Anyone used the Starlink internet?

[stuckless]

In a year, I'm moving from the big city and building a house in an area that doesn't have great internet... or any internet. We have a cottage on the lake and we are basically going to tear it down, build a 4 season house and live there.

Internet is an obvious concern but Starlink seems really promising. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with it. I guess this should be related to SageTV, so, has anyone used Starlink with placeshifter

[wayner]

The Forest City was to big for you? That could lead to a change in lifestyle. Did you see this CBC story from yesterday:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/s...nada-1.5831765

Would LTE/5G be an option, or are you going to a very remote area?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

The Forest City was to big for you? That could lead to a change in lifestyle. Did you see this CBC story from yesterday:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/s...nada-1.5831765

Would LTE/5G be an option, or are you going to a very remote area?

Yeah, I'm moving from the "Forest City" to a real forest

So, I get basically 3g service... which isn't going to do much for me. It's ok to check email, but, I can't really do much more.

[wayner]

That kinda sucks. It sounds like you are moving someplace nice but I couldn't live without decent internet. Are you moving to the Bruce Peninsula area on Lake Huron?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

That kinda sucks. It sounds like you are moving someplace nice but I couldn't live without decent internet. Are you moving to the Bruce Peninsula area on Lake Huron?

It'll be about an hour north of the Muskokas...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ci...&index=2&t=11s

And I agree it will be hard if I can't get decent internet. There are sat internet providers, but, they suck. If I can score a Starlink, I'm sure I could make do

[wayner]

Starlink should be a good option, in that area there won't be too many other options. Hopefully it has broad roll out soon.

Over 30 years ago I worked for Northern Telecom as an Elec Eng just out of school. I worked on the Fibre Optic line from Barrie up to North Bay which had repeater sites in places like Powassan which seems to be the nearest town from where you will be.

You should take up astronomy as you should have nice dark skies up there!

[KryptoNyte]

No experience with Starlink but it sure looks promising for your scenario. I was wondering how they handled the upload, but apparently that's also done via satellite and it's better than what Spectrum gives me.

Does there have to be a "ground station" near your home location for this to work? Or is the ground station the $500 worth of equipment you purchase and install at your home?

[wayner]

The ground station is what you buy - a UFO on a stick: https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesm...rlink-terminal

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

You should take up astronomy as you should have nice dark skies up there!

Well, astronomy is a small hobby of mine as well

I've watched a few videos of people setting up Starlink and doing the upload/download tests. It seems really promising. The challenge will be to actually get one

There are satellite providers in that area but 5mbps is the most they will offer. I can get that on my phone, so, I don't see the point, other than I think their 5mbps service is unlimited.

[wayner]

Starlink seems like a very good alternative with speeds of about 120/15. The upload speed is not radically different from Rogers' service, even with their Gig download you only get 30Mbps up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/co...k_speed_tests/

[wnjj]

You all are spoiled. We’ve gotten by with 3Mb/1Mb WiFi internet for the past 17 years. I finally upped it to 5/2 last month with heavier needs. Those are sustained speeds and it will burst to about 2x that.

Granted we haven’t subscribed to any streaming services but have done a bunch of video meetings for work and kids’ school plus plenty of YouTube.

I wouldn’t trade rural living for any amount of internet.

[KryptoNyte]

Any farmers or other land owners around that have some kind of silo or tower with a wifi antenna on it? In The States there are numerous rural systems that jump around like that offering Internet services. They aren't great, but better than nothing, which appears to be Starlink's moto.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wnjj

I wouldn’t trade rural living for any amount of internet.

I'm about to test that theory But, I've become pretty dependent on decent internet. My concern is that if I can't get decent internet at the new place, I might have to rent an office space a few km away where there is likely broadband.

[wayner]

Isn't the birthplace of the Dionne Quints nearby? Maybe they have broadband!

Starlink seems like it should be a pretty good option, but I imagine it will be a step down from what you have today in London.

Form the sounds of things in a lot of places in the US, we have it pretty good in urban parts of Canada. I can get Gigabit internet from Rogers or Bell with no data caps for less than US$100/month. I haven't bothered upgrading from 500/20 as I am not sure that it would make a difference and some of the newer modems can be tricky to configure if you want to use your own router, especially when combined with TV service.

[Wayneb]

Originally Posted by wayner

Form the sounds of things in a lot of places in the US, we have it pretty good in urban parts of Canada. I can get Gigabit internet from Rogers or Bell with no data caps for less than US$100/month.

I have been waiting for over 3 years for promised gigabit internet where i live, I have a brother who lives on 39 acres outside a town of less than 500 people in Wyoming and he has had fiber for years. My wireless ISP I have now has been horrible since the start of this Covid crap.

[wayner]

@wayneb - Where do you live? To be honest I think there is marginal benefit beyond 200Mbps down, unless you often download large files.

Bell Canada sells 1.5Gbps which I think is a real waste since very little home networking equipment can handle anything above 1G.

[Wayneb]

I am in Southern California, the fiber options here are 25 Mbps for $25 a month or $60 a month for 1 Gig. I have a wireless ISP with a 12 Mbps down 1 Mbps up plan but it is often closer to .5 Mbps down lately.

The fiber line has been at the street in front of my house for a year now, don't know when they will finally decide to hook me up.

[wayner]

What about cable? You don't need FTTH to get much higher speeds than that. I don't have fiber to my home and I get 500 Mbps with DOCSIS 3.0 over copper.

[Wayneb]

Originally Posted by wayner

What about cable? You don't need FTTH to get much higher speeds than that. I don't have fiber to my home and I get 500 Mbps with DOCSIS 3.0 over copper.

No cable here, only the downtown area has cable. I have a choice of two wireless ISP providers or satellite out here right now, when Covid goes away the fiber hookups should start getting installed much quicker.
Just checked my Speedtest results, .45 down and 1.02 up, awesome.