The Starlink Thread … 💫

[AudioHTIT]

This thread is for discussion of the SpaceX Starlink Internet Service, its equipment, costs, installation, performance, and user experience. Anyone using Starlink is encouraged to post their experience (as I will mine), others are free to ask questions and even discuss competitive products, though the focus should remain on Starlink in this thread. Let’s not get too deep into fanship or detraction of Elon Musk, unless it specifically relates to Starlink.

1st Post — Why I need Starlink, do you need Starlink?

If you’re someone who has the good fortune of living in a quiet part of the rural United States, or Canada, Mexico, or anywhere else in the world for that matter; you may also have the misfortune of having poor Internet service.

When I first moved to the California Gold Country 20 years ago, my only Internet option besides ‘dial up’ (56Kbps), was a satellite service (interestingly enough) called StarLAN. This offered a whopping 1Mbps down, and maybe 256Kbps up, which was actually faster than the bonded ISDN I’d had in my previous home (about 128Kbps). The real problem with older satellites is that they are in Geosynchronous orbits, meaning they always stay in the same relationship to you as the earth rotates (they revolve around the earth about once a day). In order to do this, they must orbit at about 25,000 miles from earth, and even at the speed of light, this distance (50K miles round trip) introduces noticeable latency — ping times might be a half second or more with GEO satellites.

Then one day about five years later a neighbor stopped and said ‘I’ve got broadband’! Low and behold, a new ‘fixed wireless’ service became available, if you were within line of sight of a tower on a ridge about a mile away. At the time we got about 5Mbps down, and 1 up, over the years it’s increased to where their top service is 10 down and 3 up. It’s been that way about 10 years now with little improvement. This doesn’t actually qualify to be called broadband, which the FCC defines as 25 Mbps down, and 3 Mbps up. I want to reliably stream 4K/UHD Movies with DolbyVision and Atmos.

Then about three years ago we started to hear about SpaceX and a promise of faster internet for rural homes, using ‘Low Earth Orbit’ (LEO) satellites … lots of them. Starlink satellites orbit at about 350 miles, for a 700 mile round trip (though there might also be some satellite to satellite communications), this provides much lower latencies than GEO systems. Many of us saw SpaceX launching rockets holding dozens of satellite at a time, and some even saw them going into orbit with the naked eye. About two years ago I ‘signed up’ to be a Starlink beta tester, but my area was not a high priority and I never got the call. About a year and a half ago, I signed up for service and paid a $99 deposit, I was told to expect service around the end of 2021. Near the end of 2021 I was told “chip shortage”, “supply chain”, “global pandemic” (sound familiar), “dates have slipped to end of 2022” (oh, and prices have increased).

Two weeks ago I received an eMail starting with “Your Starlink is ready! Confirm your order in the next 7 days”, I confirmed and paid another $543 for the base system — the newer rectangular dish antenna (known by the community as “Dishy”), a 75’ cable, and a WiFi6 / AX router. I also browsed the Starlink store and learned that if I wanted to use Starlink with my existing home network I’d need an Ethernet Adapter ($25), and if I wanted to mount Dishy on top of a mast I’d want a Pipe Adapter ($37). I ordered the two adapters bringing my total equipment costs to about $708 with taxes. My Starlink system arrived a few days later, the adapters a couple days after that, I’ll discuss my installation in the next post.

Do you need Starlink? Or Who doesn’t need Starlink?

If you have fast — for this discussion let’s say 100Mbps Down / 5 Mbps up or greater — you don’t need (or want) Starlink. This probably includes anyone with a wired Cable TV link, fast telecommunications line, or certainly fibre (you guys are probably snickering). With Starlink your latency will go up, your speeds will probably go down (certainly during prime time), and your costs might go up. Don’t get Starlink because you’re pissed off at your ISP and want to ‘show them’, you’ll just shoot yourself in the foot, be glad you have a high speed service available. Don’t get Starlink because they raised your bill, it’s probably already more expensive. Don’t get Starlink because you’re a ‘Musketeer’ (fan of Elon), while he certainly has a lot to be admired for (and not), that’s not a good reason to switch to Starlink (buy a Tesla instead).

