Starlink Questions (for those that have used it a while)

[jsm180]

Interesting as I have both a Honda 2000W and a newer Generac iq3500. What model was your Generac?

It's mid 90's, non inverter. I am told the voltage regulators are a common failure on the older ones. The Honda and your Generac should do fine.

 

[mhoram]

I spent my first year with a T-mobile hotspot SIM card and a Visible SIM card that i would swap in my Netgear MR1100. Mostly used the Visible, but used T-Mobile when there were no Verizon towers near. Both worked very well in most places. I almost exclusively boondock, so I am almost always at or near the edge of cell service. I bought Starlink last year and used it in many remote locations. I used it in shaded places with tall pines that I was sure would prevent it from working. The worst I got was 95% uptime. That meant, for me, that there were 1-2 minute dropouts every hour. It never interrupted streaming video, and I am in virtual meetings all the time and never had a problem. I purposely set it up where I thought trees would block it, but it always worked. I did not set it up where the sky was more than 30% blocked, though. I know I could place it where it would definitely not work, I was just experimenting with how far I could go with reasonable thought to parking spot and setup spot. I am very happy with my SL. I have stopped the Visible and the T-Mobile hotspots.

 

[Riverbug]

As I understand it, the new Starlink Roam is given lower priority than residential. On T-Mobile, when we use up our high speed data and it is throttled, we notice that it doesn't affect most things but we do have trouble with YouTube buffering; Netflix doesn't seem to be a problem. With Starlink will streaming YouTube or Netflix be an issue if the priority is lower than other users?

 

[jsm180]

As I understand it, the new Starlink Roam is given lower priority than residential. On T-Mobile, when we use up our high speed data and it is throttled, we notice that it doesn't affect most things but we do have trouble with YouTube buffering; Netflix doesn't seem to be a problem. With Starlink will streaming YouTube or Netflix be an issue if the priority is lower than other users?

According to Starlink FAQ's,

"Starlink Roam (previously known as “Starlink for RVs”) provides immediate access to high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis at any destination where Starlink provides active coverage. Both Regional and Global plans are available.

Regional plans are geo-fenced to work on land within the same continent as the registered Shipping Address, while the Global plans work on land anywhere there is active service coverage. If you use Starlink in a foreign country for more than two months, you may be required to update your account to your new location. Starlink Roam provides Best Effort service – there is no priority access included in the plan."


The wording is confusing, "provides best effort service, then says there is no priority access.

I would pay the extra for Roam but not if it deprioritizes my residential service. I opened a support ticket asking to define best effort.

 

[msutoad]

According to Starlink FAQ's,

"Starlink Roam (previously known as “Starlink for RVs”) provides immediate access to high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis at any destination where Starlink provides active coverage. Both Regional and Global plans are available.

Regional plans are geo-fenced to work on land within the same continent as the registered Shipping Address, while the Global plans work on land anywhere there is active service coverage. If you use Starlink in a foreign country for more than two months, you may be required to update your account to your new location. Starlink Roam provides Best Effort service – there is no priority access included in the plan."


The wording is confusing, "provides best effort service, then says there is no priority access.

I would pay the extra for Roam but not if it deprioritizes my residential service. I opened a support ticket asking to define best effort.

Starlink's bandwidth is extremely high for a satcom link. With it being low orbit, the latency is low and the bandwidth can be very high. The fact they do not "prioritize" the traffic is not going to mean you are throttled like when you run your pre-paid SIM cards out of data. This just means they will not have any quality of service protections for the roaming users, because that is extremely complex to do that as you would need a dynamic policy and that policy would have to change based on users in the area, weather, etc. The more users in an area using the service, the less bandwidth you will get, but again, the service is quite good. I can not promise you that you wont buffer with any streaming service, but given the testing I have done, it should be solid and work well.

 

[Riverbug]

One last question...with Starlink I look at the map and see that it shows "available" up throughout all of Canada and Alaska. But I have seen or read that above a certain northern parallel (cannot recall which) it does not work. Anyone know if they have improved the service to cover those areas, or if it is just an exaggeration of the map on their site?

 

[FT4NOW]

Anyone have any experience with the RV version in Southeast Virginia? We are in the process of selling our house and will move into our Momentum soon and I am strongly leaning towards Starlink for internet. We will mainly be stationary at the Thousand Trails in Gloucester, VA until I retire from the Navy.

 

[msutoad]

Anyone have any experience with the RV version in Southeast Virginia? We are in the process of selling our house and will move into our Momentum soon and I am strongly leaning towards Starlink for internet. We will mainly be stationary at the Thousand Trails in Gloucester, VA until I retire from the Navy.

FIRST OFF--- Thank You for your service!

That area has got good coverage from Starlink. I have not been there personally, but I know many people who work at my company in that area that has it and they are very happy with it. As long as you do not have an obstruction for the antenna, you should be good to go!

Good Luck

 

[FT4NOW]

FIRST OFF--- Thank You for your service!

That area has got good coverage from Starlink. I have not been there personally, but I know many people who work at my company in that area that has it and they are very happy with it. As long as you do not have an obstruction for the antenna, you should be good to go!

