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Hasty Treat - Starlink Rural Internet

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about Wes’ new satellite internet setup — best use-cases and how to set it up.

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Show Notes

04:06 - Rural internet is huge for:

  • Access to information
  • Remote work
    • Opens up job opportunities for many residents who can’t relocate due to family
  • Home values
    • Big city folk moving into rural areas and driving prices up is another issue altogether
  • Smart rural home

05:46 - Previous setup

  • We have a cottage
  • LTE Routers
  • Yagi Antennas
  • Worked well, but slow
  • $4/gig over 100gb
  • Grey market - one went up/down
  • Alternatives
    • WISP - no access
    • XPLORNET @ (hughesnet) - BRUTAL
    • Bell LTE - $$$ - slow

08:35 - The signup, install, price

  • $129 CAD Deposit ($100 USD)
  • $650 for the dish
  • $120/month
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Needs a clear view of the northern sky
  • Clear from obstructions is key
  • Every 1 foot up is 2 foot of obstructions cleared
  • I put it on a 25ft piece of wood
  • Bought a pipe adaptor from Starlink

09:59 - The performance

  • These numbers are not impressive to anyone with fiber, but are LIFE CHANGING to rural folks
  • From 30mbps - 200mbps down - some users posted ~350 down
  • Upload from 25mpbs - 80mbps (better than you can pay for where I live in the city)
  • Ping is around 40ms
  • Downtime is measured in seconds
  • Youtube streams super smoothly
  • Zoom works great
  • Facebook + Instagram issues
    • Many reported changing DNS fixed it

14:21 - The equipment

  • Starlink comes with a router
    • Does not support bridge mode
    • Doesn’t have WPS
    • Only one hard-wired port
    • POE-only
  • UniFi Dream Machine
  • Three access points
  • POE switch for Starlink Router
    • Gives you stats
  • The ethernet is hard-wired into the dish, so you have to drill a huge hole in the house
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