Starlink - Anyone get it yet?

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123712886#Comment_123712886

You would wonder if it was part of Starlinks business plan.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123713315#Comment_123713315

Swift obsolescence. Would wonder how many version updates you miss it just drops dead after.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123713373#Comment_123713373

I was able to run an update on a Gen-1, which hadn't been powered on for nearly 4 months:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123646926#Comment_123646926

Having left it up overnight, then the router also updated:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123647936#Comment_123647936

I have a calendar reminder now to power it up every month, as it is a cold-backup in case my NBI fibre ever gets knocked out by a tree or whatever.

ItHurtsWhenIP

I got a push notification from the Starlink app, as well as an email from them about a new "Standby mode" offer for €5pm:

feargantae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123725033#Comment_123725033

Granted I'm not a Starlink user but is this not a massive downgrade from how it worked before? You used to be able to pause your subscription as you pleased and pick up whenever. I knew people who'd keep it paused and when a storm came and inevitably knocked out their fibre they'd unpause the Starlink sub and away they went. But now it seems you've to pay a fiver for the privilege?

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123726067#Comment_123726067

Sounds like it. Or is the pause stuff still there but with no data obviously.

If thats still there then it's a reasonable offer

micks_address

This is interesting, id paused ours and had a power cut the other day, connected back up and it downloaded an update and applied but I had no data on mobile or anything else so wasn't able to activate the sub again. With this you are basically paying a fiver a month to have it good to go in case as backup? If I have no internet via my phone this would be enough to let me manage the starlink account and reactivate I guess?

feargantae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123726179#Comment_123726179

I could be wrong but my understanding of the Support FAQ is that this is the pause feature. It's just now been "Upgraded" with the unlimited super slow data for a fiver.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123726189#Comment_123726189

Yep, basically you're now paying €5 every month "just in case".

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123726355#Comment_123726355

Well thats **** tbh. And effectively worse than previous capabilities.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123726067#Comment_123726067

I'm one of those people you talk about. I must read the Ts&Cs and see are they going to prevent me from unpausing my subscription. I know they always say that reactivating the account is subject to capacity in your area, but I can't see there being any issue here as fibre is rolled out across the country - there will be fewer SL customers.

micks_address

I don't know, if for a fiver a month I can keep my setup and reactivate in a power cut where I've no access to any internet mobiles or otherwise then I think it's interesting. Like I said the other day I was paused but during power cut I'd no way to reactivate the service. Fiver is only a pint of Guinness a month. The speed is capped at 500kbps so I'm curious if it will even work to allow me browse to the starlink website, manage my account and activate

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123727236#Comment_123727236

You were able to do that for zero before zero.

That's a pint of Guinness for yourself each month rather than handing it to starlink. What's the improvement?.. your paying money so that it gets auto updates? But you could turn it on for free and do that..

editorsean

For anyone considering the €5 low speed standby plan with the residential kit as either a fail-over connection or to isolate low data IoT devices or a VoIP line from their main Internet connection, just beware of the hidden energy cost, especially if using a UPS. My Starlink Gen 3 kit which I use as my main Internet connection uses roughly 1.2kWh a day and only dips to about 1.15kWh when left idle for an entire day. With an Eaton 800VA UPS which provides this kit about 1 hour of battery runtime, the daily usage is about 1.4kWh a day. The following graph from an energy monitoring plug shows the Starlink usage without and with the UPS from the 8th June:

To work out the monthly electricity cost with a 24-Hour fixed tarriff, multiply 37kWh (or 44kWh with UPS) by your kWh rate. For example, with my tarriff (22.5c/kWh inc. VAT), my Starlink and UPS uses roughly €10 per month of electricity. This will be different from a Gen 1 or 2 Starlink kit and a lot less for the Starlink Mini.

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123727464#Comment_123727464

I wasn't able to Tuesday during a power cut. Have battery backup power so could run the starlink and get an update but not browse to manage my account

SodiumCooled

Anyone have an issue with geo blocking things that shouldn’t be in Ireland? Put on Talksport on TuneIn as I do every Saturday afternoon to listen to the commentary and it’s coming up as not available in your region? Keeping in mind for those that don’t know there is a specific Irish feed of Talksport on Saturdays presented by Trevor Welch and it works fine on my mobile network? IP location is showing as Ireland when I check.

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123747389#Comment_123747389

This happened me a few times before they switch across regions sometimes and stuff doesn't work but it's usually only temporary

con747

The usual lads were hauling the hay trailers stacked too high as they do a few times a year and the same result every time so with that and the wind taking it down it looks like I might not bother with fibre and go this route.

