Rural VT -- D for Execution / B for Effort

[rluczak]

The only service I have in rural VT is 10Mbs DSL or cellular. I was hoping Starlink would address my lack of bandwidth issues. I know it's still in Beta and I have high hopes for Starlink but my initial reaction is: D for Execution, B for Effort.The install was insanely simple and in a matter of minutes, my speed test was showing btwn 140 and 160Mbs upload and 20 download. This is better than 10 times the bandwidth I had with DSL. You could see the crystal clarity on FaceTime calls. But then I tried streaming . . . I set the WiFi on my AppleTV to Starlink and tuned into a baseball game via the NESN app. The app got hung up about every 3 to 5 minutes. The picture would freeze for 5 to 10 seconds and then resume. Every fifth time or so, the app would completely freeze and I'd have to reset it. After an hour of frustration I gave up. No streaming sports for me.Next test was a work Zoom call. This involved screen share and video / audio. It was even worse than the streaming and got hung up about every minute. Finally had to switch networks to cellular.I have high hopes for Starlink but in my initial estimation, it's a long way from a passable solution. I'm hoping this is addressed in the coming months and will continue to be a fan.

 

[StarlinkLeader]

The reason for the dropping out is the BETA stage of " switch over " between satellites. Due to the large " switch over " between the sat's it causes a drop out. As more satellites get introduced + better firmware gets released to both CPE's and satellite's - You will then get little to no drop outs. Plus the laser uplinking between satellites isn't working too well currently according to media reports - Once the developers push out smarter firmware to use laser uplinks + more ground stations then drop out rate will also decrease. Hope this helps :)

 

[RicochetStarlink]

It is July 2022. I am a new customer in rural NM. We just got coverage in early April. I've jumped in -- headfirst into the deep end wearing a cement necklace.

I see the same results today that @rluczak reported in May 2021. Streaming pauses frequently. Last night, our Roku TV gave up trying to stream Amazon Prime in the middle of a show. I work remotely for my a large cybersecurity company writing software for a DevOps orchestration tool. I spend many hours each week online working. I have regular Zoom meetings with teammates and customers and, since switching to Starlink, often as not, others cannot understand me because of "robot voice" or the meeting audio breaks up making it difficult for me to understand what is happening.

All the while, the Starlink App on my iPhone reports 100Mbps+ download speed from the internet and 300-500Mbps download speed from the wireless router. Real-world speed test apps -- Ookla, speedtest.com, etc. -- report Internet download speeds in the neighborhood of up to 10Mbps... sometimes all the way up to 15Mbps. I have performed these tests from both wireless clients (e.g., iPhone, late model Macbook Pro 16") and wired clients (e.g., 2018 Mac Mini). This has been consistent from the first week of installation.

I am almost $1000 into the Starlink swtich. It took three weeks for Starlink support to respond to my first ticket. After they decided to provide a replacement wireless router and antenna cable, it took almost two weeks for the replacement parts to arrive. I then took a couple of weeks for me to get my handyman to come swap out the cable. (At my age, I don't climb up on the roof unless I have no choice). First, I replaced the cable. Then, after a week of no improvement, I replaced the router. Still the same.

I've opened a second ticket with Starlink. This is is ridiculous. Looking back at my Ookla SpeedTest history, I was getting better download speeds (50-70Mbps) from my old WISP. I left them because their service wasn't reliable. Waking up on a working day to a several-hours-long Internet outage is NOT conducive to professional success for me.

Anybody else in Central/Southern New Mexico experiencing similar difficulties?

[StarlinkLeader]

On 7/13/2022 at 1:27 AM, RIcochet said:

It is July 2022. I am a new customer in rural NM. We just got coverage in early April. I've jumped in -- headfirst into the deep end wearing a cement necklace.

I see the same results today that @rluczak reported in May 2021. Streaming pauses frequently. Last night, our Roku TV gave up trying to stream Amazon Prime in the middle of a show. I work remotely for my a large cybersecurity company writing software for a DevOps orchestration tool. I spend many hours each week online working. I have regular Zoom meetings with teammates and customers and, since switching to Starlink, often as not, others cannot understand me because of "robot voice" or the meeting audio breaks up making it difficult for me to understand what is happening.

