Anyone using Starlink for Internet?

[divingin]

Anyone here using Starlink for their Internet? I just ordered it for my home/shop I'm building to retire to, it let me order it right away, no waiting list.

Anyone else using Starlink and if so, are you happy with it?

Website says 25mbs - 200mbps, which is screaming. I current use a DSL modem with only 10mbps download and 1mbps upload. We don't have fiber available in our area, but I can get Starlink in San Jose. HughesNet has a data cap and after they start throttling your feed. I don't like the idea of that. AFAICT, Starlink is full throttle always.

Anyone with real world experience?

KW

Comcast isn't available near Clear Lake? They suck (in terms of support and cost - service itself seems about average) but they're fast. Works out better for me than ATT. I prefer cable (either copper or fiber) over satellite, if it's available, but that's just me.

Walt: A small UPS or a good line conditioner should help with power glitches. It will also make it easier on the equipment you run on it (power glitches are hard on the power supplies in those units.)

 

[ballisticdaddy]

We use Starlink as we are in unincorporated county and been very happy with the service and speed. We had cable internet before and that had a maximum speed of less than 5 MPS so it was an easy decision.

 

[Fuj]

Fuj,

I had the T-Mobile internet for about six months at a hunting camp in AL. One of the first subscribers, so no data as to the problems, which were many.
1. Lousy DNS resolution. The modem and computer would not function if the DNS server didn't respond fast endough.
2. Moderate throughput. 80-150 downlink on 4gATE and 5-20 uplink.
3. You couldl not configure the modem as a pass-through gateway to a personal router and firewall.
4. Could not administer the modem from a computer, you had to use a smartphone app for configuration issues.
5. You could not turn off the modem wireless to use your own wireless network.
6. I did not have a printer at the time, to get a copy of the return label I had to go by a UPS store and have them print out a label.
7. PW configuration changes on the modem didn't seem to take.

It's a halfway decent service, but lots of caveats. It may not work in the way out boonies of the south which show up as no coverage areas on the T-Mobile maps. Also be aware T-Mobile is trying to move old customers who use a plan with a promise of no increases, ever, to a higher priced plan. The old plan customer has to call T-Mobile to tell them not to move them to the new plan. They may eventually do the same with the internet service users.


YMMV,
DocBII

I had picked up a new all in one big screen Dell Optiplex with Win-10.
A T-Mobile store is near me, so I signed on the dotted line and they
handed me a unit. One worker told me, I would need a to do the cell
app to get set up, where another said if you have Windows 10, just go
into network set up and add the T-Mobile domain code listed on the
bottom of the unit. The computer has built in WIFI, so the two units
do a simple hand shake, and I was off and running. Except for one
corner of the house I have bad 5G signal from the gateway to the
computer, and why I ran a cable direct and switched off WIFI. I'll
easily get a good 100 mbs more with the cable then with WIFI at
opposite ends of the house. Checking Ookla Speed test just now,
I'm down to 189 mbs which is not bad for a Friday afternoon. I'm
also lucky that I'm at the outskirt's of the city of Erie, and towers
are all over the place, but for some reason it only likes to be placed
by a window in the northeast corner ??

 

[Fast14riot]

We have starlink at work, seems stable and reasonably fast. I have fiber at home, much faster. With starlink its more often the computer being slow vs the connection I've found. We've also switched to VOIP for phones and every once in a while I get a dropped call or static sound, but thats better than our phones always being down due to copper theft.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

My T-Mobile gateway is 387 mbs this morning. $55 per month.

Don't get me started on T-Mobile. I do like them, and don't want to change back to Verizon but T-Mobile is not ideal at my property in Lake County. I would say signal is 50/50 most of the time.

However, I noticed on the Starlink site that it uses the T-Mobile cell towers for the fusion plan which I ordered. Fusion goes over both Sat. and Cell signals from what I understand.

With T-Mobile my bill is $166 for 4 phones, they do throttle is my understanding, but I don't think I get throttled, however believe my kids hit the threshold.

Verizon was better at my property, I would say more like 90/10, with signal working about 90% of the time.

I'm over 500 mbs there.....Go to T-Mobile Home Internet and check your service area.

That is just screaming fast. I have been in high tech for 40+ years and most people would have a hard time saturating 10mbps. It wasn't long ago that LANs were running on 10mbps routers.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

I'll be honest, I didn't expect to hear so many good responses for Starlink. I mean, ISPs are not typically the glowing topic of users. But the thing about Starlink is that you can take it anywhere with you. If you have T-Mobile cells in the area, fusion makes sense.

But I will say, it's not cheap for Internet, as it costs $120/mo.

For me I need broadband when I'm working at home. I can't always predict if I will be working at home or not, but I wouldn't mind working on the Starlink software, that looks pretty cool!

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

Comcast isn't available near Clear Lake?

