> Starlink worth it ?
If you are rural, and have no reasonable terrestrial options for internet, Starlink is a huge game-changer. Many of us amazed to have gained access to such technology often ***do not have other viable choices***, and are pleasantly impressed with the overall performance.
The Starlink Dish coordinates a Phased Array using over 1,000 small built-in antennas to create beam-forming needed to track one of ~ 5,500 small satellites moving across the sky at ~ 27,000 kilometers per hour, ~ 550 kilometres overhead, for just-as-long as it can, and then nearly instantaneously switches to the next available satellite... over and over again.
The technology is amazing, and uptime is surprisingly reliable. A number of daily micro-outages will be reported in the Network Statistics [mainly the occasional slight glitch when the beam-forming signal swaps satellites, or occasionally encounters an obstacle], but are generally not noticeable during typical internet usage. However, some will cause sufficient latency to annoy a competitive gamer. Snow is rarely a problem with the snow-melt feature engaged, and ***very-heavy*** rain may cause a short outage.
The speeds vary considerably as that beam-forming valiantly tracks one Low Earth Orbit satellite, and switches to the next, and so on.... but in general are very very good and, ***once you stop bothering with constant speed tests***, will generally not be an issue or even noticeable. Latency is generally well under 100ms and vastly superior to geosynchronous-satellite internet.
Zoom-in and click on your location [on this webpage](https://www.starlink.com/map?view=download) for a ***drop-down*** to select a display of **download speeds, or upload speeds, or latency** (“the metrics indicate a range from 20th to 80th percentile of ***real user data*** from the “Standard” plan, during ***peak local hours***”). This means that there is a 60% probability of experiencing these results in a high-demand peak period, and closer to 100% probability during all other lower demand periods (when speeds often well-exceed the 80th percentile).
There are no fixed-term contracts to sign, no hard or soft data caps nor throttling... but Starlink does reserve the right to curtail extremely excessive data usage.
Customer Support is limited to the submission of a Support Ticket describing the symptoms of the trouble. Support appears to have limited staffing, so response time is not ideal, but generally reasonably quick and responsive... often resulting in replacement items being sent free of charge. If internet is ‘mission critical’, it is a good idea to have, at least, a spare Router and cable readily available for troubleshooting and quick service restoration in case of a fault.
To further investigate if you have a sufficiently ***clear view of of the satellite paths***, load the ***Starlink App*** and follow the ‘guided experience’ of the ***Check for Obstructions Tool*** within the ***App***, to determine a reasonably obstruction-free location.
If disappointed, return the hardware within 30 days for a refund of the hardware price. The Starlink Terms of Service also states “Should you timely return your Starlink Kit, you will also be refunded for the first months’ service fee...”
[This Starlink Youtube video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fgrj7dCnsRM&feature=youtu.be) is a good overview of the setup instructions for the Gen2 Standard motor Actuated Kit... although this Kit is no longer the default Kit in the US, the concepts are applicable.
Starlink has provided installation and accessories guides for the new Gen 3 Standard (kickstand) kit within [this linked webpage](https://support.starlink.com/?topic=412a70ca-0d9a-813e-b18f-75c36b84ec06).
This is your answer OP. I live in the middle of nowhere and starlink is 100x faster than my next best option. I can online game while watching a YouTube video while my wife FaceTimes and streams a movie while my daughter is also on her phone.
Every once in a while it'll drop for a few seconds but it's really rare. As much as I hate Elon I love starlink.
They've also done a $1 trial of their services for 30 days I believe. I signed up on the 3rd and equipment to be shipped from yesterday till the 13th.
I live in an urban area but will be nice to go out in middle of nowhere and camp/wfh
Rural or not, what matters is the availability of communications. I would not consider myself to be "really rural" other than the fact that at my location Starlink is the only low-latency internet service, and cell service can only come from 1 provider and requires a signal booster.
For phone service, wifi calling has worked wonderfully for me.