If you are using a traditional GEO Satellite Internet Service (like HughesNet), check out Starlink and see if you can get it. If you have a slower Fixed Wireless service like I did, do the same (some of the faster ones may be competitive). If your cable or phone lines don’t support higher speeds, or you’re still using dial up, or slow broadband again, check out Starlink. But just like in your home network, a wired connection is usually better.

In other words make this a technical and financial decision that’s right for you — a new technology is available, it’s not right for everyone. We can discuss this more in the thread and Starlink users can post their performance and experience.

The Starlink Website
The Starlink iOS App
The Starlink Android App

It’s here …

[AudioHTIT]

2nd Post — My Starlink Installation

Around Y2K, when we broke ground on our house, we knew our only provided services were power, and POTS (Plain Old Telephone System); we had to dig a well, install septic, propane, and we knew we’d have to depend on the ‘airwaves’ to bring programming, information, and data into the house — OTA TV, FM, Satellite TV and Satellite Internet. So I designed into the house what I call ‘the Communications Tower’, essentially an L shaped pipe with a platform, stand offs, and a mast outside a second story window. Part of the design was a conduit from the ’tower’ to the top of our network closet where all the CAT6 networking, CAT3 phone, and RG6 TV cables are home run. No new holes in the house over the years as we've installed Dish then DirecTV, StarLAN Satellite then Zeta Fixed Wireless ISPs, OTA TV & FM, WiFi AP, PoE cameras, we’ve pulled many RG6 and CAT6 cables in and out of the conduit — with a permanent pull-tape, easy peasy.

With Dishy adding ten pounds to the top I decided to beef up the mast, and replaced the 18 gauge antenna mast with a schedule 40 aluminum pipe, making it stronger and taller at the same time. We mounted Dishy using the pipe adapter on top with FM, OTA TV, and DirecTV Dish below that. The new mast projects higher than the top of the 2nd story roofline, and above all but the tops of a few trees in the area. I’ve posted a photo of The Golden Pup Ranch Communication Center V3.0 below.

Before you decide on Starlink and certainly before you order, download their App and take your phone to the approximate location where you want to install your Dishy. The App will walk you through standing on one foot and dancing while throwing the phone in the air to determine if the site is suitable (actually you just point the camera around above your head). Mine said something like “This is a great place for Starlink!”. Not everyone will have a good location, eventually the Satellites will get there (if not already), but you also need a relatively unobstructed space around your home, tall trees blocking the horizon may cause problems, the App will tell you this. If you do get Starlink you will also use the App to set up the router, give your WiFi a name and password, get support, run speed tests, and other stuff (you can even order and setup service with it).

Like most ISPs, Starlink’s router setup assumes it’s the boss and will be your only router; out of the box you only get Wifi, wired ethernet requires the adapter mentioned above. If you want to use Starlink’s router, they also sell additional units for you to create a WiFi mesh throughout your house. If you want to use your existing router and network (as I did) you use the ethernet adapter to make the connection (typically the WAN port on your router), and you put the their router in ‘bypass mode’, essentially turning off the router and WiFi and making it a fancy power supply. It’s probably a good time to mention that the Starlink cable not only facilitates two way communication, but also provides power to the tracking system and motors in Dishy (this is part of what makes a LEO based system possible). I personally would have liked to see them use something like a bonded pair of CAT6e delivering PoE++, making this system ‘standards based’ (and capable of delivering over 100 Watts).

Using their App and base system I had initially done a test installation to make sure everything worked, it did. After the permanent installation I used the App to put their router into Bypass Mode — doing this turns off their router, wifi, and all ability to make changes to their system — if you want that back you must reset the router to factory defaults and start over (one legged dance required). I then had to change my router’s WAN port from PPPoE (required by my previous ISP) to DHCP (required by many ISPs including Starlink). It took a few minutes for everything to start talking, but after that it worked fine (I’ll define ‘fine’ in the next post).

