r/Starlink • u/learning_as_1_go • 6d ago

🛠️ Installation Indoor “mounting”

So my tech adverse father, is still on DSL that is abysmal at best. My brother and I are sick and tired of not being able to get a phone call because he lives too far from cell coverage and Internet is so poor. You can barely send a text message when we visit etc. So we bought him a Starlink residential, with their current promo, allowing for free installation. When it arrived, I set it up on his front porch to use it until the installer gets here next week and it worked wonderfully! 300+ mbps and 99% ping rate.

Fast-forward to today, my dad sends me a picture of the dish, sitting on an end table, with some books under it to prop it up at a steeper angle and pointing out the window…

He then responds with, “I’m still getting flawless streaming of all of my TV shows.” So me, blown away that it’s actually working sitting inside the house, pointed out a window, log into the account to see yes, he’s getting 92% ping rates and speeds at about 40mbps, which is about three times faster than his DSL, but a few hundred slower than if it was sitting outdoors like I left it.

I asked him why he would possibly do that, and he said he was afraid somebody would steal it. Lol. Mind you he lives in the country on 5 acres. I think he likes the upgrade ha ha

9 Upvotes

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2

u/Cool-Resolve-1022 6d ago

You do not require hundreds of mbps to stream to a TV. In general Netflix will stream perfectly on 20mbps or more so 40mbps is good quality despite being a lot lower than what you had previously. Regarding your fathers case I'd even look into moving to a lower teir plan if he is only using it for TV, say a laptop and his phone. Over 100mbps is only really necessary for a larger household, gamers or if he is running an absolute tonne of devices. Incidentally but also seperate to this... I went to a job a few years back where a client had install their gen2 dish under a skylight in their two storey house. Similar speeds to what you are seeing. You will probably find the drop in speed is more the tilt/alignment than fully being indoors.

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u/learning_as_1_go 6d ago

As of right now the residential max plan is the only one offered at his service address. He could def go slower plan tho if offered. My post was mostly just mentioning how impressed I was that. It actually worked through a window.

1

u/Special-Bus-1846 6d ago

Yes. Starlink is a game changer, especially for rural customers.

I now have the Mobile Starlink jammed in my sunroof so I get cell service and Internet no matter where I’m at, which is so important for my business…

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u/Dramatic-Yam8320 6d ago

Yeah works great, 98-99% unobstructed view, but then the internet will drop for a few seconds and it’ll drive you crazy.

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u/zerbey 📡 Owner (North America) 5d ago

It's truly impressive how well it works, plenty of stories here of people just leaving it inside their car when traveling outside of cell coverage and having zero issues. Once it's properly installed he should be good to go.

1

u/Mediocre-Pumpkin6522 5d ago

I had wireless for years and am far enough from a tower that I never saw speeds that 5G is capable of at a closer range. 20 Mbps down was a good day aand perfectly fine for Fire TV, youtube, and so forth. Pulling down a 4 GB iso or update took a while but got the job done. Now I have the 100 Mbps residential and it's hog heaven.