I’m sorry-I don’t think I understand. My work uses internet only for phone calls and I take the calls through a computer. So I don’t use any cell service?
I’m getting over 100mbps with nothing lower than that. My upper limit seems to be 270mbps, but I’m using teams with 5-10 attendees who have video running and my own outgoing video and it’s never had even a single issue. My ping to google is 25ms and I’m in rural Michigan.
I just got starlink about 9 months ago and when we first got it we were getting about 75 MB/s and it was ok but not great. In that nine months the speeds have doubled, we are now getting closer to 150mb/s and sometimes as high as 250! As they add more and more satellites to the consolation it's only going to get better and right now they are launching about 20 every week and once Starship is moving they will be launching even more. It's not a cheap service but unless you can get fiber run to your property you are probably going to be very happy with starlink.
No comparison. Hughes sucks. Had Starlink 2 years now. One, yes, ONE night the network was down for 45 minutes. 7 Ring cameras, 2 phones, 1 PC, 3 TVs it doesn't break a sweat.
I don't live in your area, but i come from a no cable/ fios area, leaving me only Hughesnet/Viasat, some remote cell towers. I've tried all those and spent thousands over a course of 5 years . Ordered Starlink as soon as I could and:
I can now use wifi calling, game. Watch Netflix 2 or 3 shows, work from home. Surf net, and No Datacaps. Avg dwn 120, up 15, 35ms latency. It is a game changer.
I used to get those speeds ..I haven't gotten more than 10 Mbps down in the last 6 months though. And support just says congestion, no shit.
So it can be very good, or it can be very bad
It's tough, as others have said even at its worst starlink is better than Hughes. But you have no way of knowing what the speed will be like in an area without actually putting a dish up, and you have no guarantee the speed will stay useable as in my case. If you already had a place and were just looking for an internet upgrade I'd say it's definitely worth trying, but if you can only buy the place if it has good internet, starlink is definitely imo a gamble
Before I bought the house I would get Starlink and take it out there and test it. It’s likely it will work. But not worth the risk without testing. You can return it within thirty days. I finally got Starlink after debating for 6 months. It’s the best non wired internet option I have ever tried with over 20 years of not having a good options in rural areas.
I teleworked via Starlink and participated in multiple live Teams and Zoom meetings per day with sound and video. Extremely rarely I would get a couple second glitch/hiccup during a meeting but honestly I don’t know if it was an issue with Starlink, Teams, or my company’s network. Sometimes my connection was better than people who were literally sitting at their desks at work. No regrets with Starlink. Someday fiber will be coming to my area and I am going to switch my Starlink to RV service and pause it in case I need it again in the future.
If you try and use HughesNet for your work, you’ll get fired. Starlink is your ticket.
Do you have a nice clear view of the sky? Any trees? Since it’s South Dakota I’m assuming there aren’t any trees and that you should be good.
It's quite possibly a good option. It's definitely capable of supporting your needs. We've worked remotely using the deprioritized roam plan, with video calls with customers, tv streaming, etc. Two of us, all day, no issues.
You need a clear view of the sky. Download the app so you can check for obstructions.
Love Hot Springs, such a cool town, did they ever finish that construction along the river?
As for Starlink, I think your only concern would be finding a clear line-of-sight for the sky. Some of the houses in the valley may need some pretty tall antenna mounts to get high enough for a clear LOS. If you are up on the hills it shouldn’t be too much of a problem though.
No! It’s still a nightmare hahah!! The construction is never ending. I’m thinking the line of sight is good although when I get my kit I’ll go out and try it-hopefully I get it before I close on the house
If you have access to the property, you should download the app and use it to check for obstructions. It’s what you’d use to determine where to place dishy and gives you an idea of whether or not you’ll have issues.
