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

jeffgeerling.com

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

#11

Post by NDizzle »

I've had Starlink in Rural AR for 10 months now.

I have it currently set to "failover only" on my Ubiquiti device, as it's snowing sideways and there is a tremendous (read: 30%) amount of packet loss at the moment.

I don't yet know how to do automatic failover due to packet loss on a UBNT device, but that's what I'm looking up this afternoon.

Anyways - I have 3 ISPs, with two of them being LTE. One is the unlimited ATT iPad plan, since I have a router that currently identifies as an iPad (so modern) with the other being TMobile home internet.

Up until this snow storm, I had both of the LTE connections in failover only mode, using Starlink exclusively since about November, when there was an update that stopped the "disconnect all active sessions every ~45 minutes when I lose physical sight of the satellite I was connected to" problem. I guess that was when sat to sat communication came online in my longitude.

I will also note that my IP has been static on Starlink for about 2 weeks now, which is the longest it's ever been. It's still CGNAT, so multiplayer game hosting is mostly out, unless the game handles it. Most don't.

Overall it's a decent thing, but I would recommend at least one backup ISP for those rural or thinking of going rural. LTE Hacks group on Facebook can help you tremendously if you are considering buying a place outside the range of normal wired connections.

It's kind of funny that snow took it down 1 day after I started looking at the premium option, which I'm considering if I can get my workplace to pay $300 per month, with me covering the other $200. Kind of dulls the excitement for that...

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

#12

Post by geerlingguy »

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…

My biggest gripe is the fact I can't transfer it to my cousin, who lives on a farm with 300 Kbps DSL, 70 miles away.

Back when preorders started, it wasn't obvious how slow Starlink would be to expand, and it also wasn't obvious transfers wouldn't be a supported feature for many months.

Even so, my cousin also signed up in hopes to get Starlink, and 11 months later her date was moved from 'late 2021' to 'late 2022'.

And yes, I've tried many address hacks to see if I could get my dish moved there, none have worked.

They shouldn't have dropped the 'beta' moniker last year if the service is truly so far from its final state (IMO).

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

#13

Post by krisoft »

So he says that he wanted to give the dish to his cousin. Then he describes all the bureaucratic barriers he faced in that plan. But what happens if he just places the dish there? Does it immediately give an error on first connection, or doest it get banned later?

I understand that the limit is because Starlink is oversubscribed in the cousin's area, I'm just wondering where the limitation is enforced.

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

#14

Post by adventured »

woudsma wrote: post #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.

That's because it's not. The cost isn't $240 by necessity. They're knowingly overpaying for Internet access (they have multiple connections, they're not even using Starlink for example).

I'm paying $34 / month in a small city in the middle of nowhere for 200mbps in the US.

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

#15

Post by geerlingguy »

perydell wrote: post #8

Article 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 se…

I covered that last year in my 4 month review (and linked to that post in the article as well): https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/spacexs-starlink-revi...

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

#17

Post by qayxc »

krisoft wrote: post #13

So he says that he wanted to give the dish to his cousin. Then he describes all the bureaucratic barriers he faced in that plan. But what happens if he just places the dish there? Does it immediately give an error on first connection, or doest it get banned later? I understand that the limit is because Starlink is oversubscribed in the cousin's area, I'm just wondering where the limitation is enforced.

> But what happens if he just places the dish there?

That's exactly what he tried a few months back. It didn't work (no connection was possible IIRC). The service was basically geo-fenced back then and still might be.

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

#18

Post by geerlingguy »

adventured wrote: post #14
woudsma wrote: post #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.

That's because it's not. The cost isn't $240 by necessity. They're knowingly overpaying for Internet access (they have multiple connections, they're not even using Starlink for example). I'm paying $34 / month in a small city in the middle of nowhere for 200mbps in the US.

$140/month to get the most upload bandwidth possible at my house (35 Mbps through Spectrum).

Then $99/month for Starlink (for now, at least).

Meanwhile a few blocks away a friend has 500 Mbps symmetric access for $50/month.

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

#19

Post by jeffbee »

NDizzle wrote: post #11

I've had Starlink in Rural AR for 10 months now. I have it currently set to "failover only" on my Ubiquiti device, as it's snowing sideways and there is a tremendous (read: 30%) amount of packet loss at the moment. I don't yet know how to do automatic failover due to packet loss on a UBNT device, but that's what I'm looking up this afternoon. Anyways - I have 3 ISPs, with two of them being LTE. One is the unlimited A…

It sounds like you have a nifty setup, but I’m surprised you would consider such a high price for your third connection. Why is it worth so much in your case? For the price, you’re approaching the amortized cost of burying miles of cable, which could be an option for people who are only a short distance from wired infrastructure.

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

#20

Post by spaniard89277 »

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…

What about a small coop ISP? If you manage to use electric or telephone posts deploying fiber and getting a carrier is doable, at least here in Spain.
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