Here’s a photo of the GPR Comm Center V3.0 including Dishy …


Dishy poses for a closeup sitting atop the Pipe Adapter and 1” schedule 40 aluminum pipe

[AudioHTIT]

3rd Post — My Network with Starlink

I embrace technology, and spent most of my career designing, building, administering, supporting, upgrading, and training others on a very large network. I consider myself a techie, and use it to make my life easier and more productive; my wife is also very technical and knowledgeable. Our home network is pretty large, we use UniFi network components and their Controller and don’t want to change that. This is why I put the Starlink router in bypass mode, we don’t need to start over building a new network, but for some, maybe this is a good opportunity to build a WiFi6 mesh, with some wired components as well (I won’t cover this specifically, but am happy to answer questions about what I know).

What we see now that Starlink is installed is pretty much the same. All of our apps work the same without being reconfigured, all of our wired components are still hooked up the same way, we haven’t had to change anything within the home network — save the WAN setting on the UniFi Router (I can even switch it back and it remembers the alternate configuration). Most importantly I use all the same tools to administer the network, and check on its health.

The single most obvious difference is speed, as mentioned above our Fixed Wireless ISP delivered 10Mbps down, 3Mbps up, it did slow down some at prime time, but typically didn’t get too bad. It was not fast enough to stream 4K movies with DolbyVision and Atmos consistently; Netflix recommends a minimum 15Mbps down, Apple TV+, Disney, Amazon Prime Video say 25 Mbps. I tried the Netflix 4K tier for a while, and the video was OK, but Atmos programing caused odd problems when bandwidth diminished, I had to cancel and go back to standard Netflix.

My speed measurements with Starlink have been all over the place, and they vary with the test used (I’ve tried Ookla Speed Test, Open Speed Test, Starlink Speed Test, UniFi Speed Test). However, about the worst tests I’ve done showed two to three times our previous speed, and the best almost 20 times faster — from roughly 25Mbps down / 3Mbps up to around 188 down 18 up. Latency, as expected, is not as good, but usually below the dreaded triple digits, my ping time averages around 50ms, as low as 30, as high as 80. Don’t expect your speeds will be the same as mine or anyone else’s, there are too many variables, and this is definitely a moving target (traveling over 17,000 MPH). Oh, the Starlink App and its Speed Test stop working if you use Bypass Mode, but there’s a hack for UniFi networks I’ll post, it may work on others as well.

I haven’t resubscribed to Netflix Premium, and haven’t streamed much 4K yet, but streaming does seem smoother and less problematic, I’ll post more about that as I do more viewing. So at the moment, if asked, I would say I intend to keep Starlink as my ISP, though I haven’t informed my current ISP that I intend to drop their service, and will keep it as a backup for a month or two (a little sentimental leaving someone who’s been your lifeline for 15 years).

Connecting Starlink to an existing network.

[cwmcobra]

Thanks for this important information, Bruce. We, like you, live in a country setting where we initially had a DSL service with max uploads of 312KB. Changed to Dishnet, then to (currently) Hughesnet. And also like you, I signed up for the Starlink beta program and did the $99 preorder. Unlike you, I've not been admitted to the Starlink service yet. So your report is especially timely for me. The Hughesnet service has improved over the last few years. With typical download speeds in the 10-40 Mbps and uploads of about .25, working on the system is tolerable, but I've gotten used to the long ping times that spoil the experience. Typically, about 750-1000 ms for connection and 3000 or more for downloads.

I don't do any streaming of content for entertainment purposes. I do a few ZOOM meetings and an occasional YouTube video, but all my movies are on discs. And having recently completed the 9.4.6 home theater, I believe they will provide the highest level of both audio and video performance. We have DISH satellite TV service, which works pretty well, but is pricey and subject to weather outages. But I'd like to be able to stream and enjoy better internet connection speeds, so I still plan to install the Starlink system when available. I've run the app to evaluate location and even though we have trees all around us on the horizon, they seem far enough away from the house that Starlink thinks it will work well. We'll see and I will probably have to locate Dishy on a mast as you did.

I'll be watching this thread and hoping for positive experiences. Thanks again!

