satellite internet questions

[Doc]

Asked this before but am now a bit more educated........

Home on top of mountain, no cable, no phone, no nothing but a hell of a view.

Only internet provider is Hughes Net. Options are 20GB, 30GB and 50GB but is "unlimited", in that once you hit your limit is slows down. Not enough to run HULU or streaming services so this would be browsing only. It is a second home that we won't be at often, and will be used as a rental (weekly / monthly). Is 20GB enough? I can upgrade if needed but how much web time does 20 GB get me?

Second, TV will be Direct TV. Had them for about 25 years but cancelled when we moved 3 yrs ago. When DTV was not working well, they were a pain in my ass...but it is the only option. Looking at likely 4, maybe 5 tvs in the house. Again, can't stream but thats fine.

Should run me about $150 per month combined. Are their any alternatives?

[PedroDaGr8]

I have heard from a couple colleagues that live in the boonies that you are lucky to get anything close to streaming speeds with HughesNet.

They have both joined the StarLink beta and rave about it. Starlink regularly hits 50-150Mbps and has no data caps. I believe it costs around $100/mo (but do know there is a decent fee for the advanced equipment). Since you can do streaming without data caps, a basic streaming TV service like Sling or YouTubeTV my fit the bill better and would get you within $10 of the price you mention.

Link for Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/

[bigsky]

Everyone in rural Montana is psyched about Starlink

[Doc]

I clicked on link. Looks interesting. Equip is $499 and service 99 per month. Target date is mid To late 2021. Want $100 to get in line. Will wait and talk to a rep

[Doc]

That is Elon Musks venture. Odd are I sign up and risk $100. I am not in dire needs of internet or TV for a few months anyway

[VirginiaCat]

HughesNet does not perform to specs, Tried to put it in place for our former CEO and simply was not enough to even run a browser based Electronic Record and email.

I would ask DirectTV if they have any options. They have some packages but maybe not where you are at.

Starlink likely will be the way to go.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Only go with Hughes Net if you have Zero cell service.

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[Doc]

We have zero cell phone service

[KentuckyWildcat]

Then cross your fingers and hope starlink is decent.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I had been hearing that HughesNet has improved over recent years. But a co-worker just dropped it because on a good day he was getting about 1/2 mbps down

[VirginiaCat]

Doc, the good news is the $2T infrastructure package includes funding hi speed wifi to all of the continental US. Ironically, one thing in it I can support (much like the rural power act of the 1950's)

[Doc]

Doc, the good news is the $2T infrastructure package includes funding hi speed wifi to all of the continental US. Ironically, one thing in it I can support (much like the rural power act of the 1950's)

Without trying to get into politics....I am a proponent of the private sector dealing with this. Starlink seems like a successful attempt at it. My fear is gov't gets involved and it turns into an "Obama phone" situation where its free phones (or internet in this case) for most paid for by others. Add that private is typically better than gov't IMO

[KeithKSR]

Starlink blows the doors off Hughesnet, Exede, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suqCktQwZvo

[CitizenBBN]

Doc, how far are you from any local wifi or last mile provider? I'm assuming no line of sight at all, which is a problem, but the big trick is having a friend who has wifi somehwere you can beam to with the right equipment. I'm guessing it's too far and too much interference in between but thought I'd ask.

You can get miles out of the right directional wifi setup, but if it's not line of sight you get more limited and require some real tricks to pull it off, like 900Mhz equipment.

[Doc]

Doc, how far are you from any local wifi or last mile provider? I'm assuming no line of sight at all, which is a problem, but the big trick is having a friend who has wifi somehwere you can beam to with the right equipment. I'm guessing it's too far and too much interference in between but thought I'd ask.

You can get miles out of the right directional wifi setup, but if it's not line of sight you get more limited and require some real tricks to pull it off, like 900Mhz equipment.

