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Starlink Mini as a failover

jackpearce.co.uk

71–80 of 249 posts

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#71
post #63
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know that the shareholders and directors of the places you shop arent secretly way worse than Musk?

Elon is publicly terrible, on the Epstein list and supports the far right. It's the easiest non support of my life, I don't use Twitter, don't have a Tesla, don't use grok.

Elon Musk is far from the nicest person in the world and there are many fair reasons to dislike him but he wasn't in "the Epstein list" (whatever that is), he was pictured with a number of other tech CEOs at a dinner with Epstein, who was a wealthy financier.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#72
post #42

A mobile failover would be cheaper and would give you better connectivity in heavy rain. A 4G dongle can be purchased for $15, rather than $200 for a Starlink Mini. Then, let's say your main internet source fails and you need to actually use the backup plan beyond the standby amount of 0.5 Mbps. That will cost you a minimum of $50 for Starlink, versus roughly $25 for a month of unlimited cell service. As for standby…

TFA specifically calls out not wanting to depend on 4G/5G coverage, which is anything but ubiquitous:

> It has the advantage of working pretty much anywhere with a view of the sky so no relying on mobile network coverage.

I'm also not sure if $25/month is anything close to the global average for unlimited 4G/5G data (if even available).

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#73
post #30

[flagged]

I don't understand this mentality. What makes Musk different than Blackrock for instance? Or Monsanto, or Shell, or any corporation both of us rely on and support, in return for being able to eat, fuel our car, etc. Is it because Musk isn't lobbying behind the corporation but doing it publically? I truly don't understand where ya'll draw the line. I truly don't care what other people do or want, I just look to ensure…

I stumbled on a long article post by John Conrad @johnkonrad about War on Rocks on X that explains this mentality. I haven't seen it put this way before.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#74
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spendy though. The Unifi 5G modem for the UK [1] is £378 (~USD500) and that's just the hardware, you still have to pay for a suitable SIM. I can see why some people are drawn to the Starlink option at 1/3 of that price. 1. https://uk.store.ui.com/uk/en/category/internet-solutions/co...

You can get a 4g dongle with $20 for basic failover. There are also many other companies that sell cheaper 5G routers. Zte has several models. Starlink only makes sense as a last resort if LTE coverage is not available in your area.

Sure, but my reply was specific to the parent comment about Unifi though.

Most people who buy into the Ubiquiti/UniFi world want to keep within that ecosystem wherever possible, the integration between components is very good, it's just that some bits are vastly more expensive than they should really be.

A generic $20 4G dongle won't be as easy to integrate nor report as many shiny metrics as a UniFi component.

Right now I've got better things to spend the $480 difference on but if I had a lot more disposable income I wouldn't need to think twice about ordering the UniFi specific bit that's mostly fit and forget.

> Starlink only makes sense as a last resort if LTE coverage is not available in your area.

Again, the point is that LTE coverage can also disappear for exactly the same reasons why the primary FTTP/DOCSIS connection disappears. It's still reliant on local power and backhaul. Starlink has no local dependencies as long as you've got your own UPSes.

Many people who really want to be sure they have Internet will probably go FTTP/DOCSIS -> 4G/5G dongle -> Starlink.

My on-call plan is: FTTP Broadband -> 5G hotspot on mobile -> wifi in local cafe -> co-working space (24h access)

My off-call plan is: FTTP Broadband -> pick up a book

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#75
post #15
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very much location dependent though. I lived less than a mile from Southampton city centre for a while and could never get anything close to dial-up standard download/upload speeds. I've heard similar from London residents.

Yeah definitely. Where I am the coverage and speeds are decent on most networks.

https://bidb.uk/ is an awesome tool for looking at both broadband and mobile providers with good (but not perfect) coverage data for both.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#76
post #2

TIL standby mode. Is that enough to operate a remote webcam? Not real time video feed but say uploading a photo every 1 minute or so

You can find something similar with IOT sims. And then you just need a standard 4g/5g dongle/router

Care to point me to it? The best I can find searching a bit with unlimited data is capped to 64 kbps for $100/yr, which is quite a bit worse.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#77
post #2

TIL standby mode. Is that enough to operate a remote webcam? Not real time video feed but say uploading a photo every 1 minute or so

Depending on a whole bunch of things but a 200KB photo once a minute might be in the realms of LoRa. You could get the data out for free.

The 500Kbps of Starlink would be close enough for a 500KB photo every 10 seconds or so assuming typical packet overheads.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#78
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this mentality. What makes Musk different than Blackrock for instance? Or Monsanto, or Shell, or any corporation both of us rely on and support, in return for being able to eat, fuel our car, etc. Is it because Musk isn't lobbying behind the corporation but doing it publically? I truly don't understand where ya'll draw the line. I truly don't care what other people do or want, I just look to ensure…

> What makes Musk different than Blackrock for instance? Open support for right-wing parties and politics all over the world.

And then citizens get to vote on what they perceive as important.

If you can show me the list of people you boycotted due to open support for left-wing parties we can talk.

Or do we only attempt to silence those that have standpoints we don't agree with?

Let me know, I'm new to this silencing of opinion thing but I notice it's what society will democratically choose for given the loud voices in that direction.

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#79
post #16

I prefer having a 2nd wired connection as my backup. The satellite connection has some clear benefits, but it's still going to outer space. A DOCSIS failover won't suffer from rain fade or a something landing on the antenna. If I've got a situation so bad it takes out both of my connections I've probably got bigger things to deal with than internet access. The buried fiber getting cut by is really the only thing that…

I have a second fiber connection and found out recently that both fibers come along the same route and when a fire took out a utility pole, I lost both connections.

I then found out that all providers bar one (there are 5 or 6) come along the same street.

So if you are going to go with this option choose carefully your providers!

Re: Starlink Mini as a failover

#80
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this mentality. What makes Musk different than Blackrock for instance? Or Monsanto, or Shell, or any corporation both of us rely on and support, in return for being able to eat, fuel our car, etc. Is it because Musk isn't lobbying behind the corporation but doing it publically? I truly don't understand where ya'll draw the line. I truly don't care what other people do or want, I just look to ensure…

> I don't understand this mentality. I think it's pretty easy to understand. You have a service you want, but subscribing to it is a clear and direct way to financially support the advancement of fascist, extremist political groups and regimes pushing alarmingly racist and xenophobic policies not only in the US but also across the world. Does your convenience justify a totalitarian shift? I don't think so. Do you thi…

The totalitarian shift is coming from the attempt at being totalitarian.

Why did Musk buy Twitter? Do you remember how totalitarian-like Twitter was controlled?

Or do you wish me to forget since it was for the left?

The totalitarian shift is coming from people like you who feel like you have a total control on what is true and right. And from that standpoint you then declare others to be racist and xenophobic without attempting to truly understand their reasoning.

Not to mention the ever-increasing lack of tolerance for religion based views. Is it not your consitution that says that all men are born free, and are free to vote based on their OWN conciousness?

Yet they are labeled right-wingers and publically shamed and marginalized when possible. Even when all they want are federal repeals so each state can decide.

Do you not see that you guys have become the totalitarian ones? Wanting to impose how to view even life itself on others.

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