[🔓unlocked] Starlink - It Works
Mates,
I'm not a techie, I'm Fred Flintstone. We live out in the boonies so much so that our 'internet' comes v-e-r-y slowly through the telephone lines and we are at the actual end of the line. It is pathetic. Videos spin and won't load. TV is fuzzy at best, but usually unwatchable. Zoom meetings are a study in frustration and spinning/loading
We got desperate enough to order Starlink. It came recommended from some of our local friends who had dealt with similar issues. The equipment showed up on Friday and we finished installing it tonight. In a word: Revelation.
It works! It works great. After literally decades of miserable service our TV works. We're watching hockey right now just because we can see the puck and it's not a piece of black fuzz. Our computer is now fast. Videos load. Pages load. Searches are fast.
There is joy in mudville tonight, internet that actually works has hit a homerun.
XM
[Edit @3:30 am: Locked until morning, when I'll start my Monday by first enjoying some coffee and THEN weed out the political sniping that doesn't belong on an MGoBoard thread. -rob f]
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[2nd edit completed. With the primary goal in mind of keeping the OP's intended (and valid) discussion of Starlink alive, here's how I proceeded: I deleted several comments (anything threaded falling off in the process) while selectively editing out a couple others, in order to preserve certain comments. Please, NO POLITICS!
I allowed a few somewhat opinionated comments re: Musk to remain, primary ones that didn't center directly on politics. -rob f]
February 18th, 2024 at 9:09 PM ^
Congrats, XM. But what're your neighbors gonna think about this thing in your front yard?
My parents got Starlink because they're full-time RVers. They love it.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:13 PM ^
yes but think about all those HBO exclusive fights he can get now. I for one can't wait for the Thrilla in Manila
February 18th, 2024 at 9:15 PM ^
you will laugh. we don't have the 'dish' mounted permanently yet, we wanted to try it out. it is sitting on a lawn chair in the front yard. in the snow.
February 18th, 2024 at 10:07 PM ^
I remember their old receivers ran really hot and were solid for melting snow, but this was years ago
February 18th, 2024 at 9:13 PM ^
i kid you not, our service is/was barely above the old dial-up modems.
you city mice don't think twice about internet. us country mice, well, it's awesome.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:47 PM ^
No more of this?
February 18th, 2024 at 9:55 PM ^
Smart aleck
February 19th, 2024 at 5:00 PM ^
I found Starlink to be as advertised. Easy to use, self-updating. Doesn't use too much power. and the consistent uptime and blazing download speeds are a revelation. Consistently 45 -60 MBPS download and often north of 85-90. After relying on cell phones and other options for highly inconsistent service from other providers, it's been bananas great. love it.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:13 PM ^
[Comment about Musk removed because too far off intended topic. -rob f]
February 18th, 2024 at 9:28 PM ^
He is without question among the most self-important people of our time.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:56 PM ^
[Deleted comment because of politics; not fully deleted because I do NOT want to lose Michgoblue's response that follows. -rob f]
February 18th, 2024 at 10:04 PM ^
Can’t we just avoid politics here? Not every topic needs a comment about how horrible / awesome Donald Trump is. I swear that guy has figured out a way to hypnotize around 40% of the country to think he’s the messiah and at the same time have the other half of the country think he’s the actual devil. If you want to debate which side is right I am sure that there are boards on cnn or foxnews to debate that. Not sure why it needs to be brought up here. Sorry for the rant but it’s just nice having this place be apolitical.
February 19th, 2024 at 12:47 PM ^
Wow, another no politics post that can’t help but make a political statement, either without realizing it or by being incredibly smooth
February 19th, 2024 at 12:57 PM ^
I very briefly considered deleting all of parts of it.
In the end, what he said isn't wrong and was barely political. I look at it as an indictment of (sadly) where our society seems to be in this day and age.
February 19th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
This is the problem, repeating the “both sides are equal” trope without knowing it. Politics are “tricky” and so are “no politics”. The comment should be deleted.
