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Anyone use one?
Currently on a site working where there's bugger all phone signal and I need a hotspot to work. Also going to a festival next week for 4 days where there is no phone signal.
Will be through the business so cost isn't an issue. Don't want to buy it if it's crap though.
Not interested in anti Elon rants.
Thanks
Didn't the whole worldwide starlink system go down yesterday?
I know a few people with it and, yesterday excepted, it works very well indeed.
That's the full size one - no experience of the mini but I fancy one for the boat!
The cool. It is that you can pause the [roam] account so you only pay for months that you use it.
Going through the business... I'd just do it (and let me know how it goes!)
Much as I would prefer not to give Elon my dough, I got (non-Mini) for my Dad’s house a couple of years ago as there are no other options in his very rural location with no 4G/5G signal.
I have to say it’s been brilliant. Apart from the 2.5 hr outage this week, the logs show a total of less than 10min outages in the last year.
Speeds vary between 100-250 Mbps usually, but I’ve seen as high as 350 Mbps. Upload speed is a weak point, usually in the 15-30 Mbps range. Latency is better than I expected, at around 30 ms on average.
Being permanently hooked up I don’t have experience on how long it takes to lock on to satellites, that would be my main query in your shoes.
Slight annoyance is they make you pay extra to add an Ethernet port to the router, though that might not be the case now (or for the mini).
When I was looking into it I joined the UK user group on Facebook. It was notable that the majority of users seemed to be people who lived in vans/boats etc.
Slight annoyance is they make you pay extra to add an Ethernet port to the router, though that might not be the case now (or for the mini).
Yeah the mini has a built in router so basically point it at the sky and switch it on!
I have a few enterprise type customers using them on SD-WAN's that we supply. Honestly you can't fault it for decent Internet connectivity when there's nothing else. But... it does depend on the applications you are going to be using, anything UDP based, you will be getting the headline speeds that you see in reviews. Anything TCP based you will get a 10th of those speeds, as the way Starlink or similar LEO satellite networks work handing the signal off from one sat to the next as they whizz past means you'll have a constant 5-10% packet loss, all fine n dandy for UDP, but TCP takes a nose dive due to that. For home use, do it, for business use it depends on the apps you are going to be using.
Personally as soon as I can mentally justify one, I've gotta have one, as the geek in me is just screaming to give it a go, monthly fee for roaming needs to come down a little bit for me.
Not interested in anti Elon rants.
Maybe you're not interested in them but what it boils down to is "I don't like fascists/Nazis but if their product makes my life easier I'll give them money."
Think on that.
Does cold hard facts count as a rant? I'd say no.
I don't suppose it will make much difference to the OP bit it absolutely needs said, well done.
Yeah the mini has a built in router so basically point it at the sky and switch it on!
Also runs off 12v DC too and can be run off a small power bank which is a bonus for off grid in the van
Not interested in anti Elon rants.
You should be.
Maybe you're not interested in them but what it boils down to is "I don't like fascists/Nazis but if their product makes my life easier I'll give them money."
There is an assumption here that everybody doesn't like fascists.
Maybe you're not interested in them but what it boils down to is "I don't like fascists/Nazis but if their product makes my life easier I'll give them money."
Unfortunately you could say the same about clothes, mobiles, products containing palm oil, use something with a battery, etc.
All are potentially produced using child/forced labour or in countries with terrible human rights.
We are all guilty to some extent.
Oh... And Musk has provided the Ukrainian military with more than 50,000 starlink terminals for free - doesn't make him the greatest person alive but is worthy of nite.
Yes, we are all guilty to varying degrees, but some actions can mitigate harm to the planet and the life on it.
Read the ingredients and avoid products with palm oil, repair instead of replace (I used a repair cafe recently and had a digital radio and travel tv repaired), buy clothes from charity shops, donate unwanted items to charity shops.
Try and avoid too much travel and certainly flying, use your vehicle in the most efficient manner, buy local.
There are lots of ways that especially affluent people can help, but I suspect the OP doesn’t care and is being perhaps deliberately provocative?
As for knowingly giving money to a fascist? It says a lot about that person.
There are lots of ways that especially affluent people can help, but I suspect the OP doesn’t care and is being perhaps deliberately provocative?
Really?!
There are lots of ways that especially affluent people can help, but I suspect the OP doesn’t care and is being perhaps deliberately provocative?
Give it a rest
I wanted views on a product without the rhetoric.
Yet here we are. Good old STW
Sometimes it’s perhaps better to try and look at the bigger picture? You then may carry on with your initial plan but at least the consequences have been considered.
And Musk has provided the Ukrainian military with more than 50,000 starlink terminals for free
And (allegedly) had them switched off in the middle of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
I guess my question about Starlink is whether it’s profitable without US Government contracts, as if it depends on Tesla cross-subsidising it, there may be trouble ahead?