Tommy Lagahan

Anyone else notice a relatively consistent increase in upload speeds after the dish got the 2025.08.11.mr61518 update? (Gen 4, tested wired on windows)
There's another update pending but haven't installed it yet. Jitter is unreal bad at peak times these days though, Cork base station must be fairly overloaded even though the speeds are fine.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Just got this offer from Starlink:

Got these kinda vibes from them

editorsean

I also noticed my upload speeds roughly doubled over the past few weeks, although can't recall whether this was right after a firmware update. I'm now typically getting 30Mbps and 50Mbps in both the Ookla Speedtest on Windows and the Starlink in-App test.

On Linux Mint configured for TCP BBR where upload speeds sometimes break 100Mbps, I got my quickest upload test to date on the Ookla Speedtest website:

Network graph during above test:

Just a pity the jitter got worse recently as my Starlink seems to be connecting to satellites much further out at sea based on the visualiser utility. This screenshot is from a few weeks ago when I last ran it (as it takes an hour to render a 10m log):

homewardbound11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123770801#Comment_123770801

is that a Gen3 router and Starlink . Getting nowhere near that on Gen 2?. Wired connection about 280-320Mb download and 20-35 upload . Hard to tell as depending on what browser or app you run on it can be wildly varied .

editorsean

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123789084#Comment_123789084

I am using a Starlink Gen 3 kit, which Starlink provided as part of their free kit on a 12 month commitment. The Starlink router is not bridged. My PC is wired to a MikroTik hAP ax3 and in turn to the Starlink router.

For the Windows 10 speed tests, I am using the Ookla Speedtest App from the Microsoft Store. These are some speed tests on it from yesterday evening, one about 1am and just before this post:

For the Linux Mint 22.1 installation that I have configured for TCP BBR for the fast upload speeds, I have it installed in a Hyper-V virtual PC running on the same PC. Windows 10 does not support TCP BBR.

You can monitor the throughput directly in the Starlink App on your phone. Go into Statistics -> Throughput. The following shows the graphs after running 2 pairs of speed tests, Windows followed by on Linux. Windows and Linux perform similar for download, whereas TCP BBR nearly quadruples the upload speed:

I was using the Firefox browser on Linux for the web test. The Ookla command line test on Linux also performs similar to the web test:

The download and upload speeds do vary widely as I occasionally get Download speed tests under 100Mbps, likely when it's connected to a congested Starlink 1.0 satellite moving over the UK at the time.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123768698#Comment_123768698

And today I got an invoice for €0.00 … 👀

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123790718#Comment_123790718

I powered up my Gen-1 Starlink the other night for a monthly Dish & Router update and seeing as I have free service for the month I did a few speedtests:

These tests were wireless, about a meter from the router … don't @ me about "it would be better if it was wired" … I KNOW! My entire network is wired.

Anyway, those speeds are a wee bit better than what I used to get.

chards

Nice! Those speeds look solid, especially for Gen-1. I finally got Starlink set up at my place a couple of months ago, and it’s made all the difference. Not perfect, but way better than the DSL I was stuck with before. Curious to see how consistent it stays for you over the free month.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123832907#Comment_123832907

I'm not actually using it. I only power it up once a month to pick up updates for the dish and router (which works even when I don't have service).

I had used SL for 3 years before I got fibre in March/April this year. I was always very happy with the service, which was generally very consistent and I never once needed to contact support about anything.

I'm keeping it setup, but turned off as a cold-backup, in case the fibre ever goes down for storm related damage. I'll reactivate the account then.

Anois_

We got SL last month and find it great. We were on a really slow and unreliable DSL connection due to living out in the sticks for a few years. Don't ask why we never made the switch sooner. I forget when I last looked up the price of SL but if my memory serves me right it cost a lot more than it does now. Anyone with a better brain able to confirm?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123856564#Comment_123856564

€99 → €85 → €65 → €50 I believe was the cost over the years

Anois_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123856691#Comment_123856691

I also believe you used to have to pay a few hundred up front as well for the kit. We got that for free which was another reason we switched. And just to add we are glad we did as there is three of us using the internet in the house and now Facebook videos play at a clearer resolution and Netflix plays better as well even with other people also using the internet while Netflix or RTE player is on.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123856968#Comment_123856968

When I got SL back in early 2022 the dish cost me €500 (plus €60 for shipping) and the monthly was €99. That came down as @The Cush indicated.

I used to be paying €70 for a 10↓/5↑ fixed wireless connection and €20 for a 4G mobile connection that I bound together at my firewall, to give me roughly 40↓/25↑. So I didn't mind paying the little bit extra for such a good connection.