Starlink - Anyone get it yet?

The Continental Op

For anyone interested in a VPN for starlink then this is a speedtest at 9:40 on a weekday morning. In the evening the speedtest on the VPN drops off to between 80 and 120Mbps.

ItHurtsWhenIP

And here is a speed test on ProtonVPN over Starlink at 13:12 …

Slightly better than the one I ran last night…

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122079509#Comment_122079509

The Continental Op

Just got this in the post

Its a handy mount for the starlink base unit. Not bad at the current price of £3.37

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLLNZRWS

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122081001#Comment_122081001

thats good value.. i got a 3d printed one from etsy and it cost nearly 25 euro… nice to be able to tuck it out of the way

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122081022#Comment_122081022

I got a wake up call when ours fell off its shelf onto a concrete floor.

Now I'm on the look out for something to hold the ethernet adapter.

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122081038#Comment_122081038

the one i got had built in holder for the ethernet adapter as well

micks_address

This is one I got

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1192934531/starlink-wall-mount-for-gen-2?click_key=9e912051c695b6dda64fbd8b69013e34f8629984%3A1192934531&click_sum=6da6cd47&ref=shop_home_active_2&crt=1&sts=1

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122081096#Comment_122081096

That would have been ideal. I think I linked to it before but the cheapest I can find for just the ethernet adapter is this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CCJ8TZWZ

for just over a tenner. Its on my wish list and if it comes down in price I'll get it. Certainly not as important as the main base unit mount.

Stewball

I got that one of Amazon too. It's nice and tidy.

Great value at €4. I paid close to €20 for it a few months ago.

pms7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122081001#Comment_122081001

that looks good, thanks

pms7

Notice the ethernet adaptor is not available on the website??

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111454#Comment_122111454

I think you can only order it when you order a starlink. It's hidden until then. I couldn't order them together as example. Only after I had the starlink and registered it.

pms7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111533#Comment_122111533

ya I see its in the shop, but last week it was on order page with dish and cable

ItHurtsWhenIP

I wonder will this be the first significant Geomagnetic activity to affect SL?

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/space-weather

Expected impact for the UK:

Power systems: No significant impact on UK power grid likely.

Spacecraft operations: Surface charging may occur on satellite components, drag may increase on low-Earth-orbit satellites, and corrections may be needed for orientation problems.

Other systems: Intermittent GNSS(GPS) satellite navigation and low-frequency radio navigation problems may occur, HF radio may be intermittent. Aurora may be seen in Scotland and Northern Ireland and as low as Mid-Wales and the Midlands.

It looks like Aurora could be visible across the country, particularly tonight, if the skies are clear.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Well then, my Starlink app is showing degraded service:

Looking at the statistics, there was a reboot at 4:17am and then a few brief outages:

However, if I click the 0.1s+ … there's a few dozen 0.5s-0.9s outages since 4:17am.

I wasn't wrong about the Aurora … 😋

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122124025#Comment_122124025

mossie

Probably due to the solar storm activity

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122124028#Comment_122124028

Yeah loads of minor outages last night. My son was streaming most of the night on Youtube and he noticed a few very minor slow ups I assume when there was no connection for half a second or so. Checking the log of outages there certainly were far more than usual if you check the outages less than 2 seconds - maybe 50 or more.

Currently there is a report of a Degraded service - Our team is investigating …..

The really interesting thing is that Dishy was Searching and rebooting at EXACTLY the same time as your log shows. - I'm in West Waterford.

Bellie1

I know I should read through the entire thread. I guess just want reassurance. We are planning on moving to countryside but a few properties we've fallen in love with don't have fibre and aren't on the nbi rollout plan. We both work from home but only stream Netflix etc. Worst nightmare is to buy house,move in and find internet not sufficient.If we are really interested in a house, should we download starlink app and see if the house can get decent speeds? Also as a backup plan for occasional starlink outages see if can get 5g coverage on any network so can hotspot phone or have a router with Sim. Are we secure enough then? It's stressful enough planning to move, be great if we could know what to check for wrt connectivity so guaranteed to be ok

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168386#Comment_122168386

Don't worry Starlink will work perfectly for you.

Neighbors both work from home and Starlink has been a game changer for them previously they only had "traditional" satellite connection. We also have starlink and my son "works" each night streaming on youtube.

Edit> Not related to starlink but if you are getting any property out in the sticks check the mobile coverage.

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168395#Comment_122168395

Agreed.. we have it and two people working at home zoom, teams etc and not a problem.. netflix, streaming everything and gaming.. never a bother

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168386#Comment_122168386

If not on NBI rollout plan then either the house

• can get >30Mpbs (not great these days)
• are on an ISP's fibre rollout plan
• have been overlooked

For the latter one you can contact Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

https://secure.dccae.gov.ie/forms/NBP-Customer-Service.aspx

Starlink should be an adequate stopgap in the meantime.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168584#Comment_122168584

Starlink is far more than an adequate stopgap. If we do ever eventually get fixed line broadband I won't be rushing to sign up the minute its available. In fact the only thing that would make me change to a fiber would be if it was significantly cheaper. At €50 a month starlink is currently a very good deal.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168620#Comment_122168620

Blah, I have starlink its can't compete with the the pings or capacity of fibre.

It's very good don't get me wrong. It's not fibre at all. Il drop it as soon as fibre knocks on my door next year.

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168708#Comment_122168708

Agreed it has on average 40ms ping versus low teens of fibre but honestly you'd be hard pushed to tell the real world difference.. I ran it side by side with virgin 1gb and no one in the house could tell the difference.. online gaming at elite level is probably where it makes a difference but for FIFA or gaming like that out son has never batted an eye lid ..

digiman

Does anyone have a good IP telephone solution with Starlink where you could port your landline number across to it and pay a minimal fee each month. Parents want to keep their landline phone number but not much point in keeping the landline in just for that. They will get NBI in 2026 so would like to be able to port back to it again when it's live

mossie

I would highly recommend Starlink from my few months experience of it. NBI is gone to pre-order on my road so I will be moving over but I would have been happy to use Starlink long term if not for this.

Bellie1

Thanks for the reassurance. tried using the app there at home out of curiosity(we're in suburbs) and got 78% max by moving the phone around. Do you have to aim for 100% or how does it work?

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169393#Comment_122169393

Dishy needs a fairly clear view of the sky, particularly the southern sky. This is my current obstruction checker:

I have a line of trees, about 5m away, blocking the North Eastern view of the sky for my dish.

I presume the 78% score is something the app is telling you for it's check of the sky. I guess getting it closer to 100% will give you a more stable connection. If there are obstructions, it may mean that occasionally your dish might not see a satellite crossing over for a short period (secords, rather than minutes).

As to the need for a 5G backup … I often have 4 hour long Webex sessions which have never been interrupted by an SL failure. I have not needed to switch over to a hot-spot in over 15 months at this stage.

When NBI gets to me, I will be switching, but I will likely keep SL as a backup.

Bellie1

Ok so if it's seconds rather than minutes that's great. Wherever we move to,wanted to have lots of trees but that would mean putting the starlink receiver on the roof I guess

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169630#Comment_122169630

Don't forget starlink is pretty much looking straight up less a few degrees. Neighbors like us are in a valley and to the West of their dishy is the side of the valley. If you take a line from dishy to the high point on the hill its about 45 degrees. They have perfect coverage. Our roof ridge to the south only gives dishy 45 degrees of sky and we have perfect coverage. So I'm fairly happy that 45 degrees all around will give a reasonable coverage.

Its interesting that dishy ignores our telephone line which runs right over it and 4 meters above it. Locating dishy would have been a problem if the telephone line messed it up.