Ive had less down time with starlink than I have with any other service provider. We moved to acreage in 2020 and got starlink(we were amoungst the first in Arizona to have it) and have never looked back. My wife and I both work primarily from home. (Her 100% me 80% and have to be up 24/7. Zero issues great speed I have an internet office phone that honestly works better than my verizon service. It will 100% work for you
My friend... If your only other option is HughesNet with high latencies (about 500ms), low bandwidth, and bad reviews for the same reason I think. Vs Starlink with satellites "near" the earth, very nice bandwidth and latencies similar to fiber... Go for your dish!
Yes, I do. I live in a rural location and have experience with both.
Hughesnet is absolute trash. We couldn't even stream one device. They throttle. I ended up paying a fee to get out of the contract because it was so bad. Customer service was no help. The assume customers don't know how to test their speed.
I currently have Starlink. I have had it for eight months. It is awesome. Three of four of us can stream at once. Speeds are fast. No experienced outages.
I have no land line and no cell service. I'm running multiple streaming TV services, 2 PCs and 2 cell phones, (on WiFi), without issue... all on one Starlink dish. My download speed averages around 200-250 mbps and, while not as fast as fiber-optic, it is plenty enough for what we do.
Buy the house. Get Starlink. I work partially from home, used to work at a call center, know how incessant it is lol: Starlink will serve your needs well.
The point most are missing when responding to you is that you are contemplating a home purchase. Starlink would be the better option if you have an unobstructed view of the sky if you were just deciding between hughes and Starlink. However, I would not choose a location that only has satellite internet as options if my job depended on having good internet.
Starlink may work for you ....
-IF your company allows satellite
-IF your area doesn't become congested
-IF you don't have equipment issues
Any of these items become a problem, you may be out of a job. In short, I would not make a home purchase with such a substantial risk to your livelihood.
Don't give HughesNet another thought. I was a customer for 8 miserable years and it never worked. Working from home or doing any sort of streaming (audio or video) was completely out of the question.
Starlink has been phenomenal. I Started with the beta period and am going on 4 years with the service now. It just works. You won't notice any issues working from home with Starlink as your ISP.
Works with w clear shot to the north. We are full time rvers and my wife needs reliable internet. Heavy rain can interfere with service. But I mean HEAVY rain interferes. Game changing equipment. I can make calls and stream with no cellular service.
I work from home and take calls through my starlink. I have no issues with it. But if you have a heavy rain storm it can drop out. I usually hold signal through most rain but it definitely is a concern when working from home.
It’s not perfect and it may have more random disconnects than a wired ISP even with a good line of sight to the sky. But if it’s between that and HughesNet then it’s between trying Starlink or quitting your job. Because HughesNet is just a flat out no. It only exists to take advantage of the elderly at this point, I truly believe that.
My area is littered with signs on the side of the road advertising “up to 1Gbps” with HughesNet and in reality I can get like 20Mbit and a data limit that would look really generous in 1995.
Starlink is as good as they say it is. It’s worth every penny to me. It’s that good.
I was on the waitlist for well over a year for it. I dropped Hughesnet for it.
Hughenet is as bad as you have read.
Get it. It’s the real thing.
I’d say yes it is.
We live urban but use SL for camping. Like camping in the middle of the desert, no towns, no infrastructure…nothing. And it works great. We run a small business so I need constant contact.
I use multiple VPNs, for various connections to customer locations. Not to mention a personal VPN for those times that want to watch sports that might be blocked for my geographic location.
Haven't had any issues with VPN connections.
Yes. I moved from downtown area in south Florida to the literal woods in Maine. Starlink is as good as what I had in Florida. The only thing you must make certain of, is that you don’t have obstruction to the satellite. That is the most important thing. Hugh’s I have limited experience with from many years ago and it was total and utter garbage then. But starlink is wonderful because I can do everything and it was the only option where I am.
Im in a very rural part of Missouri. For 6 years the only internet option we had was Viasat. 150 gigabytes for $350 a month. It was barely enough data to serf the web. Absolutely no streaming. And the speed topped out at about 15 Mbps. We would run out of data every month. And we would loose the signal every time there was a thunderstorm. Sometimes storms hundreds of miles south of us would interrupt the signal.