No idea. Some on the mountain have line of site connections but we are deeply forested and at a very high elevation. Starlink sounds like best option but not currently available. If I go Hughes it a 1 yr contract

A few years back, we went to Coasta Rica and had something that allowed us internet anywhere. Came from rental car company.

[KeithKSR]

No idea. Some on the mountain have line of site connections but we are deeply forested and at a very high elevation. Starlink sounds like best option but not currently available. If I go Hughes it a 1 yr contract

A few years back, we went to Coasta Rica and had something that allowed us internet anywhere. Came from rental car company.

I’ve had Exede (now Viasat) and Hughes both. When we had Exede (Viasat) it was faster. Both require two year contracts, so I would check to see which would be less expensive if you terminate the contract early. Both have equipped leasing programs available. When I bought my Hughes equipment it was around $500.

[CitizenBBN]

No idea. Some on the mountain have line of site connections but we are deeply forested and at a very high elevation. Starlink sounds like best option but not currently available. If I go Hughes it a 1 yr contract

A few years back, we went to Coasta Rica and had something that allowed us internet anywhere. Came from rental car company.

There is some specialized 900Mhz equipment that would help with the line of sight issue, an using a directional Yagi type antenna you may get something to work, but it's way out of the box.

In my past life with IT we built custom wireless setups for long range handheld communication. Even with omni small gain antennas (like 2db or 4db rubber ducks) we could get 1 mile plus non line of sight with 900mhz. At that time it wasn't network/wifi compatible but now there are radios you can put in a box like a routerboard and get network compatible wifi but on a 900mhz backbone. it gives much better signal through things like trees and walls.

It can be a slick solution, but it's not something you can just subscribe to do, unless there is a vendor out in that area doing last mile work with that kind of tech. If i were out there that's what I would use but it's definitely not off the shelf.

If you could get line of sight with a big antenna rig then you could stream, but I don't know of any 900Mhz that would support anything like streaming speeds. we used it for commercial data communication that took almost no bandwidth and it worked great, and I imagine it's faster than it was back then, but I seriously doubt it could get anything close to streaming speeds.

Starlink, if it works, will be the defacto standard for all such last mile situations IMO.

[CitizenBBN]

Just looked, speed still poor on these units for any "normal" use:

https://www.express-inc.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AW900xTR-PAIR&gclid=CjwKCAjw9r-DBhBxEiwA9qYUpbraioP-LNWni4v-Z1EQmd-J_-CZNS_ENodDWwgVNAnfwSOsdhec9hoCoE8QAvD_BwE

Shows RF transmission rate: 1.536 Mbps
Ethernet data rate: 935 Kbps

So you'll get a meg out of it on a great day. Plenty for industrial applications, not so much for Netflix.

[Doc]

I think we will wait it out for Skynet (or starlink) .... for some reason I want to call it Skynet but that is something totally different

https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2018/02/13/Photos/ZG/MW-GD647_skynet_20180213113524_ZG.jpg?uuid=e41f2218-10db-11e8-b127-9c8e992d421e

Wonder if "Skynet" was on the list of possible names that Elon Musk considered??????


Went ahead and ordered. Figure worse case its $99 dollars wasted. Are saying "mid to late 2021", and its almost mid now.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Worth trying. Can't be worse than Hughes Net.

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[KentuckyWildcat]

The issue will be in 6 months when everyone switches over. Can they handle the load. Hughes Net was fine as I was one of the first on Gen 4. As others moved over it became useless.

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[KeithKSR]

The issue will be in 6 months when everyone switches over. Can they handle the load. Hughes Net was fine as I was one of the first on Gen 4. As others moved over it became useless.

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Elon Musk is planning on a huge network, hopefully he has planned expansion of the servers as the satellites add to the coverage area.

[dan_bgblue]

Starlink low earth satellite swarm will be a huge benefit to rural areas and mountain tops as well. Worth the wait vs the frustration of a 2 year contract with Hughesnet.