Starlink Internet, my 2 day review
 

I've only had Starlink for 2 days and I'm pretty impressed.

Went to Best Buy who is a Authorized Dealer, instead of ordering and waiting for shipping you a dish.

$599 plus tax
$25 pole mount for house
$120 a month for fast unlimited data.


Compared to (my only choice) my landline and twisted shielded pair for internet from Frontier,

you see at the bottom of the chart is my old speeds of only 15-20 Meg down. Compared to ~85-100 meg down now.


I've seen a FIVE times increase so far.

Now going to use that bandwidth to stream 4K movies on Prime to a new 77" OELD Samsung that is getting delivered next week. For only $1999 and OELD at Best Buy I couldn't say no. I bet my Blu-Rays will look stunning on it.

Happy Camper!


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Can you take the same equipment on the road like in a travel trailer or motorhome?

yes you can buy a Mobile Dish and the monthly fee is more.

Just curious, does the system still deliver good video in rain and snow?

Heavy rain can interrupt our services, but only during the really heavy stuff. I don't know about the snow, but there is a snow melt feature.

The antenna has a built in heater and can be manually heated or automatic. We have it in Oregon and no issues with rain or snow in the two years we have had it.

Starlink should be good. I get 80 meg download with T-Mobile and have no problems streaming .

I am on day two...for me the speed of Starlink is very impressive.

What pole did you get?

I got the regular set-up for my trial period but will be cancelling my internet services.

Wait - so when it’s pissing down and you are stuck inside your internet can cut out. And that’s better than what you have? In a non-flyover state. That’s pretty grim news…

We have had Starlink for over a year and have great speeds and no issues. We get a couple inches of snow in the winter and just turn on the heater on the dish to melt it. No problem. The only thing that was disappointing is we needed to buy 3 of their signal amplifiers to get good coverage throughout the house. It's only 3K sq. ft., 1 level, so I was surprised we needed boosters.

I have Frontier DSL and when it’s pissing down and the power goes out in the area, so does the DSL. I had a dish once and it was sketchy due to weather on occasion. I don't know if it ever became unusable like DSL does now.

Thanks. Starlink will be the primary with phone hot spot back up.

I'm headed to Best Buy to look at attachment hardware.

They are evidentially an authorized dealer.

Edit: How does it handle "streaming"? I'd like to get away from DirecTV or at least get Gemini from them.

Thanks again.

I had difficulty getting a solid signal upstairs in a house half that size. Signal had to go through several walls. Bought and returned an extension booster which did not work. Thankfully there was another jack and was able to move the router into direct line-of-sight for the laptop Wi-Fi, and a line to the gaming box.

Wi-Fi is just lousy in general and full of encryption latency.

Is it possible to disconnect the street connection, ie to hard wire the router in one wall jack and the router in another? Basically use the existing internal cable routing already in the house.

I used their ethernet adapter to use my existing wiring. Most everything in my house is hardwired, because of poor wifi.

I can stream 4k-8k movies over internet.

I'm trying to ditch my Dish network. With a Smart TV, you just use the web for streaming TV. Prime shows are stunning in UHDR broadcast.

So how critical is the aiming of the antenna?
Which way does it point?

Best Buy may be the best for picking up the Starlink package....but forget it for info on it. (the store near me anyway)
I was there a few days ago and had some questions. They found 'the guy' that is in charge of Starlink for that store.
The only thing he could tell me was go to the front desk and pay for it and they would bring the box out to the car.
When I asked about the size and weight of the antenna....he just shrugged and said "Not sure"
He also said they had no brochures....just go online.

Exactly what happened.

We've had Starlink for about 3 years now, we got on the beta testing. I live in rural Montana and what passed as an internet service provider when we moved into our house was pathetic, we could not even run a ring door bell. now we can stream 2 TVs and computers or iPads at the sometime without issue. We dont have issues with snow and connectivity. I extremely happy with Starlink.

I have FIOS - 1G rock solid and I’d struggle to live without it, especially working remote.

I get about 70-100 Mbps down with my Starlink.

Which is pretty slow compared to anything but DSL or Hughesnet (edit and cellular?) - but terrific compared to those.

I plan to set it up so it can be used in my campervan. Right now I have it in my shop, temporarily until I can get cables run for internet there.

We have direct TV, (has its own dish) in addition to StarLink. I want to get rid of Direct TV as we stream everything and I do not think we are watching anything off Direct TV. I just have to get the OK from my wife to be sure she will not be missing anything if we cut Direct TV. I think Direct TV is $90 a month.

DirecTV has the new Gemini box that I would like. Called them and I needed much faster internet to stream.