Chuck

[AudioHTIT]

Jul 12, 2022 6:32:37 GMT -5 cwmcobra said:

Thanks for this important information, Bruce. We, like you, live in a country setting where we initially had a DSL service with max uploads of 312KB. Changed to Dishnet, then to (currently) Hughesnet. And also like you, I signed up for the Starlink beta program and did the $99 preorder. Unlike you, I've not been admitted to the Starlink service yet. So your report is especially timely for me. The Hughesnet service has improved over the last few years. With typical upload speeds in the 10-40 Mbps and downloads of about .25, working on the system is tolerable, but I've gotten used to the long ping times that spoil the experience. Typically, about 750-1000 ms for connection and 3000 or more for downloads.

I don't do any streaming of content for entertainment purposes. I do a few ZOOM meetings and an occasional YouTube video, but all my movies are on discs. And having recently completed the 9.4.6 home theater, I believe they will provide the highest level of both audio and video performance. We have DISH satellite TV service, which works pretty well, but is pricey and subject to weather outages. But I'd like to be able to stream and enjoy better internet connection speeds, so I still plan to install the Starlink system when available. I've run the app to evaluate location and even though we have trees all around us on the horizon, they seem far enough away from the house that Starlink thinks it will work well. We'll see and I will probably have to locate Dishy on a mast as you did.

I'll be watching this thread and hoping for positive experiences. Thanks again!

Chuck

I thought I’d hear from you here Chuck, I remember you joining in the cellular modem thread. Good that HughesNet is generally working for you, and hopefully you’ll get the Starlink eMail soon, I think it will be a nice improvement for your situation. I’d think the Zoom meetings will get a boost too (my wife will be testing that soon). I totally agree about disks, we have a medium size collection, and watch one or two a month, the sound especially is a treat. I keep hoping Redbox will expand its UHD deployment, but it doesn’t seem to be moving very quickly. But we’re streaming enough that the fixed wireless service was a limitation, and initial signs are good that Starlink will meet our needs. We will probably be dropping DirecTV as we just don’t watch the ‘cable channels’ much and can get many high quality local stations OTA.

(P.S. Just added another shot of Dishy with mast and adapter in the second post)

[KeithL]

It's great to hear that this is proving a viable option for you.

Many folks don't realize that high-speed wired Internet service is still not available in many local areas of the USA.
A good friend of mine who passed away recently lived in a somewhat rural area of Madison, Wisconsin...
And the best wired service he could get was relatively low-speed DSL.
Even though cable "was available in his area" the cable companies weren't interested in "wiring his street"... because there weren't enough potential customers on it.

The recent rollout of 5G service complicates this issue...
5G service is currently being used almost entirely for phone service.
However, 5G service can deliver speeds that are competitive to wired Internet connections.
Therefore there are high hopes that "soon 5G will replace copper or fiber for that last mile from the corner pole to your house".
This is one of the reasons why there has been such a "push" on 5G recently even though you don't need that sort of speed for a phone.
(The complication is that, with this option soon to be available, there is less interest in running "plain old cable or fiber".)

The catch is that 5G itself has VERY limited range... much more limited than even the previous generation of cell phone service.
(No, those fancy new 5G phones DO NOT get better coverage, or have better range, than old 4G phones... 5G has LESS reach than 4G.)
So, even though individual 5G nodes are claimed to be smaller and cheaper, you need to be relatively close to one, and have an almost line-of-sight connection.
In other words....
- it works great from the pole on the corner to your house... as long as you HAVE a 5G node on the pole on the corner near your house
- and as long as it's worth putting a node there... and connecting it to a fiber or cable uplink
- but that's going to be a sticking point if your nearest neighbor is two blocks away... and you're the only home within range of that particular pole
Therefore people who now live in areas "where it isn't worth running cable" may find themselves in much the same situation with 5G service.

[AudioHTIT]

Jul 12, 2022 9:05:51 GMT -5 KeithL said:

It's great to hear that this is proving a viable option for you.

Many folks don't realize that high-speed wired Internet service is still not available in many local areas of the USA.
A good friend of mine who passed away recently lived in a somewhat rural area of Madison, Wisconsin...
And the best wired service he could get was relatively low-speed DSL.
Even though cable "was available in his area" the cable companies weren't interested in "wiring his street"... because there weren't enough potential customers on it.

