Starlink Internet, my 2 day review

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

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!

billybek · billybek's Garage

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

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

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

p911dad · p911dad's Garage

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

peppy · 12-09-2023, 04:33 PM

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.

SpyderMike · 12-09-2023, 04:48 PM

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.

JackDidley · JackDidley's Garage

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

Seahawk · 12-22-2023, 04:44 AM

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.

Alan A · 12-22-2023, 04:48 AM

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…

Cairo94507 · Cairo94507's Garage

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.

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan A

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…

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.

Seahawk · 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cairo94507

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.

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.

john70t · 12-22-2023, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cairo94507

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 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.

peppy · 12-22-2023, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john70t

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.

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

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.

Scott Douglas · Scott Douglas's Garage

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

stevej37 · 02:42 PM

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.

Seahawk · 12-22-2023, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevej37

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.

tops911 · 12-22-2023, 04:10 PM

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.

Alan A · 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

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.

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