And (allegedly) had them switched off in the middle of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
I believe it definitely happened but Musk's "reason" was that he was worried that Putin would use the Ukrainian advance as an excuse to escalate massively (i.e. tactical nukes).
Apparently the biden administration also feared this. It's unknown who the order came from but it was a temporary state.
Is there Tesla cross subsidising?
What US government contracts are there with Starlink?
Have had full sized starlink for nearly three years now. We have one bar of 4g, if you stand in the loft and put the phone to the side of your head. BT guaranteed us 3mbs, but then rescinded on this when they actually came out. We’re (our hamlet of 7 houses) currently applying for a rural broadband grant.
i deplore handing musk’s enterprise any cash, but it’s the only viable solution available to us. It’s utterly, infuriatingly brilliant.
Its so good that I have considered getting a mini on a roam contract for the van. But the numbers don’t stack up. We use about 90Gb between the five of us on a road trip. We get 75gb free with our mobile contracts and the rest I have to top up. Roam unlimited is £96 a month which is a serious amount of additional smarty data packs.
I wanted views on a product without the rhetoric.
Yet here we are. Good old STW
anyone who has been here a while will know you couldn't give a shit, but here you are, looking for opinions. you found them. perhaps do a google search if you want reviews?
Is there Tesla cross subsidising?
I don’t know, that’s why I was asking. It’s possible Starlink is profitable in its own right, but if it’s not, then like any of Musk’s other projects that don’t cover their own costs, it’ll be reliant to a degree on Tesla.
What US government contracts are there with Starlink?
Well, I got one and it seems decent. Sat inside a steel container with the Starlink outside on the back of my truck (the silver pick up) and getting 100Mbs
Nice!
Much faff to set up (other than the initial one-off bits)?
Power usage would be good to know. How portable would you say it is in real life?
Seems like a no-brainer for your use-case though 👍
Not much faff at all.
Bought it from PC World as needed it quick. Downloaded the app, set it up as a network, paid for the subscription
It's about the size of an iPad Pro. The power supply is the usual sized brick adaptor. Going to get a 12v car lead too. I've always got my big Anker 230v/1000wh power bank with me at work, but (again with the right lead - USB-C to Starlink connector) I've seen a review where a guy has run it off one of these for a day. I also have one of these.
I'll run it off a powerbank at some point and let you know the real world drain.
Not interested in anti Elon rants.
You should be.
But for people with the requirements that Starlink offers, could you supply them with an option that works like Starlink does?
Enquiring minds want to know.
I'll run it off a powerbank at some point and let you know the real world drain.
Great test 👍🏻
What ports does it have onboard? Are they still using proprietary signalling over standard connectors (I think mine uses usbc connectors hard wired to Ethernet cable.
Fun fact: if you order bits from them direct you get text messages saying “your delivery from space-x has departed 🚀”
he’s still a ****.
What ports does it have onboard? Are they still using proprietary signalling over standard connectors (I think mine uses usbc connectors hard wired to Ethernet cable.
Think it has an ethernet port - but no power over ethernet facility. I'll probably get another router if I need to put it somewhere where it drops wifi, but it seems to suit my needs so far.
anyone who has been here a while will know you couldn't give a shit
I'll tell you what I couldn't give a shit about - sanctimonious opinions. List your worldly possessions and where you bought them from if you want to go down that road
i deplore handing musk’s enterprise any cash, but it’s the only viable solution available to us. It’s utterly, infuriatingly brilliant.
Same here.
We had ADSL until our house was flattened. It didn't work in bad weather and struggled with streaming (we don't have TV reception either). When we moved back in 2 years later nothing was available that would work at our place except starlink.
Now there are four people using it all day every working day and we've barely had an issue.
What ports does it have onboard? Are they still using proprietary signalling over standard connectors (I think mine uses usbc connectors hard wired to Ethernet cable.
Think it has an ethernet port - but no power over ethernet facility. I'll probably get another router if I need to put it somewhere where it drops wifi, but it seems to suit my needs so far.
anyone who has been here a while will know you couldn't give a shit
I'll tell you what I couldn't give a shit about - sanctimonious opinions. List your worldly possessions and where you bought them from if you want to go down that road
Sorry if I touched a nerve (;
Sorry if I touched a nerve
Don't applaud yourself too loudly. You didn't
Though here you are...
Though here you are...
Yep, commenting on my own thread, who would have thought a troll could have the skills to make me do that. Chapeau...
you want to give money to a nazi, crack on. people will have opinions about that and are free to express them. it's a public forum on which you sought opinion. you read some you didn't like. i expressed mine, as did others. feel free not to respond.
you want to give money to a nazi, crack on. people will have opinions about that and are free to express them. it's a public forum on which you sought opinion. you read some you didn't like. i expressed mine, as did others. feel free not to respond.
