Starlink - anyone using it?

Rroff · 27 Apr 2021 at 16:01

Journey said:
Starlink is probably worth it if you really struggle tbh, worth the wait.

Is your EE mast not shared with Three? They have a mast sharing agreement in place, might be worth looking at a cheap SIM only from Smarty to test it, unless you know someone else with a Three SIM.

Doesn't seem to be shared - my mum was on Three she got really poor signal here - we've not worked out where the mast for it is - but was often dropping to 3G and barely getting above 1Mbit speeds.

EE is by far the best here - VF is OK but not as good, O2 a bit behind VF.

chris182008 · 27 Apr 2021 at 17:40

Thought I'd post in here as we had Starlink delivered yesterday. Early days but happy with it so far, set up was really easy, and it connected in about 10 mins. First speed tests were around the 150Mbps mark, but it's been between 200-300 all day today.

Journey · 27 Apr 2021 at 17:47

chris182008 said:
Thought I'd post in here as we had Starlink delivered yesterday. Early days but happy with it so far, set up was really easy, and it connected in about 10 mins. First speed tests were around the 150Mbps mark, but it's been between 200-300 all day today.

Awesome, that ping isn't terrible either.

Rroff · 27 Apr 2021 at 17:49

Looks decent though probably drop down a bit as more users are brought onboard - looks like they are limiting the number per coverage area in the UK currently.

chris182008 · 27 Apr 2021 at 17:56

Speeds are meant to be getting better over time but yeah, will probably drop if they start over subscribing the satellites/ground stations bandwidth. It's been an improvement compared to our two 4G connections so far, hopefully it'll hold up.

clv101 · 27 Apr 2021 at 19:05

Rroff said:
...but been moved from EE to Vodafone on my Virgin Media 4G - dropped from usually at least 30/10 during the day, often 20 up even during the day and that 60/30 or so at night to:

https://www.speedtest.net/result/11330347332.png

Not impressed - gonna have to cancel and get an EE sim.

I've been waiting for this, how did you know you've been moved over to Voda? I'll also need to swap out from an EE sim.

Rroff · 27 Apr 2021 at 19:21

clv101 said:
I've been waiting for this, how did you know you've been moved over to Voda? I'll also need to swap out from an EE sim.

On my phone VF no longer appears in the list of available networks, on my router the ISP field shows as Vodafone. I noticed web-pages weren't loading as snappily, etc. and started to dig to see what was going on

it is definitely a degraded experience here VF vs EE.

(Vodafone in general is fine - I use them on my main phone - but where I live EE is far better)

Kobi · 27 Apr 2021 at 22:47

clv101 said:
I've been waiting for this, how did you know you've been moved over to Voda? I'll also need to swap out from an EE sim.

virgin made the deal with Vodafone 2-3 years ago if i remember correctly. Surprised its only happening now.

I've been keeping an eye on Starlink for a while, it still seems pretty flakey for full time use, but by the end of the year, it should be more reliable. Living a couple mile from my nearest exchange, so i have to rely on 4g. My 4g speeds aren't too bad though, usually around 70/15 on Three and 70/35 on EE(can go as low as 40 during really busy times and higher than 100 through the night). I'm still going to hold out and see what Starlink does over the next couple years. Will need to see what out government is doing with one Oneweb since they purchased that - think that's launching this November. Then since they cant afford to supply super fast net to people like myself, they will then roll out Sat5G, which i can only assume they will load balance the connections from Starlink/Oneweb and EE(since they have taken a deal with BT to supply the 5G) into one connection. Hopefully they will subsidise the cost of it to people that cant get fiber and charge the earth for people who can get fiber but just want faster connections.

Cooler running · 27 Apr 2021 at 23:55

If I ever actually left the house I'd get one in a heartbeat.

Turns out fiber internet is a better idea if you're always at home.

Cheaper than mobile data abroad, more secure, cooler, phone hotspots wouldn't beable to touch this.

ChrisD. · 28 Apr 2021 at 06:53

Cooler running said:
If I ever actually left the house I'd get one in a heartbeat.

Turns out fiber internet is a better idea if you're always at home.

Cheaper than mobile data abroad, more secure, cooler, phone hotspots wouldn't beable to touch this.

