Starlink

[RuddyCrazy]

Well guy's with the internet in my shed while distilling this morning was non existent decided to buy a starlink kit, well lets see how long it takes to get here eh. Cost $806 and it staes $139 a month for 100 to 200 MB download and a 20 Msec latency

This on par with my alsl with telsux $95 a month for 5 Mb at best

So for guy's off the grid or in country areas keep in tune with this thread as I will detail how this all goes .

If it is a scam oh well Shiba paid for it :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

They do promise 100-200 Mb download and 100Mb upload which will suit my daughter as she is going into a course for 3D gaming designing the software

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Just got an email saying shipped so existing times are ahead

[RC Al]

Do they now guarantee 100% up time here in Oz yet?

Last guy i talked to about it a few months back said their coverage was still a bit sketchy outside of the usa, there is not always a satellite overhead here

Hope it works out for you, cause it looks pretty cool :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RuddyCrazy]

RC who knows I bought this on whim using Shiba cash but in time I do guess it will go ahead. the email said upon on delivery to expect a patchy interface and until a sold signal was there there is no charge.

as an early adopter it is the case of first in best dressed so put your money up and hope for the best to come

Cheers Bryan

[Wellsy]

Sounds like with the shibu windfall you are finally getting your dream together mate. It won’t be long and you will never have to actually go to the house as everything you want will be in the shed

[RuddyCrazy]

Ya not wrong Wellsy :laughing-rolling: today my Russian Mate turned up said Bryan where is my Nothing you gave me last time, so I said let me fire up my glass still and make you some. for the first time I used the glass reflux head and got his wench as he called to come down to the house to get some ali foil to use as a heat shield.

He said he had been back to the motherland and he took a bottle of my Nothing over and his rellies said it was better than what they can get here :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So things made here can be better than the rest of the world but when it comes to the net over seas they just cut the mustard so may as well jump onboard :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RuddyCrazy]

Well I've been watching the tracking of the parcel and it took 5 days to get from the US to Oz, :handgestures-thumbupleft: now it going to take 9 days to get from Vic to SA which really does show just how backwards we have become. :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Oh Well fun times ahead and we may actually get web pages to load fully as for now our net is a broken bit of copper that goes open when there is a hint of rain :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[RuddyCrazy]

Just checked the tracking and the starlink kit is down the hill and given to a 3rd party contractor to deliver so it should be here tomorrow.

Now for any guy's that live on a rural property with crap internet this may be the go to cure internet speeds. Be aware this is still in beta stage and only upto 100Gb down/up load is possible and as far as data goes well there isn't a cap :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Just read thru all the doc's in my portal and man is this one excited duck waiting to try this out.

Ok the kit does cost $806 which includes shipping tax's etc and they won't send out the kit until the service is available to your area, now when one committed to buying this you are placed in a queue as beta testers so when this does go mainstream us beta testers are in the lead for the best service as we did the work in the beta phase. no charges are done for the first 14 days after the kit is online and it costs $99 US a month which works out to $139 on the current rates. So I'm sure as the Aussie moves around monthly data charges will too.

For me this is worth a go and I'm sure if other take up the challenge they will find the best solution for internet coverage in a rural area as we have been left out big time.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

YEA :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: the star link turned up today :handgestures-thumbupleft: but as it's 36C in the shade there is noway I'm getting up on the roof to mount the dish :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

So look like a jobbie for early Saturday morning before the sun comes up so the roof is cool to stand on, it does have a nice long cable and comes with a power supply (with an aussie plug too) and a wifi modem.