Good so far!

I have a good friend with a similar experience, the cable company wouldn’t wire their street (even though it was in an affluent area outside San Diego). My friend went to his neighbors and got everyone to chip in and pay to have the cable run. He then went to the cable company who then agreed to split the cost with them, in the end I think it was amortized over a year on their bill. It was important enough for him to try and it worked.

Jul 12, 2022 9:05:51 GMT -5 KeithL said:

The recent rollout of 5G service complicates this issue...
5G service is currently being used almost entirely for phone service.
However, 5G service can deliver speeds that are competitive to wired Internet connections.
Therefore there are high hopes that "soon 5G will replace copper or fiber for that last mile from the corner pole to your house".
This is one of the reasons why there has been such a "push" on 5G recently even though you don't need that sort of speed for a phone.
(The complication is that, with this option soon to be available, there is less interest in running "plain old cable or fiber".)

The catch is that 5G itself has VERY limited range... much more limited than even the previous generation of cell phone service.
(No, those fancy new 5G phones DO NOT get better coverage, or have better range, than old 4G phones... 5G has LESS reach than 4G.)
So, even though individual 5G nodes are claimed to be smaller and cheaper, you need to be relatively close to one, and have an almost line-of-sight connection.
In other words....
- it works great from the pole on the corner to your house... as long as you HAVE a 5G node on the pole on the corner near your house
- and as long as it's worth putting a node there... and connecting it to a fiber or cable uplink
- but that's going to be a sticking point if your nearest neighbor is two blocks away... and you're the only home within range of that particular pole
Therefore people who now live in areas "where it isn't worth running cable" may find themselves in much the same situation with 5G service.

That describes me, at least at this time. I recently got an eMail from Verizon promoting their 5G Internet service, but going to their website and entering my address yielded a message akin to ‘sorry, thanks for playing’. Even though when at home I can get good LTE speeds on my iPhone and iPad (which are also 5G capable), we don’t get 5G so … ‘no service for you!’

[housetech]

Good job
When we moved into our house there was no cable or internet here, satellite was the only option. We ordered DTV & HughesNet. Both technologies were brand new to the market at that time. DTV dish was mounted on a wing-wall. The HughesNet ($750 system + monthly charge) dish was 24" x 18" and pretty heavy. I asked Hughes to mount it on the chimney, but they refused due to the roof slope. 
I didn't want to roof mount it, so I mounted it on a 3" steel drill pipe, 2.5 ft deep but was concerned about the wind. We kept needing dish alignments in short periods of time. Wife was furious loosing connection- her business was DOA until they arrived.
Turns out, after multiple service calls, the black gumbo soil we have kept drying out and the poll shifted. Tech told us to "water the poll."
"LOL, sure we will- water the poll"
After that, I gave up b/c ATT finally got DSL installed in the area. HughesNet may have been the biggest pita I ever paid big bucks for.
It only takes a millimeter of movement and your signal is gone. My suggestion is to securely brace everything the best you can- over-kill is not out of the question.

[JKCashin]

Jul 12, 2022 6:32:37 GMT -5 cwmcobra said:

With typical upload speeds in the 10-40 Mbps and downloads of about .25, 

Perchance do you have this reversed? 0.25 download would not even let you stream, and 10 megabits per second upload I don't even get that on my wired connection

[DavidR]

How I link the stars

[cwmcobra]

Jul 12, 2022 12:59:10 GMT -5 JKCashin said:

Jul 12, 2022 6:32:37 GMT -5 cwmcobra said:

With typical upload speeds in the 10-40 Mbps and downloads of about .25, 

Perchance do you have this reversed? 0.25 download would not even let you stream, and 10 megabits per second upload I don't even get that on my wired connection

Good catch. You are obviously correct. I'll amend my post.