All the while, the Starlink App on my iPhone reports 100Mbps+ download speed from the internet and 300-500Mbps download speed from the wireless router. Real-world speed test apps -- Ookla, speedtest.com, etc. -- report Internet download speeds in the neighborhood of up to 10Mbps... sometimes all the way up to 15Mbps. I have performed these tests from both wireless clients (e.g., iPhone, late model Macbook Pro 16") and wired clients (e.g., 2018 Mac Mini). This has been consistent from the first week of installation.

I am almost $1000 into the Starlink swtich. It took three weeks for Starlink support to respond to my first ticket. After they decided to provide a replacement wireless router and antenna cable, it took almost two weeks for the replacement parts to arrive. I then took a couple of weeks for me to get my handyman to come swap out the cable. (At my age, I don't climb up on the roof unless I have no choice). First, I replaced the cable. Then, after a week of no improvement, I replaced the router. Still the same.

I've opened a second ticket with Starlink. This is is ridiculous. Looking back at my Ookla SpeedTest history, I was getting better download speeds (50-70Mbps) from my old WISP. I left them because their service wasn't reliable. Waking up on a working day to a several-hours-long Internet outage is NOT conducive to professional success for me.

Anybody else in Central/Southern New Mexico experiencing similar difficulties?

The blips are due to the handover during sat coverage cell changeover - This is something being worked on actively afaik - Some regions have less issues with handover between sats, e.g New Zealand currently - The handover is relatively smooth, but traffic is still being routed through USA with occasional routing being tested to NZ.

 

I'd recommend keeping an eye on your traceroutes, use pingplotter ( windows ) for monitoring the handover latency.

Also, check out starlink.sx. This can help in getting good reference of sats, vs ground station.

 

From what I've seen, starlink terminals that are closer to groundstations have less handover issues.

 

I do believe there is an issue with apple on starlink router - Whereby only partial connectivity is seen, your not running in bridge mode on the router are you @RIcochet?

[RicochetStarlink]

16 hours ago, StarlinkLeader said:

The blips are due to the handover during sat coverage cell changeover - This is something being worked on actively afaik - Some regions have less issues with handover between sats, e.g New Zealand currently - The handover is relatively smooth, but traffic is still being routed through USA with occasional routing being tested to NZ.

I'd recommend keeping an eye on your traceroutes, use pingplotter ( windows ) for monitoring the handover latency.

Also, check out starlink.sx. This can help in getting good reference of sats, vs ground station.

From what I've seen, starlink terminals that are closer to groundstations have less handover issues.

I do believe there is an issue with apple on starlink router - Whereby only partial connectivity is seen, your not running in bridge mode on the router are you @RIcochet?

> "...pingplotter (windows)..."
What's windows? I haven't owned a Winblows machine in more than two years. Any idea of a tool for macOS? linux? 

> "...starlink.sx..."
I've been mesmerized by the graphical display here. Pinpointed my location and it's interesting to watch. The question I have is where the data comes from regarding my antenna's connection to satellites? Is the site querying my router/dishy on my local network to get data here? Or is it making assumptions based on satellite telemetry? Something else? Without understanding how it's doing what it's doing I don't know whether it's just a pretty light show or whether it's showing me the real scoop on my connectivity.

> "...closer to groundstations..."
Is a "groundstation" the same thing as the "Gateway" reported by starlink.sx for each satellite? If so and if starlink.sx is accurate, I'm mostly getting connected to Elbert, CO; Dumas, TX; and Roll, AZ. However, my POP is Los Angeles. It looks like I'd be better off to have my POP in Denver or even Dallas. But that's totally a wild guess on my part.

> "...issue with apple...only partial connectivity is seen..."
Why is it then that my iPhone 13 report 500Mbps when doing the advanced speed test just to the router? That doesn't seem very "partial" to me... or should it?

> "...your not running in bridge mode... are you..."
Not to my knowledge, but how can I tell if the router is in bridge mode? It's not disabled. I don't have any other network devices on the network besides three Starlink routers in a mesh network, the dishy, a 1Gbps 8-port switch for direct-connected devices (only 1 device connected), and then my devices. 

[RicochetStarlink]

18 minutes ago, RIcochet said:

> "...closer to groundstations..."
Is a "groundstation" the same thing as the "Gateway" reported by starlink.sx for each satellite? If so and if starlink.sx is accurate, I'm mostly getting connected to Elbert, CO; Dumas, TX; and Roll, AZ. However, my POP is Los Angeles. It looks like I'd be better off to have my POP in Denver or even Dallas. But that's totally a wild guess on my part.

Oh... Vernon, UT, too...