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Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

arstechnica.com

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Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#381

Post by labawi »

antris wrote: post #315
csharptwdec19 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK if they do this for PC versions... But a lot of these games not only Reuse textures but also duplicate them. They do this to improve load times for levels/etc (less seeking). Playstation DOOM is an early example of this pattern. The WAD files were actually 'per-level' and contained all sprites/textures/etc used in said level.

Wouldn't duplicated textures get de-duplicated by any halfway-decent compression algorithm though? I'd assume the game is sent over the wire compressed

Most compression algorithms have a limited data reference window (dictionary size) - tens to hundreds of MB being typical upper limits. If duplicated data is further apart, it gets compressed again.

If the data isn't pre-compressed, or doesn't otherwise significantly vary, then using the right tools should de-duplicate the data. Things like lrzip, rsync batch mode, bdiff should work well. If large blocks are identical, many filesystem archivers/backup solutions should do good deduplication, and squashfs can be kind of nice.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#383

Post by zbrozek »

abledon wrote: post #238
blocked_again wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even a reliable 10mbps What are some applications that requires more than 10mbps speed in rural places?

WINDOWS 10 OS. The amount of updates you have to download weekly is insane. cripples my connection to do anything else for hours at a time. Have to switch to "metered connection" to trick it into thinking im connceted to internet on a smartphone with super expensive$$$ dataplan, so to leave any updates as 'frozen'. (for a non tech saavy person, they would be driven nuts... every day their computer would just grind to…

My rule of thumb is to budget 3 mbps for every "real computer" to keep itself up to date. By my count, in my home, that's 15. Here that's phones, traditional computers, VMs, and Raspberry Pis. And about 1 mbps for every "kinda computer". So that would include smart speakers and televisions.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#384

Post by chiph »

awad wrote: post #360
chiph wrote: post #319

If someone knows - what kind of cable does the unit use out to the antenna? My COVID project is wiring the house with Cat6 and it might be worthwhile putting an enclosed drop out on the deck for the future.

According to this Reddit thread, the dish only has one cable presumably with POE https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/hqu7p6/data_minin...

I followed a link from there to the FCC test reports. Pages 7 & 8 of this application doc appears to make it out to be standard POE:

https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=48...

> Power Supply Rating 56Vdc from PoE adapter 0.3A

802.3af won't do that at any sort of appreciable cable length, so it's most likely 802.3bt.

Page 13 indicates it has a standard RJ45 connector, probably on the router to the customer's network. It doesn't explicitly say it's RJ45 to the antenna. But they're pretty ubiquitous and weatherproofing glands exist that will allow a RJ45 to pass through them. So .. probably.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#385

Post by yencabulator »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #331
yencabulator wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What he said. From the article: > While 60Mbps isn't a gigabit, it's on par with some of the lower cable speed tiers and is much higher than speeds offered by many DSL services in the rural areas LOWER?! Cable doesn't even serve non-television use near me. Phone lines can carry 5 Mbps DSL if you're lucky . I happen to have a line-of-sight to a major radio tower so I get wifi from a mom-and-pop ISP, with a 10 Mbps cap…

Modern VDSL can reach around 200mbps at distances something around 3-5 km from exchange. DSL obviously lower but possibly similar to Starlink. All that said you can those speeds with Starlink anywhere, for much less than installing a phone line.

Possible != commercially available. I talked to the guy doing DSL installs in my area, he says 5 Mbps max if you get lucky.

Starlink is leapfrogging the cable/telco industries by not needing the same infrastructure.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#386

Post by voxic11 »

neckardt wrote: post #311
arrty88 wrote: post #216

Can anyone tell me why this was not previously possible? Both latency and speed? What did Starlink do differently

I believe the innovation is that the satellites sit in low earth orbit. Traditional internet satellites operate in geostationary orbit, which is around 35,000km above the surface of the earth. This was preferable because with only a handful of satellites you could give the entire globe internet connection. However you have much higher latency due to the distance. Not exactly sure why the bandwidth is so slow, distanc…

Another reason the lower orbit wasn't possible before is that atmospheric drag actually causes the satellites orbit to decay much faster. So they must be constantly replaced.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#387

Post by chemmail »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #53

Anyone complaining about this has never experienced the frustration of rural living when it comes to internet. This is absolutely amazing, and it will just get better. Even a reliable 10mbps would be a godsend in many places.

I had 5mbps at work. Then finally 5 years later they are able to get me 12mbps. A block down can get 200mbps from same company. My friend a mile away can get 2gbps fiber. And i have joyous 0.2mbps uploads WTFFFFF

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#388

Post by vermilingua »

choeger wrote: post #284
medion wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Australia I moved to a very rural place, buying a house based on where I could get wireless broadband as part of our nationwide broadband rollout - I now live in a beautiful remote place overlooking the ocean with 50/20mbps Internet. Before here, I lived in another rural place near the ocean, however there was no broadband and 4G was too expensive. I ended up making friends with someone who had a 1gbps fibrelink 1…

Ok you got me with "overlooking the ocean". I will admit, I was a little bit envious. But then I recalled the great Terry Pratchett quote that you are living on a continent where pretty much every animal, except for maybe some sheep, is equipped with some venom and actively trying to kill you. Plus some of the plants. So I guess it's fair play.

They’re only actively trying to kill us if we’re actively trying to kill them. So long as you don’t wander into the bush like an idiot, your encounters with dangerous critters are limited to whatever the cat (literally) drags in.

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#389

Post by mensetmanusman »

gamblor956 wrote: post #228
bronco21016 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Winning 'hearts and minds'. You drop access to the internet as whole in places where the internet is suppressed or non-existent and the populace learns just how bad they have things then they might revolt on their own. I wouldn't say I 100% advocate for the idea but thats the thought process behind it.

That would generally be considered a violation of another country's airspace, and some countries would even treat that as an act of war. You would also have to deal with the real possibility that those countries would simply shoot down any planes observed dropping Starlink base stations.

nonprofits air drop usbs full of news in north korea, violations happen all the time

Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps

#390

Post by thinkcontext »

bdamm wrote: post #107
stingraycharles wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely! As someone who lived in a third world country for 2.5y (2014-2016), I had to resort to satellite internet for semi-reliable uplink. I have to admit that I’m not too familiar with the differences between Starlink and what’s already available, but what I do know is that I had to settle for 4/0.5mbit and was really happy with it. Reliability of the connection was much more important than the throughout.

Main advantage of Starlink over existing satellite is a (much) lower latency. Starlink constellation is flying by with a new satellite overhead every 10 minutes or less, and they're operating just above the atmosphere. Musk has claimed 20ms latency, which if true, would be absolutely a smash victory for rural Internet users everywhere.

The article says the beta testers are seeing 30-90ms.
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