Have signed up for starlink due to sound advice from all on this forum. However, I cannot find how far the wifi signal will reach inside my home. In addition what direction does the antenna point or will orientate itself. How far away do trees need to be to prevent blockage of signal? What is best way to mount antenna? Any help or suggestions are welcome. Im here to learn

Download the app and read the instructions. It's super easy, basically just plug it in, let it orient and you have internet.

From my experience, I was able to cover a 2500 sqft house and get range about 60ft on the stock modem. I did however add a mesh network (you need the adapter for this) because I needed it to stretch further into my back yard.

As far as orienting it will do it all on its own. It does however need a good view of the northern sky. As said above, download the app and it will use your phone's camera to help you pick a spot to install with the least obstructions.

I'm not entirely sure on the performance of the Starlink router (with wifi) but you could always attach a meshed wifi system if you have coverage concerns inside the building.

*correction*

You need an Ethernet adapter from Starlink to plug mesh wifi equipment into the Starlink router

The antenna should generally be angled to the north but it doesn't require precision aiming like a TV dish. It's a planar array that transmits and receives to multiple satellites in low earth orbit, so there's no exact "target" to hit like a DirecTV dish aimed at specific satellites in geostationary orbit.

SanDiegoAg12 said:

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I'm not entirely sure on the performance of the Starlink router (with wifi) but you could always attach a meshed wifi system if you have coverage concerns inside the building.

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OP will need the extra adapter that Starlink sells for that. You cant do that out of the box since the connection is proprietary.

OneMoonGoon92 said:

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SanDiegoAg12 said:

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I'm not entirely sure on the performance of the Starlink router (with wifi) but you could always attach a meshed wifi system if you have coverage concerns inside the building.

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OP will need the extra adapter that Starlink sells for that. You cant do that out of the box since the connection is proprietary.

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Good catch. I didn't realize it's not a standard Ethernet port from the Starlink router.

https://approvedmodems.org/install-third-party-mesh-on-starlink/

That sounds like a money pit like owning a b.o.a.t. (Bring on another thousand $)

allMondjoy said:

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That sounds like a money pit like owning a b.o.a.t. (Bring on another thousand $)

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What do you mean?

upcharges, fine line, etc.

We just added another router from Starlink, plugged it into the other side of the house, and it extended coverage. Just authorized the other router to connect to the main router via their app. The other mesh listed above work also, just thought I would throw this out there. Did not need to adapter for that. However, we did end up buying the adapter anyway to plug our Arlo camera base station into.

Quick question. Looks like starlink is now available at our deer lease based off the coverage map. Can you activate it for 3 or 4 months a year or do you have to go all year? Would really help me spend more time at the lease if I had solid Wi-Fi to get on my work system.

strohag said:

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Quick question. Looks like starlink is now available at our deer lease based off the coverage map. Can you activate it for 3 or 4 months a year or do you have to go all year? Would really help me spend more time at the lease if I had solid Wi-Fi to get on my work system.

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You can cancel anytime there are no contracts. You might consider the RV version which can be paused as needed.

Quote:

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TRAVEL WITH STARLINK

With Starlink's Mobile plans, you can take your high-speed, low-latency internet service with you wherever you go.

Pause and resume your plan based on your travel needs and stay connected in any location where Starlink is available.

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I have been providing satellite connectivity to Oil & Gas csuomers since 1986. Starlink is an outstanding value for consumer services. The amount of banwidth and speed you get for the month service price is great. A couple of things you migth want to keep in mind about Starlink, or those considering the service, espcially if you want to use it for bsuiess. We are an authorized Starlink reseller. Starlink does not offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and it does not support Qualty of Service (QoS); ie, voice over IP, ZOOM, and sending streaming video isnt going to work reliably.. The service is delivered on a best efforts basis and commercial contracts are month-to-month. Enterprise-grade antennas are $3,200. Starlink can raise the rates every month, if they want. They have already done away with the all-you-can-eat buffet pricing and contention is some areas is increasing. A friend's father installed a Starlink terminal 1 year ago and was getting 200 MB/S download speeds. A year later, his download speeds have decreased to 20 MB/S. As the number of installations increase, look for performance to drop significantly. Performance will really suffer in areas where there have been natural disasters, such as hurricane. Having several thousand First Responders coming into a disaster area will soak up all of the available bandwidth on Starlink and performance will slow to a crawl. As stated above, it is a great value for consumers (at least for now) but beware if you want to use it for business purposes. There are lots of good alternatives to Starlonk out there for business use.

Happy 4th of July to All. Bird

We have the receiver mounted on the roof and just the standard equipment. House is all metal siding and roof. WiFi is fine inside the house (2600sqft) and I can pick up signal about 100yds out in the field.

Bird78 said:

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A friend's father installed a Starlink terminal 1 year ago and was getting 200 MB/S download speeds. A year later, his download speeds have decreased to 20 MB/S. As the number of installations increase, look for performance to drop significantly.

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Had a friend of mine get the service and notice exactly the same thing. My Cell based broadband is currently pulling 150mbps. Of course, during natural disaster that would change, but I have the ability to lock my system to FirstNet though, so that should at least force a little usability. If it's worse than that, then I guess it won't matter that much.

What are some better alternatives for rural areas?

cbr said:

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What are some better alternatives for rural areas?

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Better than StarLink? It's the best if you can get it. Second best is a wireless ISP. Third best is fixed cellular.

All of these are location dependent. The location matters with StarLink because it depends on how many others are already in your area. But they're putting new satellites up all the time. The WISP requires unobstructed line of sight to a tower. The fixed cellular requires proximity to a cell tower.

If you are looking for residential service, use your favorite search enggine to look up Wire;ess Interet Service Providers in your area. They are known as WISPs in the Telecom Industry. The typcially bring in a high speed fiber link to a radio tower than then extend out from their using a high speed radio link. With all busineses, there are good ones and bad ones. If there are a large group of home onwers, OI can show you how to start your own and cut out the middleman. If you can get decent celluar coverage, AT&T and Verizon both have large plans thT perform well. If your coverage is so-so, consider 1) a cell phone booster to extend the range and performance; 2) If your cellular tower is way over booked, consider upgrading your cellular antenna to a 4X4 MIMO. Congested celluar towers often use multiple frequencies to add more capacity. If your tower uses 3 frequencoes and your current antenna only gets one of the three, a MIMO antenna will help you get better perfomance,and 3) it is possible to purchase Direct Internet Access (DIA) from the carriers if they have a fiber optic circuit running down the right of way of a road near your property. If so send me your address, I can see where the closest fiber is located. Sometimes you can create a small coop of your neighboors, to share the cost; and 4 consider putting up a small tower. A 50- or 80-foot tower on your property can really help pull in week cellular service. I hope some of these ideas are helpful. Bird

The Starlink app has a tool that lets you walk around your building/house and map the signal strength and review it. You might have good coverage or might want to supplement weak signal areas.

I bought the adapter and connected my existing router to Starlink (so I did not have to change the configuration of all my connected devices). If you do this, I believe you need to tell Starlink to "bypass" the Starlink router (via the app if I remember. It's been a while since I did this so I don't remember exactly what I did).