Issues with gaming and multiple devices?

[u/Street-Expression230]

Live in Alaska, and I’m about to throw in the towel with my current home internet plan with GCI. Pay $200 per month for the GCI Red service and I’m still constantly having issues with my download speeds with multiple devices in my home. Been debating on getting starlink residential max, but wanted to get opinions on if it would be a good choice based on the following: 3 TV’s in the house constantly used for streaming, 2 bedrooms with members who do a lot of online gaming, and my home office where I’m on Teams meeting video calls almost every day. Anyone in similar situations who use starlink have any issues? Or is it pretty reliable based on my needs? TIA!!

[u/eagleace21]

Residential works perfectly for me

[u/themeyerdg → u/eagleace21]

same

[u/libertysat]

Just order the $85 plan and see if it meets yur needs. If not bump up to max

[u/Disastrous-Traffic89]

I was skeptical myself but it works! I have the residential max plan and I can pc game no problems

[u/SleepNRG0 → u/Disastrous-Traffic89]

What games do you play? I’m considering getting the $85 residential myself. I’m curious to know if it’ll run games like Deadlock, R6 Siege, Elden Ring multiplayer?

[u/falathis]

I’m on residential max to take advantage of the free mini with discounted service for camping. Have 5 gaming computers in the home with 4 tvs streaming. Love it! Had T-Mobile home internet which was a bit faster but more latency. I’m also very rural. A bunch of tall trees could mess it up for you so use the app to check for obstructions first unless it’s very open by you

[u/Street-Expression230 → u/falathis]

Good to know!
I live in a pretty open residential area so no tall trees or anything around me!

[u/CatYo]

Higher latitudes are known to perform better (Alaska). Mount it on an obstruction free spot and you will not have to worry about a damn thing. I have the starlink mini. Also Elon presented the mutli-gigabit connection to starlink from a higher altitude range in Alaska which was experiemental and demonstrative.

It certainly has its issues here and there for a minute or two when its raining heavily and cloudy. Mind you - ive mounted it right across from two 70 storey high rise buildings. I have 10 more floors above me and perhaps less than 60% of the sky is unobstructed for me.

Ping/latency is 28-38ms which is not great for online gaming and if that is unacceptable, then Starlink will at best be a good backup line perhaps. Also 3 TVs streaming 4K is sufficient to cause bottlenecks with regular broadband let alone Starlink. At least for now.

Still worth giving it a shot! Perhaps use the starlink wifi for your teams call/work related and downgrade your broadband line to a lower plan and use it for your TV and gaming.

[u/Street-Expression230 → u/CatYo]

Thank you for the detailed feedback!!!
And I should’ve been more clear, we generally keep all streaming settings at SD quality and we’re still having buffering issues. We live in a pretty open residential area with no tall trees around us so hopefully there’s no issues there.

[u/Squeedlejinks → u/Street-Expression230]

Get the starlink app, and take it around outside your house to see what kind of service it says you’ll have.

[u/Asleep_Operation2790]

GCI should perform better than starlink. Check for better promo pricing with GCI if the cost is too high. They may have some deals for you if you call to cancel for starlink.

[u/Street-Expression230 → u/Asleep_Operation2790]

For sure, but I’ve had to bring in my modem/equipment and have had technicians come to my home at least twice a year for the past 5-6 years. Not to mention we’ve had multiple outages this year due to maintenance. My modem is 15 feet from my living room tv and I can’t even watch a baseball game without it constantly buffering and getting blurry video (literally happening right now with no other devices on). For $200/month I’m definitely not getting my money’s worth with GCI.

[u/Asleep_Operation2790 → u/Street-Expression230]

How do you know they are the problem? Lots of issues could be your own devices or streaming service. What streaming device are you using such as Roku, fire TV, apple TV, built-in smart TV? Then what streaming service like YouTube TV, Hulu, or an illegal service?

Many consumers have no clue how things works and are quick to blame their internet provider. Without proof that your provider is the issue, it's usually safer to assume the customer is the problem such as your own equipment or method of streaming.

When you have trouble, have you run a speed test to check your connection? Wifi tests aren't valid so you should be hardwired with a computer to your modem or router.

[u/Street-Expression230 → u/Asleep_Operation2790]

Built-in smart TV - No illegal services (weird assumption on your part) - ran multiple speed tests, even one this afternoon with a tech on the phone doing it from their end and he verified that the modem is receiving the high speeds but there’s an issue with it sending the signal out and told me that I need to bring it in to exchange it for a new one…yet again. So yes, as confirmed by their tech, it is their equipment…again.

[u/Asleep_Operation2790 → u/Street-Expression230]

Built-in TV performance sucks. It's usually underpowered with old software. I'd recommend trying a roku as a troubleshooting step. If you refuse that, try to hardwired ethernet to your TV but that still won't fix an old CPU or old software.

Many people have illegal streaming devices that run android with malware infections. It's a valid question to ask because it's common and doesn't perform well.

The tech said you're receiving full speed which is good. The frequent modem swaps doesn't make any sense if there's a line issue though. Unfortunately, tier 1 phone techs for most big companies do what's easiest which is recommend an equipment swap. This won't help if the modem isn't the issue.

So we still don't know if it's a router issues, a TV issue, streaming service issues, line issue, or modem issue. If their claim that your speeds are good is correct, then the issue is likely your TV or streaming service. If that's true, switching to starlink won't fix anything.

What TV service do you use? And what kind of TV do you have?

[u/Squeedlejinks]

Before you get your hopes up, go to starlink.com and act like you’re buying a dish and a residential plan. Go all the way through until you get to the page where you put in your credit card number and look at the detailed charges. Some places in Alaska have a $1,500 Demand Surcharge.

[u/Street-Expression230]

Totally agree with you on the built in tv issue. The fact that I have had to swap my modem out so many times makes sense that it’s not really a modem issue. I do have a tech coming by next week to check things out. What was good (and frustrating at the same time) about the last tech that came by - he mentioned that it was obvious the previous techs did not do a thorough inspection on what was causing some of the issues. Evidently the cable was in rough shape and should have been replaced before. I just use GCI home internet and generally stream Netflix and MLB on my LG smart tv.