That ill formed excuse for a paragraph of words barely deserves a response tbh. You were the one that waded in looking for a response, amongst a couple of others, but you raised your head highest above the parapet.
I'm still waiting for the list of products you own that originate from a company that doesn't have any hint of any unethical political, ecological or human rights infringements. Crack on Tonto...
I don't have any purchases I need to justify and neither do you. Hope this helps?
Yep, commenting on my own thread, who would have thought a troll could have the skills to make me do that. Chapeau...
Doesn’t take that much skill, I do it all the time, to those that deserve it.
They are generally repulsive and repugnant individuals who behave in an abhorrent manner towards ordinary people who are completely undeserving of their bile.
Hey ho, is that the time? Off to bed.
Glad you got something that works so well; there’s supposed to be a European version coming along, as an alternative to Muskrats system, but it’s not going to be operational for at least several years, which is a fat lot of good for people who require something that works well and is stable for your operational needs.
I’m wondering if our little troll goes out at night vandalising Teslas… 🤔
Pages of Google Images results for Starlink Mini, and not one of them has a banana for scale. So I have no idea how 'mini' this product is.
I've got one of the normal/big ones on the barn in Cornwall and it has been excellent. I tell myself that Space-X is different to his other ventures so I can get to sleep at night.
Pages of Google Images results for Starlink Mini, and not one of them has a banana for scale. So I have no idea how 'mini' this product is.
www.starlink.com/public-files/specification_sheet_mini.pdf
Glasses for scale
Pages of Google Images results for Starlink Mini, and not one of them has a banana for scale. So I have no idea how 'mini' this product is.
Approximately 64 large postage stamps, or 0.001% of a football pitch.
Approximately 64 large postage stamps, or 0.001% of a football pitch.
...I only work in double decker buses!
And Musk has provided the Ukrainian military with more than 50,000 starlink terminals for free - doesn't make him the greatest person alive but is worthy of nite.
No - he hasn't. He provided 5000 terminals (which SpaceX had in stock and unused) to Ukraine in the early days of the war. The US DoD then paid for their continued access and for another 20K+ terminals and POLAND paid for another 20k terminals.
Well thanks to someone knocking over a pole that has my fibre attached to it, and Openreach being unable to fix it for 11 days I now also have a Starlink Mini!
I run my business from home and needed a decent connection - and the compensation for the loss of service for my fibre has paid for half of it 🙂
Here's my initial review:
(TLDR: It's pretty amazing)
I was actually away when MrsSB picked up the Mini so we did a remote install. She unboxed it, sent me the [unique] installation code, plugged the single cable into a power socket at one end the mini at the other then threw the mini out onto the lawn pointing straight up with no alignment carried out.
I downloaded the app, selected remote install, entered the installation code, created my Starlink account, chose a subscription plan (50GB for £50) and paid.
Next thing I knew I was connected to the mini 100 miles away. I renamed the wifi network and gave it a password which I then sent to MrsSB - job done.
Ran a speed test and got this which I find mind blowing as I only get 90mbps on my FTTP!
For me it's a great backup for the fibre service that I wrongly thought would never go down. In addition I can use it on my boat in places we go to that have zero mobile coverage.
I'm now thinking about getting a couple of Makita LXT battery adapters* that will run "Linky" for a few hours in the [possibly] remote case that I need wifi with no power source avilable.
One thing to note is that Starlink have now stopped the ability to pause your service and just run it for the months you want 😠
They've replaced it with a Standby mode which costs £4.50/month but does come with an unlimited data allowance at 500kbps. This may sound crap but apparently it's fast enough for:
- controlling/monitoring remote IoT devices
- SMS messages
- WhatApp messaging/calls
- WiFi calling
- Spotify streaming at normal quality
- simple web browsing
- even some video calls
..... which would cover pretty much everything I'd use it for 99% of the time.
* Using batteries I already have rather than buying a big battery pack that I may never use.
I was in the outback staring at an incredible starfield, and the line of starlinks went past totally spoiling the view. 'what a twonk he is', I thought.
I'm very happy for you.
Thing is tho - Starlink is the name everyone knows, like Hoover for vacuum cleaners - other options that don't directly fund a power hungry Nazi who is liable to have tantrum & turn it off when you don't want him to aren't as well known.
Glasses for scale
Come on, as posted below your pic the unit of measure is the banana for length or football pitch for area!
Got about 40 of the different generations including minis. We use then fixed and mobile, had a mini mounted to the roof rack of a car and connected to 12V, works great at motorway speeds. For best connection line up with the app. They do get effected by heavy cloud cover and rain though. Regularly have 50+ users hanging off them, the outage the other week did cause is some issues with our FWs.