February 19th, 2024 at 3:49 PM ^
If you don't understand that both sides are indeed equally divisive and contrary to the interests of good governance, there's no help for you.
February 19th, 2024 at 3:56 PM ^
You clearly don’t understand this trope and there seems to be much you don’t understand. That’s part of the problem. We can’t get into the specifics on this blog. I’ve also been on both sides. I also happen to have some actual training and experience in these issues. There is middle ground to find for most Americans but comments like the poster’s above have the opposite impact.
February 19th, 2024 at 4:14 PM ^
I understand on which side the trope originates, and that it is designed to claim the moral high ground. 'Nuff said.
February 19th, 2024 at 4:29 PM ^
I see it’s working
February 19th, 2024 at 4:34 PM ^
Hardly. We see you.
February 19th, 2024 at 5:24 PM ^
I don't agree with you at all on this, BoFan. There's no "both-siding" going on with what Michgoblue posted; instead, he's making a statement and plea that I fully support: to KEEP POLITICS OFF THE MGoBoard!
February 19th, 2024 at 5:05 PM ^
First I'd ask BoFan what was inherently political in MichGoBlue's post - whether accidentally or "smoothly"?
Second I'd answer MGB's question why these seemingly only tangentially related threads devolve into pro- & anti-trump diatribes is because it's that important a topic?
I mean, clearly...
February 18th, 2024 at 10:04 PM ^
Stop this crap. No need for it. Stop
February 18th, 2024 at 10:51 PM ^
The left and right have hated Elon for this and that. I don’t think he is “obviously” right or left. If you are offended by a position of musk, I get it, and right there with you. If you think appreciating a product is an extension of politics, understand the difference between ideology and intelligence. Both start with ‘I’.
February 19th, 2024 at 5:14 PM ^
Actually Rum, I think his stating on "X" that he was voting republican in the last election & urging his followers to do the same sort of ended the debate or confusion about his political views - at least circa the 2020s.
It may have been murkier before that...🤷♂️
February 19th, 2024 at 5:00 PM ^
Musk isn't "among the most self-important people of our time" - it's of ALL time!
The news that he wants to leave the notoriously corporate friendly environs of Delaware because a judge there refuses to bow to him - and urges other F500 companies to follow suit - was met with smirking amusement.
I worry about what too much Elon mocking could reap though. When he takes his toys & goes home, first to go might be XM's new satellite connection!
February 18th, 2024 at 9:28 PM ^
Satellite internet has existed for a long time all he did was raise capital to shit a bunch of garbage into orbit.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:34 PM ^
Hilariously bad take.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:36 PM ^
There is no generational technological advancement to Starlink it's pure capital and amount of coverage(aka number of satellites/space junk in orbit).
February 18th, 2024 at 9:41 PM ^
How about we skip knife throwing, please.
February 18th, 2024 at 11:29 PM ^
How do you feel about tomahawks?
February 19th, 2024 at 3:14 PM ^
This is inaccurate. Living in a place without other broadband options, I subscribed to traditional satellite Internet briefly in the past. It was barely better than dial up. The problem is with the latency. When I first heard about Starlink, my response was, “unless Elon Musk has figured away to put satellites closer to the earth, it won’t make a difference”. Then I found out that’s exactly what the strategy was. I switched to Starlink, and it is an absolute game changer. On this thread, I will remain completely agnostic about the politics behind the owner of the company, I’m just here to talk about whether it’s a good option for doing things like streaming video, working from home via VPN, etc. It absolutely is.
February 19th, 2024 at 4:33 PM ^
Yes very true, Starlink is very low orbit which is why he needs so many and that gives you the speed. The others are definitely slow. $120 seems expensive but he can charge whatever he wants. It’s definitely better than nothing. The business model is still difficult given he’s mostly only able to serve sparsely populated rural areas or countries with no infrastructure.
February 19th, 2024 at 5:20 PM ^
When you say the business model is "difficult", are you aware the U.S. government pays Starlink to remain available to Ukraine for no charge to them? Musk cut off their access to it last year with geofencing when they crossed into Russian held territory. Then he urged Ukraine to accept a new map ceding the territory to Russia.