What?

chris182008 · 28 Apr 2021 at 11:54

Did some aggregated speed tests last night. This is with Starlink plus 2 4G connections running through a VPS from Krystal.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/11333188491.png

Kobi · 28 Apr 2021 at 12:37

chris182008 said:
Did some aggregated speed tests last night. This is with Starlink plus 2 4G connections running through a VPS from Krystal.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/11333188491.png

that’s good! So this vps from krystal. Is that like a cloud based load balancer?

chris182008 · 28 Apr 2021 at 13:05

Kobi said:
that’s good! So this vps from krystal. Is that like a cloud based load balancer?

It's just their cheapest VPS which I'm using with openmptcprouter. It combines all your connections using multipath TCP to give a single connection, so you can get the most out of the connections on a single download/upload, added benefit of getting a static ip and no cgnat.

Load balancing in pfSense etc works great for Steam or anything that can use multiple connections but when you stream a video or download something from your web browser it only uses one of them, plus some sites don't like your IP changing all the time.

I've been using a VPS from hostworld.uk for a while but started running into limits when I added Starlink so trying some other providers. Krystal claims no bandwidth limits and their IPs don't cause captchas everywhere like Digital Ocean and a few others.

Rroff · 28 Apr 2021 at 17:08

clv101 said:
I've been waiting for this, how did you know you've been moved over to Voda? I'll also need to swap out from an EE sim.

I just put through an order for an EE sim - found it a bit of a mess and nothing like as quick and simple as other providers I've used like VM and VF, etc. - I mean unless it was recent who even remembers their bank joining date? I don't even have a record of it nor apparently does my bank... then the whole mess of order account vs web-site account.

I'm tempted to cancel the order and try and find another provider who uses EE.

Cooler running · 28 Apr 2021 at 18:25

ChrisD. said:
What?

I'm saying these are great if you travel and use a mobile hotspot (I don't think there would be a problem doing that right?).
Also great if you have low quality home internet options, but given my locale has had fiber rollout there is no need for me (I don't travel for work or caravan any more due to Covid).

Didn't think there was anything to misunderstand about that?

Rroff · 28 Apr 2021 at 18:34

Definitely not something that is for everyone but for others it is potentially a god send.

Where I'm living now is a bit rural - we fortunately just about get FTTC - but having multiple people living here working from home, especially with the current situation, a single 30/5 FTTC link doesn't cut it so we have to supplement it with everything we can get - also working from home a backup is useful to have. In this case even with 4G available Starlink would make a lot of sense.

Many of the houses around me have only ~3Mbit ADSL and poor 4G so would find Starlink even more useful - there are no plans to upgrade the area before 2024 at the earliest.

ChrisD. · 28 Apr 2021 at 18:42

Cooler running said:
I'm saying these are great if you travel and use a mobile hotspot (I don't think there would be a problem doing that right?).
Also great if you have low quality home internet options, but given my locale has had fiber rollout there is no need for me (I don't travel for work or caravan any more due to Covid).

Didn't think there was anything to misunderstand about that?

It's not exactly portable, the dish is over 23" and it weighs over 5kg, plus it requires mains power. I get it if it were someone with a caravan but I don't really think that's the market it's aimed at.

clv101 · 28 Apr 2021 at 19:01

Currently it's 'geofenced' to your home cell, but this will be changing soon. At that point it makes sense for caravan/boat users.

Deleted member 77746 · 28 Apr 2021 at 19:04

clv101 said:
Currently it's 'geofenced' to your home cell, but this will be changing soon. At that point it makes sense for caravan/boat users.

pretty good speeds in a caravan and boat lol

Cooler running · 28 Apr 2021 at 19:22

ChrisD. said:
It's not exactly portable, the dish is over 23" and it weighs over 5kg, plus it requires mains power. I get it if it were someone with a caravan but I don't really think that's the market it's aimed at.

I guess so, I assumed if you were travelling for work you might just put the dish in you have some large luggage, then set it up when you get to a hostel, friends house or low-end hotel. Suppose it depends on the kinds of places you will be travelling to. I'd certainly be interested in hearing of anyone's experience's of travelling with one of these.

Bouton Aide said:
pretty good speeds in a caravan and boat lol

My thoughts exactly, outside the most competitive gamers, I could go for living/long stays on a boat or caravan with internet like this.