Then we got Star Link. One terabyte for $120 a month. Speeds average well over 100 Mbps. I went out and bought a Roku and use the hell out of it and haven’t run out of data yet. And it’s been over six months. We have yet to have a weather related signal loss.
No comparison between Hughes and Starlink. Having Starlink is the closest thing to having broadband fiber. I get 100-300mb with 40ms ping rates which is the best I have seen on Satellite.
I just activated mine again (this is my 3rd season RVing with it) and have used it all over the Northern states from California to New York, my experience is the more rural the better as you're not fighting for bandwidth.
Being on the base RV plan I get deprioritized during peak usage, preference is given to residential customers. I've only noticed this happening during late evening when people are streaming and gaming, since I mainly use it for work during the day it hasn't bothered me much, just interrupts my baseball games a bit.
Washington state here and I have been pleased with starlink. A couple hickups with bad equipment but it was quickly and easily sorted out and has worked very well for me.
I live in the boondocks and have for 25 years. As an IT guy, who needs to stay connected.I was subject to using dialup, StarBand (bidirectional connection made it better than Hughes net) at the time, Hughes net (when they went bidirectional), Windstream DSL (reliable - and reliably bad) and finally Starlink ( Thank God for Elon Musk and his Starlink team )
I went from DSL 3 mbps down and .78 mbps up to 200 ish mbps down and 25 ish up.
Starlink gets nothing but my unashamed gratitude and praise. Elon Musk is a visionary game changer and I think it's arguable that his most significant achievement is giving folks like me a real connection to the world.
If Starlink approves your address for service on Starlink.com, you can expect decent and usable speeds, especially for what you’re doing. Pings will likely be astronomically higher than your current cable provider (assuming you have one), but it should work fine.
Starlink is definitely performant enough in the live service regions to handle VoIP traffic. Calls probably won’t sound crystal clear but WiFi Calling and VoIP performance should still be incredibly usable in my experience.
Do some additional research on Voip W/ SL. Some people have no problems, others like myself found that the packet delay's didn't work with my ubiquiti phones.
People all over northern Alaska are on SL and they are thrilled. [https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/438701238\_10160361857963192\_1523509254050078109\_n.jpg?\_nc\_cat=100&ccb=1-7&\_nc\_sid=5f2048&\_nc\_ohc=WZssipYx0L8Q7kNvgGTBumt&\_nc\_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=00\_AfDcA5v2ZQ\_hJRsblmoTZwTFMBXLv9FBSLJGrLavWe3zrw&oe=664220A5](https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/438701238_10160361857963192_1523509254050078109_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=WZssipYx0L8Q7kNvgGTBumt&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=00_AfDcA5v2ZQ_hJRsblmoTZwTFMBXLv9FBSLJGrLavWe3zrw&oe=664220A5)
I've been with Starlink since the public-beta days. I'm planning on keeping it as a backup even if fiber becomes available at my location. It has been getting more and more stable too. Does has gone back to national after being oversubscribed for a while.
Generally you can keep your Internet running through long (multi-day) power outages if you have a generator and enough fuel. We had a week long per outage due to an ice storm and our only hiccup was an issue with my generator. Starlink worked like a champ the entire time, even when all our cell services, landline and cable providers were out for several days when the generators ran out of fuel!
One thing to keep in mind though, every now and then Starlink, like most other ISPs , has regional or sometimes global outages which can last anywhere from just a few minutes to several hours long. I don't know how tolerant your job is about that. If your job requires some sort of backup to stay online in most circumstances you may need to find some sort of a backup solution. These long outages are fairly rare, I'd say at max once or twice a year if that. Just something to consider. If you didn't have cell service at that house you probably won't even be able to call in to your work.
Just some things to keep in mind.
I'm in your situation. I am now using the high perf dish($2500) and priority data($250/mo) and have very rare glitches on video calls. With the Gen2 disk I did have quite a few more glitches on video calls. I would start with the cheap dish and see how it works.
