Who has StarLink or HUGHESNet satellite for internet service?

[Melensdad]

We have, what I refer to as, "Amish Internet" out where I live. Maximum download is 15Mbps. But it often drops down to 2 or 3Mbps. Of course I am still charged for all 15Mbps.

Had a repair tech out at the house today for 4 hours. Still no answers.

But he actually brought up the topic of switching to Elon Musk's StarLink satellite internet service. Honestly we are not power users at the house, so we can typically get by with download speeds in the 2 to 3Mbps range. It lets us stream TV on Roku and play on the computer.

Looks like HUGHESNet Satellite Service is also available here. Price is a little cheaper, service is slower. But I don't know anyone who is using HughesNet.

Starlink is (currently) $450 buy in price for equipment + $120 per month.

My neighbor says it is reliable. Says he gets 150Mbps (or more) download speeds. I'd be happy with 10Mbps

Do you have Starlink?

What cable connects to the Starlink dish?

Easy to install? Hard to install? Reliable?

-- or --

Do you have HughesNet?

Since they do the install I'm not worried about the cables or install questions but I am curious if you are happy with it.

 

[Kevlar]

We got Starlink a few months ago, I was hesitant at first but glad we got it now. Setup is really easy. Mount the dish on the roof, run cable in to the router, turn on and it does the rest. You won’t find many people more hopeless than me when it comes to technology but it was easy, Elon has people like me in mind when he designs things. I don’t know if we’ve ever had even a moment where it lost signal yet. I don’t use it much but wife and my 11 and 13 year old kids do. Before this we just used the data on our phones but that wasn’t cutting it.

 

[mbsieg]

I have both fiber and starlink. Starlink is our traveling camping cabin internet. I have the mini so it just stays with us. No issues works well for us. I know of other people who have had Hughes Net. Nothing but issues. Slow speed, bad customer service etc etc.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

We were like you before starlink. During covid shutdown, imagine trying to homeschool 5 kids and my wife working from home on a slow internet connection. I have our dish mounted on a 4x4 8ft post off the side of our deck on a small piece of plywood on top. Then as Kevlar said, just run the cable in and plug into the box and power it up. No more connection issues.

I know guys up here that work up north where there's no cell service let alone internet. They mount the dish in the box of their truck and have the box inside the cab plugged into a 12v inverter. Once it locks onto the system it stays locked on. No problem anymore with things like tv.

That's another point. Before starlink, we had satellite TV so we were paying for both separately which cost more per month. Once we got starlink, we were able to cancel satellite as we can now watch prime, Disney, or whatever streaming service we want. No more messing around with cable boxes connected to the TV. I know you are rural as well so not sure on your cellular service. Ours is sketchy the further from the city and main hwy corridors up here. So we kept a landline home phone for emergencies as often, I have 4 bars on my phone for service but can't send a text or make a call. Now that our kids are older and all have their own cellphone, we are going to cancel the house number too as we have reliable internet.

 

[Melensdad]

Well I've been digging more.

There are 3 satellite providers.

• HughesNet
• ViaSat
• StarLink

Of the 3, based on on-line review websites:

HugesNet has horrible reviews for their customer service and not so good reviews for their actual service. Latency is 650ms.

ViaSat has so-so reviews for both, most seem to rate it above HughesNet. Latency is also 650ms. So based on latency alone, the satellites must be higher in the sky (farther orbit distance) than Musk's StarLink system.

StarLink seems to have the highest costs but the best reviews.

And for whatever it is worth, I'm currently using my cellphone for internet service because my internet connection is completely gone this morning. I've been back on the phone with tech support. Another repairman will be here on Monday. They offered up the same tech I had yesterday to show up today, but I declined, I want different eyes on my system. Yesterday's tech tried everything, was super polite and nice, but he walked away telling me to switch to StarLink because he couldn't figure out how to make my system work.

 

[tommu56]

we had hughes switched to viasat because of poor service on hughes. I'm leaning on going to starlink but in the valley I'm not sure it will work time will tell.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

I have two starlinks. I have the original starlink on my house and "starlink rv" for my rv. They both work awesome. They now have a "starlink mini" that is much smaller. I only have to pay the monthly fee for the "starlink rv" when I use it. Worked great at burning man last year.

