x 2) + (.233 GB x 20) = 33 GB or .233 GB x 140 = 33 GB.

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#129

Post by deeviant » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #57

fastaguy88 wrote: post #3

I 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…

> If you already have internet, then Starlink is not for you. We bought a property in a very rural area in mid 2020. One of the hard requirements was verified high speed Internet access. Our home has good performing Comcast. But I also pay $100/month and have a Dishy on my roof. Fortunately our home is very tall and we're able to get about 95% visibility, since our home is in the middle of a forest. Why am I paying a…

It would be no surprise to hear, I think, that a lot of us on this forum are well off 'tech persons'.

Internet scores higher than running water for me on prioritization, but I still couldn't bear to waste the resources to have a sat uplink for the 1-2 days a year comcast goes down. Taking a slot from somebody that actually needs it feels off to me too. It would only likely be worth it if your particular area has abnormally bad comcast uptime.

That said, we just purchased a beautiful rural property with a wonderful house, and will rent it out until starlink or fiber( local company is 1-2 years out) hits it. So maybe I'm just sore that people are taking starlink slots when they absolutely don't need it and its 2 years out =P

Re: I took down my Starlink dish (but haven't cancelled)

#130

Post by zekica » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 4:54 PM UTC

ZetaZero wrote: post #66

jacquesm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of satellite internet if you can't move the dish around? That would seem to be one of the USPs...

It's a low orbit satellite, which limits the amount of coverage for each satellite. And currently (without the sat-2-sat laser link), there needs to be a ground station also in range. If his cousin's house isn't close enough to a ground station, it just doesn't work. That's why Starlink is allocating based on addresses.

This range is not 70 miles, it may be 300+ miles. My location in eastern Europe currently can connect to ground stations in Poland and Turkey (600 miles apart).