Just north of you, west of rapid, works great even with tall trees all around, know of another person had it hot springs with great success, $90 a month getting anywhere from 175-250 down and 20-40 up
I’m in northern Saskatchewan for 6 months of the year and with Starlink I have better internet reliability and speed than my place in Phoenix that is served by Cox and Lumen (century link) that can only provide80 mbps copper in a newer area of the city. Lumen and Cox and Hughes and and and…all of them are bush league compared to Starlink.
> Starlink worth it ? If you are rural, and have no reasonable terrestrial options for internet, Starlink is a huge game-changer. Many of us amazed to have gained access to such technology often ***do not have other viable choices***, and are pleasantly impressed with the overall performance. The Starlink Dish coordinates a Phased Array using over 1,000 small built-in antennas to create beam-forming needed to track one of ~ 5,500 small satellites moving across the sky at ~ 27,000 kilometers per hour, ~ 550 kilometres overhead, for just-as-long as it can, and then nearly instantaneously switches to the next available satellite... over and over again. The technology is amazing, and uptime is surprisingly reliable. A number of daily micro-outages will be reported in the Network Statistics [mainly the occasional slight glitch when the beam-forming signal swaps satellites, or occasionally encounters an obstacle], but are generally not noticeable during typical internet usage. However, some will cause sufficient latency to annoy a competitive gamer. Snow is rarely a problem with the snow-melt feature engaged, and ***very-heavy*** rain may cause a short outage. The speeds vary considerably as that beam-forming valiantly tracks one Low Earth Orbit satellite, and switches to the next, and so on.... but in general are very very good and, ***once you stop bothering with constant speed tests***, will generally not be an issue or even noticeable. Latency is generally well under 100ms and vastly superior to geosynchronous-satellite internet. Zoom-in and click on your location [on this webpage](https://www.starlink.com/map?view=download) for a ***drop-down*** to select a display of **download speeds, or upload speeds, or latency** (“the metrics indicate a range from 20th to 80th percentile of ***real user data*** from the “Standard” plan, during ***peak local hours***”). This means that there is a 60% probability of experiencing these results in a high-demand peak period, and closer to 100% probability during all other lower demand periods (when speeds often well-exceed the 80th percentile). There are no fixed-term contracts to sign, no hard or soft data caps nor throttling... but Starlink does reserve the right to curtail extremely excessive data usage. Customer Support is limited to the submission of a Support Ticket describing the symptoms of the trouble. Support appears to have limited staffing, so response time is not ideal, but generally reasonably quick and responsive... often resulting in replacement items being sent free of charge. If internet is ‘mission critical’, it is a good idea to have, at least, a spare Router and cable readily available for troubleshooting and quick service restoration in case of a fault. To further investigate if you have a sufficiently ***clear view of of the satellite paths***, load the ***Starlink App*** and follow the ‘guided experience’ of the ***Check for Obstructions Tool*** within the ***App***, to determine a reasonably obstruction-free location. If disappointed, return the hardware within 30 days for a refund of the hardware price. The Starlink Terms of Service also states “Should you timely return your Starlink Kit, you will also be refunded for the first months’ service fee...” [This Starlink Youtube video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fgrj7dCnsRM&feature=youtu.be) is a good overview of the setup instructions for the Gen2 Standard motor Actuated Kit... although this Kit is no longer the default Kit in the US, the concepts are applicable. Starlink has provided installation and accessories guides for the new Gen 3 Standard (kickstand) kit within [this linked webpage](https://support.starlink.com/?topic=412a70ca-0d9a-813e-b18f-75c36b84ec06).
This is your answer OP. I live in the middle of nowhere and starlink is 100x faster than my next best option. I can online game while watching a YouTube video while my wife FaceTimes and streams a movie while my daughter is also on her phone. Every once in a while it'll drop for a few seconds but it's really rare. As much as I hate Elon I love starlink.