This was not a political statement, just a comment on the business model.
February 19th, 2024 at 7:50 PM ^
I am not a fan of Musk and agree with your sentiment. He seemed to turn more friendly to the Russians.
When I say “difficult” business model I mean his P&L and how many customers it will take to cover his operating and replacement costs. I think it’s a stretch.
With Ukraine, (not addressing the russia cut off issue) the way i understand it is that Musk offered it to Ukraine for free, and PR, and then threatened the US government to use some fund to pay for it. That’s probably legitimate and the US would only be paying for the number of dishes at a volume discount. That’s probably a small fraction of what he needs.
I forgot about the Russian geo fencing thing. He was probably threatened.
February 19th, 2024 at 4:23 PM ^
Tell that to the people in the northern artic and northern tip of the Scandinavian countries who never had reliable internet that can now actually have medical files sent, email, use the internet to learn, and keep in touch with supply shipments in real time. Yeah it may not affect you with your multitude of companies offering internet, but for them its a lifeline they've rarely, if ever, had.
February 19th, 2024 at 12:02 AM ^
Sat internet has been around for a while. It's just every other company went broke before their service could expand. Or it was schitty because it was from DirecTV or Dish Network. Much like everything else from Elon.. He took a technology that has been around for a while but was under utilized and pointed a money cannon at it.
February 19th, 2024 at 3:51 PM ^
Or maybe they went broke because they were in geosynchronous orbit so the inherent lag was basically insurmountable.
February 19th, 2024 at 8:09 PM ^
Musk’s is different. Globalstar is also a LEO constellation that’s been around. Same with Iridium. Most 2way communications has to be LEOs. The difference with musk is his micro satellites operate at about one third the altitude of globalstar’s which is where the performance difference comes from. He took advantage of the new smaller cheaper micro satellites and the cheaper launch costs. Others were trying to do the same.
February 19th, 2024 at 12:43 AM ^
Elon musk is a hype man who is good at raising money, getting good engineers to work on project ideas that others came up with, and then manipulating markets to his advantage. It's pretty amazing he named his company Tesla because he is as close to Edison as any man alive.
He's also one of the most powerful men in the world and simultaneously mentally unwell, barrelling without a thought straight toward The Singularity as quickly as possible without any in depth consideration of what that will mean.
February 19th, 2024 at 12:53 PM ^
Elon didn’t found Tesla. He got in on it when it was a small company and was instrumental in growing it.
February 19th, 2024 at 5:23 PM ^
In fact in a court case he and several others who were early investors won the right to call themselves "founders".
But more to the point that doesn't make him the inventor or creator.
February 19th, 2024 at 1:47 PM ^
your first sentence sounds like you're describing Steve Jobs
February 19th, 2024 at 3:54 PM ^
Which isn't a bad comparison. Jobs, however, was better at sticking to his strengths; Musk is all over the place with companies in completely unrelated industries.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:14 PM ^
Yaba daba do!!!!
Congratulations XM👍
February 18th, 2024 at 9:14 PM ^
My West Virginia situation is like yours ... DSL at the distance limit. I get about 5MB download. It's better than the Viasat satellite I had before, but not optimal. I *think* Starlink is finally available in the area. I may have to bite the bullet.
EDIT -- Just checked, and Starlink is available at my WV service address. If I lived 20 miles west, then not yet. $120/month plus the $600 equipment charge. My 5MB is reliable (enough) and is bundled with phone, which I have to keep because there's no cell coverage out there, for $70/month. Still pondering ...
February 18th, 2024 at 9:16 PM ^
don, our internet speed varied between zero (yes, i do mean absolute zero) and maybe 2 mpbs.
February 18th, 2024 at 10:36 PM ^
Or absolute NetZero, where you all motion has ceased on your ancient provider.
February 18th, 2024 at 9:34 PM ^
User name does NOT check out. West Virginia??