No, there is a cable company that is available in my subdivision, but I've been told it's worse when the storms hit as the fiber is evidently running over the poles.

I prefer cable (either copper or fiber) over satellite, if it's available, but that's just me.

Me too, and in fact when I bought the property that was one of the main reasons I bought it, knowing I would be able to get cable modem. I hear that Satellite is a good solution in Lake County. That goes for HughesNet also.

My current ISP in West San Jose is Sonic, they operate in the ATT central offices. They are headquartered in Santa Rosa, about 25 miles from the property, but they do not service Lake County. Central office is not close to my property in Lake County.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

How much does starling cost compared to comcast or spectrum?

The Starlink cost me about $700, $600 for hardware plus tax and shipping. You get a free 30 day trial, with a complete refund if unsatisfied. After the first 30 days it's $120/mo. Static IPs are $20/mo.

Comcast in San Jose would be slightly lower, about $105-$110 with 2 static IPs.

Sonic comes in over land line, it splits the signal, and as a part of their deal I get unlimited voice to Japan, and also get data free when traveling in Japan. HughesNet had an International plan that would allow that, but it was $50/mo. This service that Sonic provides has been very helpful, as my mother-in-law is about 96 years old.

 

[HandgunHTR]

The lodge that I was just at in middle Manitoba uses Starlink. It was very good for where we were. Had a bit of an issue the one day we had thunderstorms and severe cloud cover, but other than that, we had 12 people on their respective devices during some periods of the day and no real slow-downs.

It was good enough that I am considering getting it for our hunting property in WV. We have adequate cell service with our booster, but it is still spotty at times.

 

[karrarararararar]

We've had it at our house since Aug 2021. I've been deployed fir 4 months, so I haven't been on it recently, but our speeds are typically ~150Mbps. It's been great so far and has only gotten better since we got it. Only time we really have reliability issues is during thunderstorms.

 

[Fuj]

Sometimes it's not the provider but the server you have to go thru.
If I get a slow initial feed, I'll change servers. Even though I'm in Erie
Pa, My T-Mobile servers with the biggest thru put are in Cleveland
Ohio bouncing the towers. This morning, I'm at 349mbs on a Wind-
Stream server out of Ohio, running the T-Mobile network.....Just for
sh!ts and giggles, I'll connect to the network in Czechoslovakia. It's
slower but still quite fast considering.......

 

[RabbitSlayer]

Mine works great I don't even have it on the roof. It has got faster in the last year too. Im at like 250 most the time now.

 

[CJ6]

We use Starlink, we are in a rural area and it’s far better than any of our other options. We’ve been very happy!

My daughter and Son in Law use it on the farm. They like it. Besides farming he uses it for work, he's a maintenance supervisor for a major wind farm company across 10 states so he needs the speeds and reliability.

 

[loinhunter]

Check out YouTubes Lauren Landers. Solo sailing in the Caribbean. Great content.

 

[Konocti's Wigwam]

Ok, I first took the dish up to my property and it was pouring most all of the day, I really couldn't get much done with it other than trying to keep it dry, but the OSB survived the outburst.

This was from last week when I got back up there. It was pegged at 100 mbps on download.

 

[klamathsteel]

This is very encouraging. They also have a business plan that includes 1 static for $20.

I have been in high tech for 40+ years. In the past better engineers could get dedicated T1 lines taken into their home, I once worked with a guy that lived on Bainbridge Island in Washington, our boss ran a T1 out to his house.

But 168-233mbps is frickin' screaming...I have great stories of using KDD in Japan during the 80s, we had to use a PAD (packet assembler/disassembler). I always wanted to move back to Hawaii, but ended up in NorCal. Pretty decent hunting in California A zone.

KW

A T1 is 1.544 mbs.

 

[Gina1]

Switched from Hugh's net last year and never looked back. Speed is blinding. Can watch movies without buffering. A real + factor, because the whole antenna is a phased array, itis warm and during snow storms it melts the snow. No more clearing snow off the dishes )
PS Did away with "Dish" at the same time , stream lots of free stuff. Pay for a few programs we want.
End product, we are saving about$100 + a month

 

[DirtySteve]

Just installed ours. Left Hughes, when we tried to cancel the said they would lower the price and give more bandwidth. Guess they should have done that the day Star link started launching satellites.

 

[Rsadams]

I will when we move it looks very nice.... I like the fact you can setup anywhere.... Not yet available in my exact area next year should be good to go though... Have you looked at all the starlinks in space I think you can see if you go to norads website.... They're everywhere like a James bond movie... Right now I have half a gig fiber... Super fast...

 

[Rsadams]

Just installed ours. Left Hughes, when we tried to cancel the said they would lower the price and give more bandwidth. Guess they should have done that the day Star link started launching satellites.

Sounds like direct TV...