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

Links

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