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Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

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Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#91

Post by walrus01 »

space_fountain wrote: post #89
walrus01 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, quite literally, if you move a beta terminal from your designated service location, it won't work. I know at least 4 people who also have beta terminals who have tried it. It depends on the size of your 'cell' - some people have been able to go a few km away, some people report it doesn't work even a few hundred meters away from their house. When you sign up for the beta you have to specify your street address an…

I have heard speculation that the issue is actually satellite signal steering. They’re using phased array antennas on both sides so the satellites need to know where to be listening

They haven't released any real info on it. But there's been teardown videos of the CPE showing the phased array design. And the patent for the terminals, which is public, shows a dual beamforming phased array. It clearly needs to be in order to maintain a seamless make-before-break with rising and descending satellites that are illuminating specific areas on the ground with spot beams.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#92

Post by cma »

secfirstmd wrote: post #54

I'm currently in the middle of trying to help loads of human rights defenders in Myanmar plan to deal with the internet shut downs that are happening. Satellite stuff like Iridium is too crazily expensive to be useful. I really wish some thing like this was available.

Wouldn't these be easily visible from the sky? They need clear line of site. It seems like it would be like putting out "come arrest me" smoke signals.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#93

Post by duskwuff »

thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #4

100$ a month. Plus a 600$ fee to buy the hardware. i think they said 50mbps - 150mpbs It's a little on the pricey side but at least, as far I know, it's not comcast or at&t.

It's a competitive price for a satellite service. HughesNet and Viasat will charge upwards of $100/mo for ~25 Mbps service with significantly higher latency and limited data allowances (<100 GB/mo).

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#94

Post by daveevad »

walrus01 wrote: post #88
daveevad wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you ssh into it or would one need to reverse tunnel?

The latter. You can initiate whatever connection you want from inside the cgnat, but there's nothing externally accessible yet. Mine has a few different openvpn tunnels (clients at the starlink side, servers in datacenters elsewhere) going different places.

Thanks - what does a regular traceroute look like?

Any discernible pattern for the hops through the constellation?

Any general thoughts about the topology?

I appreciate it. My family got into the beta today, not just the pre-order but it sounds like it won't ship for a few weeks. Thanks again.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#95

Post by ttul »

supernova87a wrote: post #85

Note, it says you cannot take your Starlink to a different address (or I suppose, put it on a boat, plane, RV, etc): https://www.starlink.com/faq "Can I travel with Starlink, or move it to a different address? Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell. Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you mov…

I will test this.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#96

Post by mcculley »

walrus01 wrote: post #40

I have been using a starlink beta terminal for 3 months now, ask me whatever you want. Day job is senior network engineer for a regional-sized (4 US states) fiber based ISP. My most important message to everyone reading this is that it's not intended to compete with properly implemented wireline based services. It's going to absolutely blow away consumer-grade highly oversubscribed, bottom of the barrel ku and ka ban…

How well would this work on oceangoing boats? I have tugboats in the Caribbean that could use cheaper connectivity.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#97

Post by walrus01 »

colordrops wrote: post #90
walrus01 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a. absolute lowest latency I've seen to a major IX point in seattle is about 15.8ms. More often it's 22-23ms. On a longer term, averages between 20-30ms. That's for the combined total of four 550km paths through space plus terrestrial latency from their earth station to seattle. Keep in mind that on something like a DOCSIS3 cable coax last mile segment can have a minimum latency of 12-16ms from just the cablemodem to…

I regularly get 12ms latency to google over my DOCSIS3 cable coax connection.

This will vary greatly depending on how loaded your particular cablemodem segment is, how the channel bonding is set up, how enthusiastic your neighbors are about downloading things like 65GB torrents of 2160p60 movies. If there is an 8.8.8.8 anycast node somewhere in your city, and you are kinda close to downtown, less than 1.5ms of that could be the fiber path from your ISP to their peering with google and back, and 10.5ms of it or so would be accounted for by the cablemodem part.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#99

Post by kortilla »

ampdepolymerase wrote: post #34
systemvoltage wrote: post #22

I am not sure if this is wishful thinking but can Starlink lead to growth of smaller communities that are self-sustaining (produce their own renewable electricity, food, etc) that cannot simply exist due to connectivity constraints? I have a dream of the world where we live in 1-10k population small towns littered around the globe, connected through starlink and public ways, and the idea of cities would become obsole…

This would just permanently entrench existing wealth structures. Gated communities will be celebrating at what you suggested. It would be the end of economic mobility. Great for the long tail, not so great for those left of the power law.

Economic mobility is enabled by jobs and education, not location. Speaking as someone who grew up in a small town and ended up making 10x my parents combined, a small town upbringing is not a hinderance if you’re inspired by learning about the world through the Internet.

If the remote working and education trend continues, location will be more or less irrelevant.

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