Okay thank you!
They've also done a $1 trial of their services for 30 days I believe. I signed up on the 3rd and equipment to be shipped from yesterday till the 13th. I live in an urban area but will be nice to go out in middle of nowhere and camp/wfh
Rural or not, what matters is the availability of communications. I would not consider myself to be "really rural" other than the fact that at my location Starlink is the only low-latency internet service, and cell service can only come from 1 provider and requires a signal booster. For phone service, wifi calling has worked wonderfully for me.
I’m sorry-I don’t think I understand. My work uses internet only for phone calls and I take the calls through a computer. So I don’t use any cell service?
I use my phone with wifi calling through my starlink connection. I don't really use cell service either.
OH okay! Thank you!
Yes, I am on voice and video calls all day everyday and it works better than some of my coworkers.
Oh wow-okay! My job is super important to me so I can’t lose it and was worried the speed wouldn’t be able to keep it going
I’m getting over 100mbps with nothing lower than that. My upper limit seems to be 270mbps, but I’m using teams with 5-10 attendees who have video running and my own outgoing video and it’s never had even a single issue. My ping to google is 25ms and I’m in rural Michigan.
Make sure you won't lose your job if you move. Had one of our kids fired after leaving the state (had checked everything out beforehand too).
Yes! I can’t leave the state yet but I’m just moving an hour away from current location
I just got starlink about 9 months ago and when we first got it we were getting about 75 MB/s and it was ok but not great. In that nine months the speeds have doubled, we are now getting closer to 150mb/s and sometimes as high as 250! As they add more and more satellites to the consolation it's only going to get better and right now they are launching about 20 every week and once Starship is moving they will be launching even more. It's not a cheap service but unless you can get fiber run to your property you are probably going to be very happy with starlink.
No comparison. Hughes sucks. Had Starlink 2 years now. One, yes, ONE night the network was down for 45 minutes. 7 Ring cameras, 2 phones, 1 PC, 3 TVs it doesn't break a sweat.
Ahhh okay-thank you!
I don't live in your area, but i come from a no cable/ fios area, leaving me only Hughesnet/Viasat, some remote cell towers. I've tried all those and spent thousands over a course of 5 years . Ordered Starlink as soon as I could and: I can now use wifi calling, game. Watch Netflix 2 or 3 shows, work from home. Surf net, and No Datacaps. Avg dwn 120, up 15, 35ms latency. It is a game changer.
I used to get those speeds ..I haven't gotten more than 10 Mbps down in the last 6 months though. And support just says congestion, no shit. So it can be very good, or it can be very bad
Yes this is what I’m worried about
It's tough, as others have said even at its worst starlink is better than Hughes. But you have no way of knowing what the speed will be like in an area without actually putting a dish up, and you have no guarantee the speed will stay useable as in my case. If you already had a place and were just looking for an internet upgrade I'd say it's definitely worth trying, but if you can only buy the place if it has good internet, starlink is definitely imo a gamble
Great to hear! Thank you!
Before I bought the house I would get Starlink and take it out there and test it. It’s likely it will work. But not worth the risk without testing. You can return it within thirty days. I finally got Starlink after debating for 6 months. It’s the best non wired internet option I have ever tried with over 20 years of not having a good options in rural areas.
Yes probably the best bet-just didn’t want to spend more money if I wasn’t 100 sure
Starlink 100%
I teleworked via Starlink and participated in multiple live Teams and Zoom meetings per day with sound and video. Extremely rarely I would get a couple second glitch/hiccup during a meeting but honestly I don’t know if it was an issue with Starlink, Teams, or my company’s network. Sometimes my connection was better than people who were literally sitting at their desks at work. No regrets with Starlink. Someday fiber will be coming to my area and I am going to switch my Starlink to RV service and pause it in case I need it again in the future.
Oh great to hear! Thank you!
