Got my Star Link set up temporarily (The "dish" is sitting on my front lawn at the moment).  So far I am quite pleased with it.  Even though it's just a temporary setup I am getting way better (more than double) the speeds that we got with our Verizon hotspot.  Tomorrow, weather permitting I'll climb the ladder and install it permanently on the same mount where my Dish Network satellite dish was.  Being raised up that high should only improve the quality of the connection.

I also have YoutubeTV and Amazon Prime configured on my TV's so it looks like we are set for television viewing.  YTTV also offers "cloud DVR" service so I can record anything that I might not be able to watch live.

It's amazing to me, a real geek how well Star Link works.  I watched a video explaining how it works, and it was almost "over my head". 

By the way, if anyone is considering getting Star Link, PM me and I'll give you my info.  If I refer anyone both that person and I will get a free month (a $120 value).  I am not pushing the service and I certainly don't work for Star Link or SpaceX, it's just one of the things offered with my new service.

Have you experienced any dropouts during rainy weather? How about data caps? I may eventually be moving to a more rural area and might look into it.

I went through the setup yesterday afternoon to temporarily test it out.  I had the dish sitting on my front lawn in a fairly open area (I live in the middle of the woods so there are trees all around).  We had some pretty heavy rains (not thunderstorms) come through late afternoon into the night and had no service disruptions at all.

This morning in between the rain showers I managed to get it off the ground and up on the permanent mount on my roof.  Again, lots of rain showers today and it's still humming along with no issues.  I just need about an hour or so of no rain so that I can finish securing the cable properly.

Regarding data caps, there are none.  It's unlimited which is one of the reasons why we made the switch.  Prior to that our only internet access was through Verizon with a mobile hot spot.  We were limited to 100GB per month at 4G speeds and after hitting 100GB the speed would drop down to almost-as-bad as dial up.  For television we were using Dish Network which I wasn't particularly impressed with and didn't really like it, especially for the price I was paying.

Because of where we live we didn't have the option of any type of wired/cable service for television or internet.  I do also have an over-the-air antenna for television which enables me to see most of the Jacksonville/Gainesville local stations, and YTTV also provides us the Jacksonville locals.

In my experience the only "downfall" of Star Link is the upfront cost could be a bit steep.  $299 for the equipment and I probably spent another $60 or so for extra stuff for installation (long drill bit, silicone caulk, cable fasteners, etc.).  After that the cost of the service is $120 per month which in my opinion isn't really bad considering how well the system works.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Thanks for the detailed response, that’s all good to know. It’s nice to have that as an option.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you. 
Check out the Jag's Forum Alternative: Duval Football Fans.

Everyone I know who has Starlink loves Starlink.

I have a friend with Starlink and he seems to like it. His speeds are quite a bit slower than mine and he pays quite a bit more than me, but if you don't have other options I'm sure its worth it. 

My dad lives out in the boonies. Hes too cheap to get starlink or any kind of satellite internet. The phone company forced him to end his dialup when they made the switch years ago. Somehow he talked them into setting him up with the dsl in the area, problem being the dsl's "range" is about a mile short from my dads house. They still ran it for him, his numbers are horrible, but its enough to load up a few news sites. Majority of us grew up in the dialup ages, boy am I glad we are past that. The sound of the modem connecting on dial up still haunts me lol

I don't know what your definition of "slow speed" is when it comes to networking/internet.  We started off with a Verizon 4G hot spot which got us around 20Mbs download speeds.  It worked fine for streaming video, surfing the internet, watching YouTube videos, etc.  

Once I started up the Star link those speeds more-than doubled over WiFi.

I finally did a test just today with wired network, and I was blown away.  Average is around 156Mbs download and the speed difference is very much noticeable when surfing the internet, downloading large files, etc.  That's actually better than any DSL or fiber from AT&T that I have used when I lived in Jacksonville.

All of my tests were conducted using speedtest.net.

Thanks for the detailed response, that’s all good to know. It’s nice to have that as an option.

As for my experience so far, refer to my response to TSW above.  If your home has wired networking infrastructure in place, an inexpensive switch will give the best performance.  Wireless seems to work really well also, but I have also seen a couple of videos where an off-the-shelf wireless router connected to the wired port on the Star Link router performs even better.  I personally am not a huge fan of WiFi so I won't go that route.

We have had quite a few rain showers (no real thunderstorms) over the past couple of weeks since I installed it and have experienced no problems whatsoever.

In a rural area with no other good options, it's the way to go.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

I have a friend with Starlink and he seems to like it. His speeds are quite a bit slower than mine and he pays quite a bit more than me, but if you don't have other options I'm sure its worth it. 

My dad lives out in the boonies. Hes too cheap to get starlink or any kind of satellite internet. The phone company forced him to end his dialup when they made the switch years ago. Somehow he talked them into setting him up with the dsl in the area, problem being the dsl's "range" is about a mile short from my dads house. They still ran it for him, his numbers are horrible, but its enough to load up a few news sites. Majority of us grew up in the dialup ages, boy am I glad we are past that. The sound of the modem connecting on dial up still haunts me lol

I don't know what your definition of "slow speed" is when it comes to networking/internet.  We started off with a Verizon 4G hot spot which got us around 20Mbs download speeds.  It worked fine for streaming video, surfing the internet, watching YouTube videos, etc.  

Once I started up the Star link those speeds more-than doubled over WiFi.

I finally did a test just today with wired network, and I was blown away.  Average is around 156Mbs download and the speed difference is very much noticeable when surfing the internet, downloading large files, etc.  That's actually better than any DSL or fiber from AT&T that I have used when I lived in Jacksonville.

All of my tests were conducted using speedtest.net.

Thanks for the detailed response, that’s all good to know. It’s nice to have that as an option.

As for my experience so far, refer to my response to TSW above.  If your home has wired networking infrastructure in place, an inexpensive switch will give the best performance.  Wireless seems to work really well also, but I have also seen a couple of videos where an off-the-shelf wireless router connected to the wired port on the Star Link router performs even better.  I personally am not a huge fan of WiFi so I won't go that route.

We have had quite a few rain showers (no real thunderstorms) over the past couple of weeks since I installed it and have experienced no problems whatsoever.

In a rural area with no other good options, it's the way to go.

I'm paying for 500mbs vs his 300mbs. Its not like you really need it much more than 100mbs anyway. 

As for wifi, I run everything on wifi aside from my playstation 5. I stream all my tv on a firestick through an IPTV and don't have very many buffering issues. When testing my speeds, I use speedtest.net on my phone. So its reading wifi and it ranges between 350mb-425mb download but I only have 45 upload. <-- thats the reason I've been thinking about switching from Mediacom(cable) to SMTA (fiber). The higher upload would probably eliminate the little buffering issues. 

The issue with switching to SMTA is kinda like the same if you are deciding to use starlink, as theres an installation fee. They have to dig up your yard and bury the fiber.

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A mesh network made a huge improvement to my WiFi. Best money I ever spent for home connectivity.

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