Pulling the Starlink trigger

[nonobaddog]

My son is in the country and he uses microwave. He has an antenna aimed directly at a tower and then he buried a few hundred feet of cable himself to the house where he has a microwave modem.
Then he uses Powerline broadband over power lines to run access to a large pole building another couple hundred feet away.
The whole setup works very well and quite a bit lower cost than Starlink.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

Well, it's still in beta. When it makes the jump to "live" I would be very surprised if portability wasn't part of the package.

Hopefully, I've still got about a year with comcast under contract. Starlink is looking tempting depending on portability.

That's less than 1a assuming it's 120v so the shielding helps it from outside interferences found normally in the atmosphere, but running parallel to electric lines forvery far is less than ideal, could lead to noise interference.

Whe always tried to keep a 12"+ distance if running parallel and keep any crossings to perpendicular. Of course it's not always possible

I also assume it's being stepped to lower voltage for the uses.

So it probably wasn't the best thing for comcast to tape the coax to the powerline for support?

 

[Jaybird1980]

So it probably wasn't the best thing for comcast to tape the coax to the powerline for support?

10 things you shouldn't do when running network cable

Improperly installed cabling can cripple network performance, create maintenance headaches, and lead to hidden costs. Here's where things can go wrong.

www.techrepublic.com

Code use to be 2" min. separation from 120v lines. I haven't checked NEC recently but I would imagine that is still the case.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

10 things you shouldn't do when running network cable

Improperly installed cabling can cripple network performance, create maintenance headaches, and lead to hidden costs. Here's where things can go wrong.

www.techrepublic.com

Code use to be 2" min. separation from 120v lines. I haven't checked NEC recently but I would imagine that is still the case.

It's no longer like that. Had a house fire and during the remodel I had them move the powerline/meter to the back of the house. When cable came out to reinstall it's now about 2' away, and relatively taut. Still parallel but not much that can be done for that. I'm guessing the first installer just wanted to hurry up and get it done, especially since he had to run new wire to several rooms. The most recent installer had it easy, everything but the wire to the house was already done.

 

[JTScribe]

I hate Comcast's customer service, but man ...

Hopefully Starlink boosts their speeds enough over the next few years for me to justify switching.

 

[phylodog]

Just got notification that my Starlink kit should be here Friday.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Just got notification that my Starlink kit should be here Friday.

How long have you been on the waiting list/paid your $100?

 

[HoughMade]

I saw about 200 mbps at one point over the weekend. Only 100 times what the Frontier DSL was getting.

'Course I started watching "Crime Story" over the weekend, so I'm using this glorious speed to watch an '80s show at 480i.

 

[phylodog]

How long have you been on the waiting list/paid your $100?

There wasn't a waiting list to sign up, just said shipping would take 2-3 weeks. I ordered and paid for the equipment on Mar 18th.

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

There wasn't a waiting list to sign up, just said shipping would take 2-3 weeks. I ordered and paid for the equipment on Mar 18th.

Nice. Oddly enough, we are north of you and south of Hough and the website responds with mid summer for our area.

We can wait.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Nice. Oddly enough, we are north of you and south of Hough and the website responds with mid summer for our area.

We can wait.

Same for me and I'm probably only 20 miles from Hough. Although I'm not ready to make a purchase, just wanting to see how it goes.

 

[markholst]

I saw about 200 mbps at one point over the weekend. Only 100 times what the Frontier DSL was getting.

'Course I started watching "Crime Story" over the weekend, so I'm using this glorious speed to watch an '80s show at 480i.

Well...yeah! What else would you do? Might as well throw in some old school Magnum PI while you're at it.

 

[maxwelhse]

My parent's place in Laotto is scheduled for summer/fall also. It sounds like all of Indiana north of Indy might be setup by then.

Not sure if they'll bite on it for the price and the equipment to install, but they should...

 

[Jaybird1980]

My parent's place in Laotto is scheduled for summer/fall also. It sounds like all of Indiana north of Indy might be setup by then.

Not sure if they'll bite on it for the price and the equipment to install, but they should...

The equipment price is what has me holding off. If it turns out reliable and consistent I may jump on it before school starts next year

 

[Papa]

I've read articles that the hardware is being subsidized, and the actual hardware cost is closer to 2k

 

[phylodog]

I didn't enjoy the price tag for the equipment but even if it were only as good as what I have now, the monthly savings covers the cost for the equipment in 9 months.

 

[maxwelhse]

The equipment price is what has me holding off. If it turns out reliable and consistent I may jump on it before school starts next year

I promise you my Dad will go the other way and bawk that he has to actually screw something down or run a wire into this or that outside the house. It won't be the equipment price that holds them back. They'll likely complain about the $100/mo though while forgetting their absolutely awful service (bundled with sat TV and landline phone) is ~$200/mo.

Ahhh... family.

 

[nonobaddog]

Is that $100 guaranteed for any length of time?
Some companies like to tighten the screws after you are hooked for their equipment.

 

[Papa]

I think everything is beta at this time. Hardware is only guaranteed to work a year before they are allowed to make major changes if they so choose. Couldn't find any minimum contract or lock-in price so I'm assuming it could change on a dime as this is BETA release!

 

[HoughMade]

No guarantees, but they have stated that the goal is to reduce prices of hardware and service as volume increases. The open question is data limits and throttling. None of either at this time.