So far, Starlink has be excellent.

I'll start ending services as I move forward and get more comfortable.

Would 1G be nice to have, sure. I work from home and I'm in IT, and it's more than adequate.
I've got T-mobile 5G, and I'm right at the edge of service (between 2 towers) and I can stream HD TV to 2 TVs. I do occasionally have service drop down to 30Mb, but most of the time my service is anywhere from 70-300mb.

I have the same service. At first 80-100 meg download was pretty normal. 9 months later 30 mb is normal. Are they throttling it down or have they oversold the area ? It still functions pretty well but it is disappointing.

I think in peak times it's due to the area being saturated. In the last week or so, I'm getting more 30mb, usually in the afternoons and evenings, I think due to more folks being around for the holidays. I occasionally get similar on a Friday evenings. I tested when I posted earlier and I got 161mb down.

161 is fast. I think I may have gotten near that at first or maybe testing with a CAT 6 cable. As I said, it is not a problem . I stream a lot of TV with no issues. The $50 monthly fee forever is worth it.

It's funny, like I said, I'm almost exactly in between 2 towers. I am guessing that on one tower, I end up connected on band 71 and on the other I end up on 41. On one, I'll get a lower download speed (30-70) but higher upload (10-20). On the other, I'll get higher download speeds (70-almost 300, highest test 295) but then upload speeds of only 1.5-3.

It works for me, and I can work from home, surf, stream, whatever, and like you said, it's only $50.

I was going to check my stats but the app did not take my password. Will look later on. Have company right now.

I did a full reset on the 5G unit and I am getting 70 meg download. Its on band 41. I tried 5GHz and 2.4GHz and they both tested around 70 megs.

You can use any antenna and be mobile. There is no "mobile dish". It has all to do with the plan you select, and you can change plans at any time. So you could use the Standard plan at home for $120/mo and then take it with you on an RV trip using Mobile Regional for $150/mo.

Not very. The Gen 2 equipment will aim itself in an optimal direction and pretty much park. It tracks a satellite using phased array tech. If you change locations a gen 2 antenna may move to a better position. The newer Gen 3 and, I think the "marine" HP antenna does not move because it has a wider field of view. I think it is 110 deg compared to 100 deg in the older units. Some people using Starlink on boats will disable the motors in the gen 2's and park it horizontally and dont have any degradation. Supposedly because there are enough sats up there now to stay in contact pretty much all the time. The new Gen 3's dont need to be aimed. They are sloped only for water run-off, I think.

I use a gen 2 unit on my boat and love it. I work remotely and I can video conference, play games, and watch movies from anyplace in the world. It is truly a game changer for me. Its not as good as fiber optic. But only because of momentary drop outs. Usually less than a second. Video conf and tv buffer enough that it is not noticeable. I only notice it on games and occasionally in a video conference. Other than that, there is no reason not to get it. And if you aren't on land, or you are on land and move around, there is simply no better choice.

I will say I made a custom pole mount for the StarLink dish so it sits above the peak of our roof by about 2 feet. I had it powder coated and ran the cable inside the pipe so nothing is visible. I now have 100% coverage for satellite reception. I have trees all around my home and wanted to be sure we had a good clear signal.

That is the next step.

I didn't order any of the mounting hardware because I wanted compare it with the interweb machines I already have.

Last night was a revelation in terms of streaming content.

The only issue here is wind so I am talking to some installers. My on a roof would require a helicopter and a hoist:)

Unless you have gamers in the house no one needs those speeds. 3 to 4 Mb is all you need to stream movies. Just so you know.

Streaming is an issue with the 5G system and Hughesnet we have. Not sure why, but what a mess. That and getting rid of the 5G and Hughes saves me money. I'll still have the iPhone hotspots for emergencies, etc.

That and I work from home 3 days a week, my wife 2 days a week, and need the bandwidth for VTC's, huge Power Point files, videos, etc.: When we are working from home together makes a gamer look like a piker:)

Last report from me: Installing SL with a professional next week...it is so much better than my other options I am delighted.

No more Mennonite Internet.

Here is a cheap answer for those needing/wanting a pole mount.

https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ft-telescoping-flag-pole-kit-64344.html

Excellent!

I am removing my Hughes.net dish...the installer asked for pictures and thinks it will work if southern exposure holds.

The little beast is sitting in my lawn now and we'll figure out where best to put it for access and protection from the mess that is the Potomac winds...I bought a 30 day trial just in case with a return option. Nope.

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Two or three 4k movies at the same time plus devices plus work. And work is download heavy.
Yeah - we need a bit more…

Here is what I did for better reception:

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