So fun times this weekend

Cheers Bryan

[glingwood]

I was on Telstra ADSL2, bought a smart tv and couldn't watch it, we're rural with no free to air the ADSL2 was to slow for the tv to work. Signed up to Starlink as an "early adopter" March 2021, cost $130 "deposit" kit arrived mid October 2021 with the balance $570 automatically deducted from my account, wtf??? Anyway thought WTH and installed the dish, I'm a retired comm's tech but honestly a 5yr old could install this, turned it on expecting a 30 min ish setup time, and went outside to look at the dish do it's thing, too late! wtf! went back inside and i had internet according to my computer bs I thought and ran speed test, 280 down 45 latency, more wtf is this bs, ran netspeed got the same result, now I'm shaking head and checking the med's I've taken, told my neighbour who's on Skymesh (Telstras answer to rural comm's) he came over to see for himself and was holding a piece of paper, after seeing the speed test he almost cried as he handed me the paper, 6 down and in excess off 900 latency (it doesn't measure over 900 so who knows what it actually was) their son has just gone to Paris and his wife was trying to zoom but with those numbers it just kept dropping out. He went home and ordered Starlink, it arrived 5 days later, he put it up (and I mean put it up, to say you install this thing is having a lend) NO Go! frack! sent an email (remember this is to the US) at 10am, 5pm the same day got a FUCKIN PHONE CALL! from the US apologising and explaining they'd had a couple of issues with some of their dishes, and they were sending him a return slip and new unit, 4 days later the new unit arrived, went onto the roof and worked as advertised, his wife is ecstatic, he's happy as Larry, since then 2 more people in our little bit of paradise have installed it, with no issues, quick, does what it says and painless.
NOW! at $135 per month, it's not the cheapest solution, my ADSL was $95 per month "UNLIMITED" Pete's Skymesh was $125 (I think) unlimited, but wtf does "unlimited" mean when you've only got 6 or less down, and 900 something latency, it's meaningless, and just fuckin typical of the way the telco's and government run things. I can now download and watch a movie in the time it used to take to load the credits! I kid you not, wife and me would agree on a movie and start the download so we could watch it the next day! Thanks Telstra/NBN government fuckup. Now we just stream in 4k and if I don't like it I just go and watch my sci fi shit (as she calls it) on our bedroom tv in 4k, THANK YOU ELON!!!
MOBILE! we're sick of 4g, 5g hype, yeh great we'd be happy with 1 bar of fuckin 3 g, but NO that's not gonna happen is it, well Musk is going to introduce sat phones that work on his low orbit system, and not the $1000 per month Telstra shit with its 900 plus latency, I for one can't wait.
Sorry for the long post guys but in this day and age of FB bs, media hype etc it's hard to get the FACTS! what I've written is applicable to the Far South Coast NSW area (Moruya), your mmv cheers G

[glingwood]

Edit ^^^ neighbours system was "sky muster" not skymesh.

[glingwood]

For coverage check https://satellitemap.space/index.html Scary aint it.

[bluc]

Edit ^^^ neighbours system was "sky muster" not skymesh.

I was on skymesh was awesome compared to dial up and no adsl..

[RuddyCrazy]

I was with skymesh on the interm sat NBN and had sat for 7 years as that was our only option to get the net. Now our property is located less than 2K out of metro boundary and we nothing nada. I paid a power bill in 20 years and only had to buy in water once which was huge mistake as it poured down for a fortnight starting 2 days from when we bought the water :angry-banghead:

We swore NEVER again are we going sat and just had put up century old ADSL where once 3 computers were connected one would get all the bandwidth the rest just 404 errors.

Well I did some research and found out about the spaceX sat and though well as still had enough spare cash off my shiba selloff went ahead and bought in. Reading all the fine print on the starlink website they do say upto 100gb bandwidth and latency is an going project but please be patient as we iron things out. Now there is no need to get onto support about slow speeds as we will already know as part of the contract is we will monitor you're setup remotely and if there is a problem we will do our best to rectify the problems.

To go they do say this first dish there are sending is for the beta testing and in 12 months time or more a new dish will be needed as the system becomes more secure.

So for us it's just like before only this time the speeds are way more than any provider in this country can offer by a factor of 10 or more. Now I do have the starlink app on my mobile so when the system is setup it will be interesting to see if my mobile will be able to access the sat too.

News on the pi phone tesla are going to release the expected first offering will be in around 12 months and it has been written a starting price of just under $300 US for the first breed of phones.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well as the rest of family got this bug they just had to pass it onto me :angry-banghead: and man do I feel like shit to say the least, the symptons came on yesterday at work and by the time I got home SWMBO said looks like got yourself a long weekend as it sure has taken a hold of you :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

As it nice and this morning decided the old NBN sat that has sat on the roof for years did need to go so dismantled that and just turned over on of the roof braces the old sat used and mounted the new sat on that. Got it pointed north and I had a roll of 30mm flexible conduit so used that to protect the cable once everything was done hooked it all up and got it working and only took a couple of minutes for the sat to find the signal.