You get a long power over ethernet cat 5 or 6 cable that plugs into the dish to the router. The router has builtin wifi and an ethernet cable connection if you want to run a cable to it. The app has a tool for aligning the dish to get the best performance.

I'm a programmer and the performance is good enough. Somedays when the weather is bad the performance of zoom type meetings can be a little less than optimal but I usually just turn off the camera then. Otherwise, it is generally very consistent and better than any other internet system I have tried.

 

[Melensdad]

Well it is still not fixed!

I should be getting 15Mbps down, 4Mbps up. I don't care to much about the up, but I need more than 1Mbps down!!!

I'm pinging 3 different towers, not actually in Chicago, as the image below shows. The closest tower is 8-ish miles due west of me and located on the southern edge of Will County, northern edge of Kankakee County in Illinois.

I was reliably getting 12-15Mbps download, which more than covers my needs. Nobody can figure out why I am not getting that anymore. No equipment has changed, other than the service sent me one of their Eero 6+ units to use my gateway, connected via ethernet to the antenna on my rooftop. And they sent me that to help diagnose the problem, so that is not the cause of the problem.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I just did a speed test on mine.

 

[Melensdad]

Well I just ordered Starlink.

Then I looked at my potential install.

Then I CANCELLED the Starlink.

I need to research this a bit more. The "how to" part of the install. I have a printer in one room. I have an alarm system that requires 2 ethernet ports in another room. The easiest 2 rooms to bring the wire in are on 2 different floors of the house and not near either the printer (by my office) or by the alarm system. So I need to figure out the INTERNAL cable connection system.

Looks like the "Gen 3" Router from Starlink can be 'bypassed' and connected by ethernet to my existing Eero 6+ network, that would make the install simple-ish. Mount the antenna, drill a hole, snake a wire up a wall into the attic and out the hole to the antenna. But they don't guarantee the hardware is compatible. So research.

 

[Big Dog]

Well I just ordered Starlink.

Then I looked at my potential install.

Then I CANCELLED the Starlink.

I need to research this a bit more. The "how to" part of the install. I have a printer in one room. I have an alarm system that requires 2 ethernet ports in another room. The easiest 2 rooms to bring the wire in are on 2 different floors of the house and not near either the printer (by my office) or by the alarm system. So I need to figure out the INTERNAL cable connection system.

Looks like the "Gen 3" Router from Starlink can be 'bypassed' and connected by ethernet to my existing Eero 6+ network, that would make the install simple-ish. Mount the antenna, drill a hole, snake a wire up a wall into the attic and out the hole to the antenna. But they don't guarantee the hardware is compatible. So research.

You might try 5G service from Verizon or AT&T, it’s a router that uses signal just like your smart phone. I live rural and used DSL for years 12mbps max. Ain’t no fiber or cable out here. When they introduced 5G I went with Verizon, AT&T didn’t offer the service out here. Works great with speeds up to 50+ mbps. My area is in a congested state so all services are affected, my 5G struggles at times. It was flawless for a couple years but it’s bumpy now. I’m all wireless (tv, phones, pad, streaming, printers), the only thing I need a Ethernet cable (which the router has a couple jacks) is for my camera system. Images are the router and current speeds. Service price without a Verizon phone is $50/mo. If you’re a Verizon phone customer it drops to $35/mo. If you have good 5G & LTE now with your phone this is a very viable option.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Well I just ordered Starlink.

Then I looked at my potential install.

Then I CANCELLED the Starlink.

I need to research this a bit more. The "how to" part of the install. I have a printer in one room. I have an alarm system that requires 2 ethernet ports in another room. The easiest 2 rooms to bring the wire in are on 2 different floors of the house and not near either the printer (by my office) or by the alarm system. So I need to figure out the INTERNAL cable connection system.

Looks like the "Gen 3" Router from Starlink can be 'bypassed' and connected by ethernet to my existing Eero 6+ network, that would make the install simple-ish. Mount the antenna, drill a hole, snake a wire up a wall into the attic and out the hole to the antenna. But they don't guarantee the hardware is compatible. So research.

Pussy! Mine goes out a hole in one side of my basement garage, up three stories to the roof mounted dish. Then the ethernet goes out the other side of my garage to my main router in my basement office. Honestly, it was a pain in the ass and is a an ugly mess of wires tacked all over the exterior of my my house. But the speed was worth it.