[AudioHTIT]

💫 So I'll start with a subjective report, both my wife and I feel that since installing Starlink our 'desktops' run noticeably faster for everything they do (MacBook Pro 14 w/Ext Monitor for me, Dell I7 PC w/Ext Monitor for her). We attribute this to background processes running faster and getting their job done more quickly -- whether it be iCloud / Apple / macOS Montery or OneDrive / Office / Microsoft / Windows 10. Our iPads & iPhones also run faster, but they're used mostly for browsing, eMail, and games, so less background and more real time where the faster connection helps. Also the many other devices in our house (TVs, HomePods, other Macs, and many iOT devices) that regularly chat with  and elsewhere, get their conversations over more quickly leaving more bandwidth for us. When I use my UniFi Dashboard, I always used to see background Internet traffic blabbering away, now it's almost always quiet. Remember, our previous ISP ran at 10Mbps down 3Mbps up (at it's best), don't let my glowing reports make you think that Starlink is for everyone (see first post).

I've been doing some regular speed testing, and they're still all over the place (I'll post some using the various tests); I expect it will stay that way, and will teeter totter between more users coming on, and more satellites going online. There's also a feature coming where the satellites will communicate with each other via lasers, it's said that will reduce latency, but some say that will only be for outliers, we'll see.

I also mentioned a hack to get the Starlink App to work when in Bypass Mode, this gives a specific example of how to do it with the UniFi Controller (their administrative software), but it just involves a 'Static Route' which isn't too obscure, and other routers may allow you to create one as well. Here's a link to the YouTube describing it. I've done it on my UniFi system and it works fine, you really only loose the ability to do a speed test on your local WiFi (which can be done other ways), though it will still to an Internet Speed Test from a WiFi device (like an iPad).



I've also put together a collage of screen shots giving you an idea what the Starlink App can do. Some are active and moving, like Visibility which shows a real time 3D animation of any obstruction above you (or lack thereof). Though I haven't included all the screens (some also have account information), I did include one at the end I made before putting the router into bypass mode, it shows the speed test's ability to report on your local WiFi, not a big deal but kinda cool.



So anyone else have Starlink yet? What's been your experience?

[martindktm]

I have the star-link round one. For almost a year now. I own an outfitter's place/restaurant/gas station/motel/garage/storage place in Quebec Canada that runs completely off grids. Our place run with Explorenet for the phone, internet services and for the interact/credit card machine. Explorenet sells you 200 gig max in their plan and charge you over 2$ a gig if you go over 200. They sell you speed of a 100mbs but if you test it over 2.5mbs your'e lucky and should pick a lottery ticket. Since we offer internet to our customers we can get with bills going over 1500$ a month... Well.

So we have the round dish at home (cabin) that is not far from the business and been testing it for almost a year now. We wanted to test it during the four seasons to see if it was reliable enough to dump off explorenet. We have snow here from the end of November till beginning of may with temperature going as low as -40 celcius or fareneight . And so far it's been really good. As I write this It just tested at 170mbs... Way beyond explorenet performances.

So we did order another kit for the business. We received the new styled one square/rectangle one a week ago and we will leave Explorenet for good. Yes starlink is a little more expansive at first but with unlimited gigs it pays for itself in a month or two. It's a no brainer. And no need to call the technician to realign that damn antenna if it moves because of high wind or snow...

[AudioHTIT]

Here are a couple views at my speed test history.

First the Ookla Speed Test ‘Results’ page from my iPad (meaning my WiFi ‘could’ influence the highest speeds), results above the blue line reflect the switch from Zeta Fixed Wireless to Starlink.




Then the graph from my UniFi Router’s scheduled daily speed test (uninfluenced by WiFi), results to the right of the blue line reflect Starlink. What’s interesting to me here is how much latency was in my Zeta connection, Ookla never reflected this. You can also see how clear the speed increases are with Starlink, but also how erratic they are. For the bottom graph green is download, purple upload.

[AudioHTIT]

Got my first Starlink firmware update, happened to open the app and see it was ready, took only about two minutes and I was back online. I read if you don’t do anything it will eventually be pushed down. Can’t say I notice a difference, but speeds have been good so little to complain about.