Any did a speed test just now and mate it's giving fibre to the home a good run :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Screenshot 2021-12-02 at 13-16-55 Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test.png

Still got until the 8th of this month before the first bill is due so we can give it a road test then the old ADSL can just go to the dogs :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: It going to be fun walking in to the tesltra shop to can the ADSL and the look on their faces should a golden moment for remembering.

Cheers Bryan

[howard]

i followed that link by glindwood, fascinating stuff.
i did notice that the sats orbit the earth rather than stay in one place.
so does the dish lock on and follow a sat, then search for a new one for handover?
or does the dish stay in one position?

[RuddyCrazy]

Hi Howard,
When I installed the dish it was pointing due north and when I powered it up I went out for a look and it had moved to due south so yes the sat dish does move to get the best signal, a few weeks ago SpaceX put up 53 new sats and 3 days later my kit was shipped so yes this country now has better coverage.

Like I have said there is a $806 upfront charge for the sat dish kit then it's $139 a month for unlimited data, so it isn't cheap to get going and the next 12 months will be interesting as the beta testing goes on then it will be announced to come on main stream and possibly a new dish will be needed. But as the doc's say when you join as an early starter you're position is cemented so I do guess that will mean down the track we will get the best service.

I did have a bit of fun getting my shed wifi repeater to connect but got there in the end and the speed test was much lower @ around 10Mbs and the upload was a heap better. The ping remain under 50Msec so on that front one can't complain.

Cheers Bryan

[glingwood]

Ok guys, seems I'm a bit in front of the game here so here's my take, No the dish doesn't "track", initial setup sees it orient to best position then stays put, my understanding is the satellites work like a "mesh" router system, as more birds go up and the mesh changes the dish will do "fine" adjustments, worth noting the current "round" dishes cost Starlink US3000 per unit, they have recently announced a cheaper "square" dish to save costs, now this could be shipping costs, or production costs, as an old sat comm's tech I'm happy to have the round one.
Phones? anyone familiar with sat phones will tell you to sell a kidney and then your first born for 1min of crap voice, to be expected when the signal has a round trip of a bazillion miles, Starlinks low orbit birds are a game changer, no need for huge power (relative) in the handset, and no 2 to 4 sec delays, given Musks business model of absorbing costs to build a user base I wouldn't be surprised if a Starlink ph was round the $500 mark (cheap compared to an i phone 13 that we in rural can't even use) remains to be seen.
I've just had a mate arrive for the weekend (big noise in tech) and he earlier did a zoom/meetings whatever with 17 colleagues, was convinced he couldn't do it here (previous experience with our wonderful Telstra) he actually did happy dances, and raved about how "fluid" the whole meeting was.
If you're "dithering" just do it and hope you get a round dish, the squares will work but I think the rounds will be better.

[RuddyCrazy]

Well the best we can get is that 50Mbit on DL and the with the pings it's in the high30-60Mec range, on a local chat group a guy less than 20K away is getting 400Mbit constantly so I have put in a support ticket asking why are speeds are 1/10th at best. We haven't had any dropouts and I do have to say up in my shed where I get 10Mbit the difference is huge, like when uploading a pic to this forum before it was go get another beer while I wait to wow it's done already :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So my dish could be faulty or not but there has to be a reason for the slower speeds so it's onto them now and the waiting starts for an answer.

Cheers Bryan

[glingwood]

The faulty dishes I've heard of just don't work, it could be you're in a different zone to your mate so operating off different satellites, it's worth remembering that the constellation is nowhere near complete in the Southern hemisphere, so as more satellites go up the speeds should increase and the lag drop. I get 380meg 20ms on a fast test, and 120meg 80ms on a slow one, it's a bit academic though as anything over 50meg and under 40ms is plenty for normal use. Streaming 4k, zoom calls, etc. (imo)