 

[Melensdad]

Im tr

Pussy! Mine goes out a hole in one side of my basement garage, up three stories to the roof mounted dish. Then the ethernet goes out the other side of my garage to my main router in my basement office. Honestly, it was a pain in the ass and is a an ugly mess of wires tacked all over the exterior of my my house. But the speed was worth it.

I’m trying not to I have an ugly mess of wires!

I’m trying to use my existing range extenders (interior wi-fi) do I don’t have to reinvent the wheel and pull wires to hardwire some devices that require connection

I’m also trying to figure out the mount, ideally on my rooftop, but as I am no longer trusted up there (wife says NFW!) I need to get a buddy willing to do that (I actually have one) and is tech savvy (not sure he is) enough to optimize the mounting & aiming.

 

[Big Dog]

I’m seriously considering Starlink BUT, as mentioned before, I’m in a deemed congested area by Starlink that infers additional cost! HITF can I be in that kind of area in the boonies . I’m not at all intimidated by hardware setup although my home is surrounded by trees. You can DL a Starlink app to help you decide location. Essentially, with app running, you wave your phone around the sky and you can actually see it locking on to numerous satellites. I will have to bury cable, no way it’s going to be able to go on the roof due to satellite reception for the trees.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

It's pretty good about the trees but you do need to see some sky. I had to update the firmware on my starlink rv recently. I just layed it on the ground and roughly pointed it in the same direction as my house starlink and it worked fine.

I think my starlink rv is faster than my original starlink (I was an early user and waited on the pre-release list for six months). If you look on youtube you will see people with starlink mini's installed in their cars driving around and getting good internet speeds.

 

[Melensdad]

@Big Dog : $100 congestion fee … I’d get hit with that too.

But according to several online sources, Eero 6+ networks will work with the newest version of Starlink without any sort of adapter, but one of the Eero units needs to be connected to the Starlink router via Ethernet. Starlink wi-fi turned off by putting router into bypass mode. I can do that!

So I guess I’ll be ordering Starlink again… but there is now snow on the rooftop and ANOTHER technician from my current supplier will be here again tomorrow morning. If he can ‘fix’ my issues I’ll stick with what I have a bit longer.

If not, I’ll probably live with what I have until the weather cooperates.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Pussy! Mine goes out a hole in one side of my basement garage, up three stories to the roof mounted dish. Then the ethernet goes out the other side of my garage to my main router in my basement office. Honestly, it was a pain in the ass and is a an ugly mess of wires tacked all over the exterior of my my house. But the speed was worth it.

Here's my base. As far as aiming it, it was just a case of bolt it down to the base and run the cable into the house. The dish aims itself. I ran ours in through the same spot as all the cables from past satellite systems go in through an access point in the basement wall the previous owners built into the basement. It's just filled in with spray foam insulation. The cables all run to our furnace room so I just ran them along the existing satellite wires in our suspended ceiling. In the furnace room it was simple connect the cable to a box and plug in to a power supply. No other wires necessary. Pretty much run the wire. Connect one end to the dish. Connect the other end to the box. Turn it on.

Now, we have our box in the basement meaning we were losing a bit of signal strength so we bought a wireless booster for upstairs that picks up the main box signal from the basement and projects it further. I can be down at my garage about 250 ft from the house and still get signal.

What some of our friends at camp do is go in together on one starlink system and split the cost 3 ways. They're all together though side by side.

 

[Melensdad]

Home Depot is an authorized Starlink retailer. There are others, but I have a Pro account with them so I earn points to get discounts and rebates.

My local store has them in stock. Has the mount for the roof. Same price as available from Starlink but you save $20 shipping cost.

Going to talk to my buddy who will be climbing on my roof to install the dish, and snow is an issue. But we are about 90% sure we are going to get it, it will likely be a weather issue for installation.

 

[Big Dog]

Home Depot is an authorized Starlink retailer. There are others, but I have a Pro account with them so I earn points to get discounts and rebates.

My local store has them in stock. Has the mount for the roof. Same price as available from Starlink but you save $20 shipping cost.