[LCSeminole]

Copied this from the YouTube SpaceX Subscriber Channel:

"SpaceX is targeting Friday, July 22 for a Falcon 9 launch of 46 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The instantaneous launch window is at 10:39 a.m. PT "

Go here(below) and click the YouTube video link for live coverage 5 minutes before liftoff.

www.youtube.com/c/SpaceX

[LCSeminole]

Bruce, Thanks for a great thread, which I've been keeping tabs on since you started it. I've been following SpaceX/Starlink ever since I saw the Model Pi cellphone, so this is why I initially became interested. I'm glad to see your StarLink speeds have greatly surpassed your local ISP, I'm sure streaming has become much more enjoyable for you. By the way, while I do have fibre optic internet through MetroNet(yes I'm very lucky to have this in my area as I would've never dreamed Tallahassee, FL would ever have it), I would never "Snicker" at your inferior(just kidding) internet speeds!

[AudioHTIT]

Jul 21, 2022 18:58:42 GMT -5 LCSeminole said:

Bruce, Thanks for a great thread, which I've been keeping tabs on since you started it. I've been following SpaceX/Starlink ever since I saw the Model Pi cellphone, so this is why I initially became interested. I'm glad to see your StarLink speeds have greatly surpassed your local ISP, I'm sure streaming has become much more enjoyable for you…

My pleasure, thanks for joining us! I really expected some ‘growing pains’ and was planning on keeping my fixed wireless as a backup, but besides the effort we put into redoing the mast and cleaning up all the existing cabling, the transition was very smooth and almost plug and play. Yes everything is better, especially 4K streaming!

Jul 21, 2022 18:58:42 GMT -5 LCSeminole said:

… By the way, while I do have fibre optic internet through MetroNet(yes I'm very lucky to have this in my area as I would've never dreamed Tallahassee, FL would ever have it), I would never "Snicker" at your inferior(just kidding) internet speeds!

… don’t you have 4K Redbox too! Jeesh … go ahead and gloat! 🙃

[copperpipe]

A little offtopic, apologies in advance But as a UniFi guy, do you have any experience running their airmax stuff? I need to create a wireless bridge with the base station in the center and 360 degrees around there would be several stations. We also need standard wifi in roughly the same area. My thought was to use the uap-ac-mesh-pro as the station and then use nanostations for bridging. This would give outdoor wifi coverage for cellphones/laptops, and also allow the nanostations to bridge up, all using the same base station. I know technically that would work, but I've seen comments to the effect that their standard wifi is not best suited for this and the airmax base station (like a lightbeam) would be better. That would involve another couple purchases as the lightbeam only has a 120 degree antannea and I need 360.

Any thoughts?

We're also doing the starlink install once its ready in my area so your thread here is very timely and appreciated! Great to hear it works well with Unifi.

[KeithL]

Just a thought... and I've only looked casually a few times... but...
"home wi-fi" is normally considered to not need a lot of range...

However, many farms these days use Wi-Fi connected gear...
And farms can get very large...
And getting good solid coverage is a big deal for them...
And I've seen some really impressive coverage claims for "commercial farm WiFi systems".
(They have all sorts of signal boosters and special long-range coverage antennas.)

You may find a whole different range of products available in those catalogs than from guys who normally sell "home systems".
(And expensive "home systems" certainly cost enough that you might be in the price range of "commercial" equipment.)

Jul 26, 2022 9:38:37 GMT -5 copperpipe said:

A little offtopic, apologies in advance But as a UniFi guy, do you have any experience running their airmax stuff? I need to create a wireless bridge with the base station in the center and 360 degrees around there would be several stations. We also need standard wifi in roughly the same area. My thought was to use the uap-ac-mesh-pro as the station and then use nanostations for bridging. This would give outdoor wifi coverage for cellphones/laptops, and also allow the nanostations to bridge up, all using the same base station. I know technically that would work, but I've seen comments to the effect that their standard wifi is not best suited for this and the airmax base station (like a lightbeam) would be better. That would involve another couple purchases as the lightbeam only has a 120 degree antannea and I need 360.

Any thoughts?

We're also doing the starlink install once its ready in my area so your thread here is very timely and appreciated! Great to hear it works well with Unifi.