Off grid internet

[A.Justice]

For what it's worth I got 600+ mbs from AT&T on my phone.

 

[Greendream]

I was getting between 0.5Mbit and 6Mbit using my phone and a cellular booster (4-5 bars), without a booster it's closer to 0-2 bars).

Connectivity depends on where you live and what sort of signals are available. At our elevation, line of sight to towers is non-existent so we're just skimming the top of the canyon grabbing an indirect signal. If we had direct line of sight I am sure we'd be pulling 50 Mbit off the cellular tower.

That being said, 50Mbit is nowhere near close to 250Mbit. For $60 a month unlimited data, cellular can still throttle as they often do during peak time.

We will see how starlink fares over the long term but for now, it is out of this world faster. We gained 42x speed for $40 more a month and no limits. I am going to drop the service on my phone down to a more minimal plan to try and offset the cost of the starlink months fee.

For us this type of connectivity can keep us from driving to town to rent redbox movies, we can stream entertainment like city folk. WiFi calling so no more calls going in and out.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, here in a bit of an electromagnetic hole, with an antenna on the roof I get some 30-50 Mbps.
Which is all I need - and more, response times are fast enough and I run my own DNS server.

Considering that with the dual-sim thing I pay 22€/month for unlimited everything, phone calls, internet, the lot, I really wouldn't want more.
Starlink sounds great, but, who needs it. Well, I don't :·)

 

[Wellbuilt]

My carrier is unlimited for any thing internet streaming , I can just leave the tv streaming day and nite
It bring a show up on my 65” screen I can blue tooth to it for about 24 hours a month
If I plug my I pad into the hd plug on the tv I am unlimited .
Of course I need a cell booster to pic up any thing in side

 

[Gamekeeper]

The big benefit of a dedicated cellular router is that they allow for external antennae.
I suggest subscribing to the mobile internet resource center channel and use their recommendations.

 

[Wellbuilt]

My place is wrapped in foil covered polystyrene insulation so I can’t get any service inside with out
a antenna .
I can get 1 or 2 bars out side but nothing inside .
With 100$ antenna I get 3 bars most of the time .

 

[BlackWaterPark]

We used our phones as hotspots for 6 years, though the data was always spotty until we upgraded with a booster antenna (purchased on Amazon for somewhere around $150), which ended up working much better, but not so much to reliably steam movies without getting chronically annoyed by the experience. We ended up installing Starlink 2 months ago, and it's been amazingly reliable and fast, typically 200-250mbs at the router and 110mbs at the device, while upload speeds are anywhere from 10 to as high as upper 30s. The emerging caveat with it however, is it's power draw. It's a rather complex arrangement of atmospheric conditions, obstructions, satellite positioning relative to geo-location and seasonal orbital tilt (seemingly), and temperature. So, when we first got it, the weather here in the western Maine mountains was warmer as the fall was still clinging on, and even as a ground pole mount, we have zero obstructions. For the first month or so, the dish was drawing a very stable and typical 40 watts, which was great. It took extra juice, often up to 90 watts for the initial searching every morning to position itself with the train, as we unplugged it every night to save some wattage, but always leveled off to 40ish within half an hour usually. Life was good. Then the cold ass weather hit, and temps have stayed consistently at freezing or below. There's a thermostat relay in the dish that calls for extra power when a certain temp is registered (and I'm guessing it's 35 or maybe a little higher) to heat up elements within the dish to prevent snow and ice from obstructing the signal... And if a phone tech is to be believed, play some role of pressure balancing in the dish. This has amounted to what I would consider rather exorbitant power draw just to have internet. These days, it's rare to see Starlink drawing less that 170 watts, and it usually stays right at 180. Which happens to be it's power brick's rating. Accordingly, the brick stays really hot most...all, actually.. of the day. I done expect this is helping to preserve longevity. And of course, 99% of the time, when it's cold here, it's not snowing or sleeting. This arrangement, to my mind, is absurdly wasteful and a real misstep in the engineering of an item to which the off-grid crowd was clearly if of it's major intended demographic markets. A much more sensible solution would have been to allow the user to enable/disable the temp relay via the app... In the very least. For us, running Starlink is virtually the same as running an additional 2.5 refrigerators. Therefore, we plug it in when we went to use it while these conditions of power draw remain, so that's an obvious (and intrusive) drawback with the system. Having said that, even in horrible conditions, and I mean big snow storms, heavily obscured skies, snow the does manage to accumulate before being melted away... The signal always remains strong and 99.8% of the time uninterrupted. So for all it's shameless power hungriness, at least it loyally delivers.

 

[Texas-Mark]

and a real misstep in the engineering of an item to which the off-grid crowd was clearly if of it's major intended demographic markets.

What makes you think off-grid was even a fraction of their intended market? There are millions of people who live rural without decent broad band, but are not off-grid.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

hat makes you think off-grid was even a fraction of their intended market?

The easy answer here is that the reps I've spoken at length to informed me this was the case, and they are daily receiving input from said market, which is a growing one as well, as energy storage becomes more financially feasible and power grids are becoming increasingly unreliable and more expensive. Ask any Mainer what they think of CMP, for instance. And really, no matter how you look at it, battery storage is becoming normalized, and as it continues to do so, efficiency will become an increasing concern. Lastly, I said it was a major target market, but I did not say it was a large one percentage wise.

 

[RobertGreen]

What makes you think off-grid was even a fraction of their intended market? There are millions of people who live rural without decent broad band, but are not off-grid.

