Starlink

[The Bill Collector]

Memorial weekend we had 1 bar with Verizon, not enough to stream so I searched for networks and one of the boats on the dock had an open Starlink connection. We streamed movies all weekend, I'm a believer....

 

[ocgrant]

So while the speeds have been "OK" this thing has not skipped a beat. Worked all the way during the crossing no problem, kids and wifey loved it. Seems to be the ticket for me as the cell service here was always spotty with the Peplink and this has been rock solid. So test 1 in the Bahamas is a big win. Next step is 15 days in the Exumas...

 

[Skybolt]

So while the speeds have been "OK" this thing has not skipped a beat. Worked all the way during the crossing no problem, kids and wifey loved it. Seems to be the ticket for me as the cell service here was always spotty with the Peplink and this has been rock solid. So test 1 in the Bahamas is a big win. Next step is 15 days in the Exumas...

View attachment 146182

That is really good news! Hope the next 15 is as good as this one. Enjoy your trip!

 

[ocgrant]

So update from the Exuma’s. Practically every decent sized boat in the marina has Starlink marine. Funny how many mega yacht that don’t have it installed yet have the portable up on top and a wire running down and into the boat. It is working flawlessly. I have been using it underway and at the marinas. Super happy with how it is performing and staying connected.

 

[Skybolt]

So update from the Exuma’s. Practically every decent sized boat in the marina has Starlink marine. Funny how many mega yacht that don’t have it installed yet have the portable up on top and a wire running down and into the boat. It is working flawlessly. I have been using it underway and at the marinas. Super happy with how it is performing and staying connected.
View attachment 147303

That's awesome Grant. Have you gone over the 50GB usage yet? Curious if you have usable inet after that.

 

[Skybolt]

From panbo:
"It seems Starlink has started officially stating that in motion is 10 miles per hour or greater. They also seem to be softening their stance on using the $600 hardware in motion"

https://panbo.com/starlink-maritime-affordable-options/#comment-461072

It is still not clear to me whether you need to have the priority service or not to get usable inet. Seems $250 for 50gb/mnth is a bit crazy, since most will go over that in a half that time.

 

[alnav]

Got my high-performance dishy installed last week. I left the dish in standby on the Peplink for a few days but can still see how it is doing. Speeds have been consistently good:

I thought I would run out the allowance this month and see what happens, I know @SKybolt has been interested in this.
I brought the dish out of standby on Sunday and let the grandkids watch a movie; that ate 14GB or so. I left the dish as the primary and expected to use up more bandwidth on my next visit. To my surprise, looks like I won't need to do that:

This is the status as of just now. Starlink appears to be using 10MB or so per day in standby (or at least without any users doing anything). I do have a SensorPush climate monitor that's active but I can't imagine that is using any significant bandwidth. The other possibility I suppose could be the culprit is a MacBook I keep connected on the boat, but it was left asleep. It also occurs to me that the Peplink is responsible. Or, I guess it could be Starlink overhead but I would be horrified if they were charging the allowance for that. Anyway, more to follow as I try to figure out where the bandwidth is going. The Peplink has some graphs but so far it looks like it only displays overall usage and not by device.

 

[Skybolt]

@alnav Al I also see this being on cell. I was leaving a windows 10 pc on and also a Firetv. I now switch those off when not in use. That in and of itself saved all of the bandwidth use. Before I did that I went through almost 100gb in less then two weeks before I realized what was going on. Now I disable the cell when I am not on the boat and re-enable when on. I rely on the marina wifi as much as possible.

I am guessing you will need to do the same unless their Best Effort Service proves usable. Very interested in seeing what their BES will provide consistently. It's either that or the 50GB plan turns into a 100gb or more plan.

 

[dtfeld]

I have the same SensorPush system, plus a VictronCerbo GX monitoring various things on the boat, and a security camera.

My run rate with those devices running 24/7 is about 30-35MB per day. Your 10MB seams about right. The YouTube TV is the big consumer.