Good Luck

Thanks, I was hoping it would be good. We have a seasonal site lined up which looks like there shouldn't be too much tree coverage, but without leaves on the trees right now it's a guess. The site we chose isn't covered by any trees if I recall, so I'm thinking it should work out. [emoji1696]

 

[mhoram]

As I understand it, the new Starlink Roam is given lower priority than residential. On T-Mobile, when we use up our high speed data and it is throttled, we notice that it doesn't affect most things but we do have trouble with YouTube buffering; Netflix doesn't seem to be a problem. With Starlink will streaming YouTube or Netflix be an issue if the priority is lower than other users?

I don't have any information on the lack of prioritization details, but I do know that I have made hundreds of SpeedTest tests of Visible, T-Mobile and Starlink in many different areas from city to urban to rural to wilderness, and the latency and speed, and especially the jitter, is far and away better and more consistent with Starlink than the cell services. Jitter is important for web meetings. Latency is actually more important than speed, in my case. I have had good speed, with very high latency, and could not stream anything. I have had very low speeds, speeds that many say you can't stream at, but good latency, and I have been able to stream whatever I want with a few interruptions.

 

[Ynot4me2]

Thanks, I was hoping it would be good. We have a seasonal site lined up which looks like there shouldn't be too much tree coverage, but without leaves on the trees right now it's a guess. The site we chose isn't covered by any trees if I recall, so I'm thinking it should work out. [emoji1696]

Send them an email and see if you can get a rebate off of the hardware. Right now, in Canada, they are offering the h/w at 50% off and connection with 2 weeks. Got 2 separate emails from them in the past week regarding this. Maybe you might be able to get a better price. I guess with the latest price increase, they are not getting as much subscriptions.

 

[FT4NOW]

Send them an email and see if you can get a rebate off of the hardware. Right now, in Canada, they are offering the h/w at 50% off and connection with 2 weeks. Got 2 separate emails from them in the past week regarding this. Maybe you might be able to get a better price. I guess with the latest price increase, they are not getting as much subscriptions.

Great idea, thanks!

 

[FT4NOW]

Send them an email and see if you can get a rebate off of the hardware. Right now, in Canada, they are offering the h/w at 50% off and connection with 2 weeks. Got 2 separate emails from them in the past week regarding this. Maybe you might be able to get a better price. I guess with the latest price increase, they are not getting as much subscriptions.

Apparently there is no email address to be found for them. I found one somewhere, but it came back as undeliverable. It was a good thought anyway.

 

[llr2800]

I bought Starlink last year and used it in many remote locations. I used it in shaded places with tall pines that I was sure would prevent it from working. The worst I got was 95% uptime. That meant, for me, that there were 1-2 minute dropouts every hour. It never interrupted streaming video, and I am in virtual meetings all the time and never had a problem. I purposely set it up where I thought trees would block it, but it always worked. I did not set it up where the sky was more than 30% blocked, though.

Do you possibly have any pictures of sites with high blockage that worked ok still? Or at least a more complete description of how blocked that 30% was? Was it dense forest? sparse branches with light through them?

 

[FT4NOW]

Well, I ordered my Starlink roam today along with a flagpole buddy mount for the ladder. They estimate 2 - 4 weeks shipping, so we will see. Excited to see how it works out, we should be bringing our 398 to the Thousand Trails seasonal site in a week or two and I'll get it setup when it comes.

 

[Billn59]

Just got my Starlink kit yesterday. I had it set up and running in about 10 minutes. I ran the TV, laptop, and a phone with zero issues. I ordered the Flag Pole Buddy to mount on the ladder and a custom 3D printed wall mount to keep it in the basement.

 

[pappcam]

Well I caved and bought the Starlink Roam service. The hardware should be here in early May.

A couple of questions:

How picky is the dish and system when it comes to trees and other obstructions? Most places we'll have a pretty unobstructed view of the northern sky but obviously there will be trees and things closer to the ground. I read it needs basically 100 degrees of unobstructed view and I'm wondering if that's a hard rule or a "best case" rule. I assume as more sats go in the air that requirement will get less.

Where do you mount the equipment? I have a Imagine 2970RL and I think I'll somehow put the router in the passthrough storage by the utility center as that's where the cable will come in. I'm not sure about the dish itself yet. What's my best bet there?

Thanks.

 

[Billn59]

Well I caved and bought the Starlink Roam service. The hardware should be here in early May.

A couple of questions:

How picky is the dish and system when it comes to trees and other obstructions? Most places we'll have a pretty unobstructed view of the northern sky but obviously there will be trees and things closer to the ground. I read it needs basically 100 degrees of unobstructed view and I'm wondering if that's a hard rule or a "best case" rule. I assume as more sats go in the air that requirement will get less.

Where do you mount the equipment? I have a Imagine 2970RL and I think I'll somehow put the router in the passthrough storage by the utility center as that's where the cable will come in. I'm not sure about the dish itself yet. What's my best bet there?

Thanks.

If you have clear good view of the north you should be ok. I have an Imagine 2670MK. I'm sending the cable through the passthrough with the router in the basement. I am waiting on a FlagPole Buddy to mount to the ladder. In cases where I need to move it away from the trailer, I bought an Adapter to mount to a speaker stand.

 

[ajg617]

DW said go ahead (guess it pays for her to work remote part-time. $204 for the flagpole buddy on Amazon if I have the correct one.

 

[FT4NOW]

DW said go ahead (guess it pays for her to work remote part-time. $204 for the flagpole buddy on Amazon if I have the correct one.

Check Tweetys. Just ordered recently and it was around $180, no tax. (For the Starlink specific model)