Satellite Internet?

[BlindedByScience]

I have a buddy whose family owns an island up in the Canadian Gulf Islands (nice, right..??). They get point to point uWave connectivity for their phone / internet connection from the closest mainland. Small dish on a pole up in the air, but it's blistering fast. Not sure how much it costs, I can ask.

 

[The Heretic]

Do you know how far away you are from your CO? Who's your telco?

I do not have a telco - DSL from Verizon was one choice, but as I was so far from the CO I could only get 1.5 mbps from them.

So I chose long distance WiFi from UpwardAccess; I have a planar antenna on my roof that hops to my neighbors antenna and then from there down to the UA office about 5 miles away in the valley. From UA it goes to Ziply fiber (used to be Comcast).

I can't get 5G up here because the tower is too far away, so that is a no go.

Starlink is my only hope. I sent in my info for the beta, but no word from them yet.

 

[Dinglenutz]

That was a test and it worked. Satellite has a long way to go before it is viable.

I had a Hughes satellite link in the 90s when I lived in La Pine, OR - it was reasonably fast but very high latency due to physics just having some inconvenient laws. They also FAP'd quite often but that's a policy issue.

 

[The Heretic]

I had Starband at one time. Expensive (for the time), unreliable (especially when the sun happened to be behind the satellite), and barely 1mbps when it was working correctly. Then Comcast came around and offered internet and I jumped on it. Much faster, more reliable, but required rebooting/resetting the modem at least once a day. Then Verizon came around and I loved the fiber.

When I moved to HIllsboro I got Verizon fiber again, so it was a bit of a shock/letdown when I moved up on Chehalem ridge and could get fast/reliable internet.

 

[Flopsweat]

I had a Hughes satellite link in the 90s when I lived in La Pine, OR - it was reasonably fast but very high latency due to physics just having some inconvenient laws. They also FAP'd quite often but that's a policy issue.

I've heard of this fapping on the internet. Apparently it doesn't work the way I thought it did.

 

[Dinglenutz]

I've heard of this fapping on the internet.

I was also amused but in their world it stood for Fair Access Policy and meant that if you DL'd, say, a DVD image from MSDN your connection would slow to a crawl.

 

[Flopsweat]

I was also amused but in their world it stood for Fair Access Policy and meant that if you DL'd, say, a DVD image from MSDN your connection would slow to a crawl.

So it's not far off from what I thought.

 

[ATCclears]

Musk: Starlink will hit 300Mbps and expand to “most of Earth” this year

SpaceX CEO teases higher speeds, lower latency, and near-global coverage.

arstechnica.com

 

[The Heretic]

I put in a pre-order on Friday

 

[L84Cabo]

FYI...Wranglerstar just switched over to StarLink...which I think is still in Beta and just starting to launch. But he had good things to say about it...

 

[ATCclears]

Dishy McFlatface to become “fully mobile,” allowing Starlink use away from home

Musk: Starlink customers will be able to use their dishes "anywhere" by year-end.

arstechnica.com

 

[Flopsweat]

Dishy McFlatface to become “fully mobile,” allowing Starlink use away from home

Musk: Starlink customers will be able to use their dishes "anywhere" by year-end.

arstechnica.com

"It's a race to the bottom in terms of getting as much stuff up there as possible to claim orbital real estate"

LOL, says the guy not getting in on the ground floor. Like this mess hasn't been on the way for decades. We could pass all the international laws we want and guess what? People are going to put bubblegum in orbit anyway. Not everyone will abide by your laws. It's sort of similar to, well, gun control.

But yeah, eventually just getting past the orbital junkyard will be taking your life in your hands. At which point, or maybe a little before or after, we will come up with a solution. You're not the only procrastinator, and not remotely the biggest.

 

[Dinglenutz]

That and a boat, and I'm set.

 

[The Heretic]

That and a boat, and I'm set.

I've spent too much time on and in the water to even think about living on a boat, especially not the ocean.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[Dinglenutz]

Seems like it would also be a good option as a backup WAN for cases where uptime matters.

 

[DeanfromOregon]

OK I just got on the list. It may be 2022 before I get it, but it will still beat Wave Broadband who mysteriously went from 50 mb ( which is 100 mb half duplex of course) down to 20. Now on a Saturday afternoon, streaming is a gamble if it will even work or not.

This is exciting. Makes me wish I got the flame thrower.

 

[ATCclears]

FCC lets SpaceX cut satellite altitude to improve Starlink speed and latency

Rival satellite companies opposed change that cuts altitude in half, to 540 km.

arstechnica.com

 

[ATCclears]

From a friend in Northern Idaho using Starlink. Plenty fast.

 

[The Heretic]

So some people are asking for their deposit back.

Some Starlink customers have canceled their preorders, after paying a $100 deposit up to 9 months ago and receiving no contact from SpaceX

SpaceX said Starlink would go live in their area in mid or late 2021, but some customers became so fed up of waiting that they cancelled the deposit.

www.businessinsider.com

I've been waiting 9 months, and now SL says I won't get a dishy for another year.