I've had a hippie tell me that anyone with a last name couldn't be considered "off the grid"

 

[12VoltInstalls]

I've had a hippie tell me that anyone with a last name couldn't be considered "off the grid"

That’s hilarious actually

I hadn’t done anything on credit since 1999, cash or it didn’t get done. I also practiced “safe ‘net” and kept a fairly low electronic profile.

Apparently I did a pretty good job! When I tried to get preapproved for a mortgage I learned a new nuance to the meaning of ‘off grid.’ Umm, I didn’t exist other than a six-year old unpaid $400 medical bill that wasn’t even mine. And a solid “No!” on a mortgage.

I have a last name yet your hippie friend would be proud.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

When I tried to get preapproved for a mortgage I learned a new nuance to the meaning of ‘off grid.’ Umm, I didn’t exist

Same thing happened to me two years ago. I've always been a cash and carry kinda guy, hadn't used credit in well over 25 years, and haven't officially worked for anyone other than myself for 7. Decided I was tired of hauling logs on my shoulders and pushing wheelbarrows around and the like and that a shiny new tractor would be a nice thing to have finally. Said to myself "hey, maybe just establishing some credit again could be a useful thing to have, I've got the dough anyway, so why not"... Went down to the Kioti dealer slapped down 10k in hundreds and said "let's finance the other half, shall we?" (As I was just going to pay the balance of within two months anyways). After all the paperwork, and a lot of phone calls, the salesmen tells me I'm essentially a total ghost and he's never had a customer that doesn't exist within the system at all, and as such, they can't extend credit to fictitious persons. I decided right then that being a ghost sounded way more useful than some good credit, so I slapped the rest down on his counter and said "ship it"! Its always amusing when you pay for bigger stuff in cash and the salespeople look at it like they have no idea what to do with it at first, especially the younger generations.

 

[Rednecktek]

Ever seen a FICO score of 0? Yup, been there. ?

 

[12VoltInstalls]

Ever seen a FICO score of 0? Yup, been there. ?

Actually that’s what mine was. Lady at my bank said she’d never seen a zero before LOL

 

[Greendream]

Our starlink has been hooked up to a kill-a-watt since we got it. Its a gen 2 model with a rectangle dish. It has been in temps as low as 0F and had 6" of snow on it. An average power draw of 67.22w. This power supplies a heater, dish, and Wi-Fi router. Ive not checked the draw on a standard router but the combo of devices the power supply runs I'm satisfied. We dedicate about 1KWh to starlink overnight during winter of our total 15KWh storage.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

Our starlink has been hooked up to a kill-a-watt since we got it. Its a gen 2 model with a rectangle dish. It has been in temps as low as 0F and had 6" of snow on it. An average power draw of 67.22w. This power supplies a heater, dish, and Wi-Fi router. Ive not checked the draw on a standard router but the combo of devices the power supply runs I'm satisfied. We dedicate about 1KWh to starlink overnight during winter of our total 15KWh storage.

That's far more palatable than what my system is, and pardon the pun here, dishing out to keep thems internets coming in. 31° and light snow and we are pinging 180w on the kilowatt. I've identical storage as you actually. Makes sense the smaller form factor of the 2nd gen would use less power, as there is less to heat. Kinda wish they would have just sent the updated dish to us, as it was only 2 months ago we received the original model. I really hope they don't go the way of Apple's business model, like they have essentially done with Telsa (which is why I'll never own one unless they change it up). During winter, running our dish 24/7 eats about 3600 watts. I'm definitely rooting for competition to come along with a more sensible approach to the design at this point, that for sure.

 

[A.Justice]

That's far more palatable than what my system is, and pardon the pun here, dishing out to keep thems internets coming in. 31° and light snow and we are pinging 180w on the kilowatt. I've identical storage as you actually. Makes sense the smaller form factor of the 2nd gen would use less power, as there is less to heat. Kinda wish they would have just sent the updated dish to us, as it was only 2 months ago we received the original model. I really hope they don't go the way of Apple's business model, like they have essentially done with Telsa (which is why I'll never own one unless they change it up). During winter, running our dish 24/7 eats about 3600 watts. I'm definitely rooting for competition to come along with a more sensible approach to the design at this point, that for sure.

I would be willing to bet that at some point Tesla will be selling the power that goes into those dishes as well.

Tesla is really going for the long game. Give everybody a sweet, new, green product at a low price to get them hooked. Then you sell the privilege to be able to continue to use it. I like their stuff, but I'm definitely wary.

 

[BlackWaterPark]

Tesla is really going for the long game. Give everybody a sweet, new, green product at a low price to get them hooked. Then you sell the privilege to be able to continue to use it. I like their stuff, but I'm definitely wary.

The "Freemium" business model has really taken off across far too many sectors of commerce. Funny though, I just started seeing articles of a noted phenomena about cats having a habit of laying on ground mounted Starlink dishes... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say they like the warmth those things throw out. And funny enough, I was coming in from outside today, in 9° weather, my fingers were frozen, and then first thing I reached for was the damn power brick of the Starlink to wrap my hands around. Did the trick right quick too.

 

[McCarthy]

Tip of the day: get a business cell phone plan. They come with more hotspot volume and they get preferred data over personal plans when traffic cuts down the speeds. I'm on a business ATT plan with 100 GB of 5G for 80 bucks.

 

[McCarthy]

Ever seen a FICO score of 0? Yup, been there. ?

Still trying to figure out what it takes to get 850 points flat.

I have zero negative impacts on my history, ever. Not even late once. I pay off my credit cards in full every month. Average account age is in the top tier too. I don't use any of my high credit limit. Countless accounts in good standing.