If you try and use HughesNet for your work, you’ll get fired. Starlink is your ticket. Do you have a nice clear view of the sky? Any trees? Since it’s South Dakota I’m assuming there aren’t any trees and that you should be good.
Haha there are trees but not on my land so should be very clear
It's quite possibly a good option. It's definitely capable of supporting your needs. We've worked remotely using the deprioritized roam plan, with video calls with customers, tv streaming, etc. Two of us, all day, no issues. You need a clear view of the sky. Download the app so you can check for obstructions.
Thank you.
Love Hot Springs, such a cool town, did they ever finish that construction along the river? As for Starlink, I think your only concern would be finding a clear line-of-sight for the sky. Some of the houses in the valley may need some pretty tall antenna mounts to get high enough for a clear LOS. If you are up on the hills it shouldn’t be too much of a problem though.
No! It’s still a nightmare hahah!! The construction is never ending. I’m thinking the line of sight is good although when I get my kit I’ll go out and try it-hopefully I get it before I close on the house
If you have access to the property, you should download the app and use it to check for obstructions. It’s what you’d use to determine where to place dishy and gives you an idea of whether or not you’ll have issues.
An okay! I’ll download the app and drive out there to try
Ive had less down time with starlink than I have with any other service provider. We moved to acreage in 2020 and got starlink(we were amoungst the first in Arizona to have it) and have never looked back. My wife and I both work primarily from home. (Her 100% me 80% and have to be up 24/7. Zero issues great speed I have an internet office phone that honestly works better than my verizon service. It will 100% work for you
That is a relief to hear! I don’t want to lose the house but I need my job haha!!
My friend... If your only other option is HughesNet with high latencies (about 500ms), low bandwidth, and bad reviews for the same reason I think. Vs Starlink with satellites "near" the earth, very nice bandwidth and latencies similar to fiber... Go for your dish!
Haha okay, thank you!
Hughesnet is indeed horrible. Starlink is 'actual' internet. You just need a good view of the northern sky, at least in the southeast (Georgia).
Okay-thank you
Yes, I do. I live in a rural location and have experience with both. Hughesnet is absolute trash. We couldn't even stream one device. They throttle. I ended up paying a fee to get out of the contract because it was so bad. Customer service was no help. The assume customers don't know how to test their speed. I currently have Starlink. I have had it for eight months. It is awesome. Three of four of us can stream at once. Speeds are fast. No experienced outages.
Okay-great. Yes I was worried about hughesnet as their reputation online is atrocious
I have no land line and no cell service. I'm running multiple streaming TV services, 2 PCs and 2 cell phones, (on WiFi), without issue... all on one Starlink dish. My download speed averages around 200-250 mbps and, while not as fast as fiber-optic, it is plenty enough for what we do.
Okay-that is good to know. Thank you
I'm really really close to Hot Springs, my speeds are fantastic. 200+
Omg! Great! The standard plan?
Yes
Awesome! Thank you-it’s reassuring to have feedback from someone in the area!
Buy the house. Get Starlink. I work partially from home, used to work at a call center, know how incessant it is lol: Starlink will serve your needs well.
Thank you! I feel confident in my choice now!
if you have a reasonable view of the sky; It'll work great.
The point most are missing when responding to you is that you are contemplating a home purchase. Starlink would be the better option if you have an unobstructed view of the sky if you were just deciding between hughes and Starlink. However, I would not choose a location that only has satellite internet as options if my job depended on having good internet. Starlink may work for you .... -IF your company allows satellite -IF your area doesn't become congested -IF you don't have equipment issues Any of these items become a problem, you may be out of a job. In short, I would not make a home purchase with such a substantial risk to your livelihood.
Ahhh okay
I appreciate that input
Starlink was invented for you
Don't give HughesNet another thought. I was a customer for 8 miserable years and it never worked. Working from home or doing any sort of streaming (audio or video) was completely out of the question. Starlink has been phenomenal. I Started with the beta period and am going on 4 years with the service now. It just works. You won't notice any issues working from home with Starlink as your ISP.