Going to talk to my buddy who will be climbing on my roof to install the dish, and snow is an issue. But we are about 90% sure we are going to get it, it will likely be a weather issue for installation.

I think I’ll just get a 6’ length of 2” pipe and weld a base plate on it and mount it to the back yard porch handrail corner.

 

[Big Dog]

Looks like I’ll be visiting Home Depot, I had no idea and my local has them in stock.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Rather than mounting it on the roof where I would have to worry about snow, I put it on the side of the deck. As long as it's in the open, it will lock onto the satellite and stay locked on even if the base moves. Like I said, guys up here have them mounted in the box of their pickup running around the bush roads up north with full signal strength. Once the thing locks onto a satellite it stays locked on even if the base moves.

Another thing to consider is that unlike a typical satellite dish that needs to be kept clear of snow, the dish has a built-in heating element on a timer that melts everything on the dish itself. Once the storm is over, I just clear off the snow around the base. And....just a tip. Keep an eye on it after a storm as when the snow hits it and melts, it drips down forming an icicle from the base up that could interfere with the movement of the dish.

 

[Melensdad]

I have trees blocking the sky on 3 sides. But I used the app and walked out to the driveway and even there, with very few trees close, when I did the sky scan it picked up on the trees. I really need the antenna mounted on my roof. Might be able to get it on my garage roof instead of the house roof, but that would complicate all the other stuff, especially if I can continue to use my Eero equipment. Everything else is easier if I put the dish on the rooftop.

 

[DAVENET]

Not necessarily. As long as you have power in your garage (live feed and or generator during an outage) you can mount the antenna on that roof and keep the base unit there. Then you could go opposite of NRedneck and put the booster in your house for service.

"Now, we have our box in the basement meaning we were losing a bit of signal strength so we bought a wireless booster for upstairs that picks up the main box signal from the basement and projects it further. I can be down at my garage about 250 ft from the house and still get signal."

We just installed the system at our camp in the Adirondacks this past summer. Before that the only cell you would get was by going to the highest point on the property to get signal. Now you could live stream anything you want. There was a lot of push back from members to keep new tech out of a 136 year old hunting camp. But everyone also realized that it also likely turns a fatality into a medical emergency. The dish is on a central cabin and there are currently 5 boosters (more coming) to link 8 of the 13 cabins.

My sister in WNC just got Starlink during Hurricane Helene. They were already in the process of ditching the crappy HugesNet. (nicely put compared to her thoughts on Huges). They also didn't want to have everything running everywhere, so it is in their garage office with a booster in the house taking care of everything else no problem.

 

[Melensdad]

Not necessarily. As long as you have power in your garage (live feed and or generator during an outage) you can mount the antenna on that roof and keep the base unit there. Then you could go opposite of NRedneck and put the booster in your house for service.
...

One of complications I have is a small cement walled room in my basement, which houses an alarm system, which needs to be hardwired (ethernet) to the system.

Honestly looking at all of this, and all the work arounds, the EASIEST (and the cleanest wiring) answer is literally to roof mount, pull the new wire through the hole where my existing wire is run, and straight into the room where my current gateway is located. No new holes in the walls or roof, just mount the new Starlink to the existing pipe that holds my current radio antenna.

Now that I have confirmation that the Starlink Version 3 Router will work, without any adapters or special crap, with my existing Eero 6+ units, it makes the job much easier. My Eero mesh network is set up to cover my OUTDOOR patios and porches plus the pool deck too. Re-using the existing Eero mesh routes is much cheaper than adding a couple extra (expensive) Starlink routers to accomplish the same thing.

Of course, we had fresh snow last night so. . . waiting a couple months, or at least waiting until the roof is clear and we have above freezing temps, to switch to Starlink.

 

[Melensdad]

Now another twist...

Current internet supplier departed my home a short while ago. He ran lots of tests, Replaced some bits and pieces inside the attic. BUT he said he can't fix my problem without going ONTO the roof. He believes the feed going outside is bad. Snow and wind prevent him from going up today.

So I'm on the priority repair list, but roof needs to clear.

In the mean time he was able to bump up my snail pace speed enough to stream video, but streaming video while surfing the net or download email is sketchy. Sometimes it will work, other times not so much.

Clearly I need to either get a repair or make a change, but NEITHER will happen under the current weather conditions.