 

[Skybolt]

... The YouTube TV is the big consumer.

Leaving a FireTv or other streaming device on 24/7 is also a bigger issue. They are constantly getting items to stream as commercial promos etc.

 

[ocgrant]

One day left and here is where I am

 

[dtfeld]

I have a 100GB plan and it’s enough for a couple hours streaming every weekend. Not sure I’d make it on a 2 week cruise.

However, $2/GB for additional data isn’t unreasonable.

 

[Skybolt]

One day left and here is where I am
View attachment 147853

When you hit 50gb, did it slow down at all or did the $2 buy in just kick in?

 

[Jaybeaux]

You guys have probably seen this, but Colin Macrea, on Parlay Revival is installing the Starlink Maritime unit. Fast forward to the 12 minute mark.

Jaybeaux

 

[Skybolt]

You guys have probably seen this, but Colin Macrea, on Parlay Revival is installing the Starlink Maritime unit. Fast forward to the 12 minute mark.

Jaybeaux

Interesting, only the new maritime seems to be whats working and has automatic priority over the rv one, according to that vid. Thanks for posting.

 

[ocgrant]

When you hit 50gb, did it slow down at all or did the $2 buy in just kick in?

I already had it turned on to go priority. A buddy i was with said he didn't and it was still working for his email like no issue. Since I was on a VPN for my work I wanted it to be good so I opted in already

 

[alnav]

My 50GB Mobile Priority allowance ran out this morning - five days with only parasitic loads:

I expected a big difference in the speed test, but:

Not so much, in fact a little better than my recorded test with priority. Probably too soon to draw any conclusion. I hope to limp over to the boat this weekend and see what happens if I load up the system with some streaming and data transfers. I also intend to see what I can do about the overhead with the Peplink bandwidth controls.

 

[Skybolt]

I picked up a used dish to play around with again. Finally got around to setting it up this weekend and was very pleased with the changes in the standard mobility package.

SL added the option to buy priority data @ $2/gb. which is fantastic. I have the same plan I did a year ago(Mobility Regional) @$150/month and the data throughput this past weekend was ~50MBps download speeds. I left YouTubeTV streaming the whole weekend as a test and it never errored out or anything. Also streamed the some races yesterday and they never got the spinning cursor of death and stayed in HD the entire time. I did not turn on the priority data either.

I also noticed the bay area is not waitlisted any longer but instead is "low capacity". I think with the recent satellites launched made a difference in service. Also not sure if new land facilities were added or not, but not bad for still using the old equipment. I am going on a trip this week to the middle bay area, so will see how this works.

 

[ocgrant]

I picked up a used dish to play around with again. Finally got around to setting it up this weekend and was very pleased with the changes in the standard mobility package.

SL added the option to buy priority data @ $2/gb. which is fantastic. I have the same plan I did a year ago(Mobility Regional) @$150/month and the data throughput this past weekend was ~50MBps download speeds. I left YouTubeTV streaming the whole weekend as a test and it never errored out or anything. Also streamed the some races yesterday and they never got the spinning cursor of death and stayed in HD the entire time. I did not turn on the priority data either.

I also noticed the bay area is not waitlisted any longer but instead is "low capacity". I think with the recent satellites launched made a difference in service. Also not sure if new land facilities were added or not, but not bad for still using the old equipment. I am going on a trip this week to the middle bay area, so will see how this works.

View attachment 149141

View attachment 149142

Thats great news... I still have the one that was installed in the 3d printed mount if someone wants it I will sell it cheap. Now that I have the marine unit I am not going back.

 

[Skybolt]

I was concerned that they may have put a cap on the data flow after their 50gb cap on the Maritime 50gb plan. So far I have used 60gb (in one week) and the download speed is still ~50MBps and up is ~10MBps. And if it does slow down, like I experienced prior, there is the priority data switch in the account. Hopefully this is what SL has settled into with all the satellites that have launched this past year.