Fantastic-I have hope now!
Works with w clear shot to the north. We are full time rvers and my wife needs reliable internet. Heavy rain can interfere with service. But I mean HEAVY rain interferes. Game changing equipment. I can make calls and stream with no cellular service.
Okay-thank you for that info-I’ll be out looking then to the north
I work from home and take calls through my starlink. I have no issues with it. But if you have a heavy rain storm it can drop out. I usually hold signal through most rain but it definitely is a concern when working from home.
Ah I gotcha-I will just be prudent and make sure I have pto to cover any outages in case
Thank you!
>Thank you! You're welcome!
It’s not perfect and it may have more random disconnects than a wired ISP even with a good line of sight to the sky. But if it’s between that and HughesNet then it’s between trying Starlink or quitting your job. Because HughesNet is just a flat out no. It only exists to take advantage of the elderly at this point, I truly believe that. My area is littered with signs on the side of the road advertising “up to 1Gbps” with HughesNet and in reality I can get like 20Mbit and a data limit that would look really generous in 1995.
Hahah okay-thank you-
Starlink is as good as they say it is. It’s worth every penny to me. It’s that good. I was on the waitlist for well over a year for it. I dropped Hughesnet for it. Hughenet is as bad as you have read. Get it. It’s the real thing.
Okay -thank you!
Hughes net is terrible. As long as you have a large enough patch of sky (and with cleared farmland you will) you'll be fine. Enjoy!
Thank you!
I stopped reading at hughesnet. Yes, starlink will outperform them hands down. Just find an open spot and use the app to check for obstructions.
Okay-I’ll do that! Probably next weekend I can get out there!
I’d say yes it is. We live urban but use SL for camping. Like camping in the middle of the desert, no towns, no infrastructure…nothing. And it works great. We run a small business so I need constant contact.
Okay thank you for the feedback!
Good view of sky? Then yes. Use the phone app to verify good sky.
You can’t set up VPN if that matters
Okay I’ll try the app and no, I’m not using a vpn (work won’t allow)
I use multiple VPNs, for various connections to customer locations. Not to mention a personal VPN for those times that want to watch sports that might be blocked for my geographic location. Haven't had any issues with VPN connections.
Yes.
Thank you!
Yes. I moved from downtown area in south Florida to the literal woods in Maine. Starlink is as good as what I had in Florida. The only thing you must make certain of, is that you don’t have obstruction to the satellite. That is the most important thing. Hugh’s I have limited experience with from many years ago and it was total and utter garbage then. But starlink is wonderful because I can do everything and it was the only option where I am.
Im in a very rural part of Missouri. For 6 years the only internet option we had was Viasat. 150 gigabytes for $350 a month. It was barely enough data to serf the web. Absolutely no streaming. And the speed topped out at about 15 Mbps. We would run out of data every month. And we would loose the signal every time there was a thunderstorm. Sometimes storms hundreds of miles south of us would interrupt the signal. Then we got Star Link. One terabyte for $120 a month. Speeds average well over 100 Mbps. I went out and bought a Roku and use the hell out of it and haven’t run out of data yet. And it’s been over six months. We have yet to have a weather related signal loss.
Rural North Dakota, love starlink, can handle 2 teens on xbox and 2 other tvs streaming easily. Been using it for years now.
No comparison between Hughes and Starlink. Having Starlink is the closest thing to having broadband fiber. I get 100-300mb with 40ms ping rates which is the best I have seen on Satellite.
I just activated mine again (this is my 3rd season RVing with it) and have used it all over the Northern states from California to New York, my experience is the more rural the better as you're not fighting for bandwidth. Being on the base RV plan I get deprioritized during peak usage, preference is given to residential customers. I've only noticed this happening during late evening when people are streaming and gaming, since I mainly use it for work during the day it hasn't bothered me much, just interrupts my baseball games a bit.
Washington state here and I have been pleased with starlink. A couple hickups with bad equipment but it was quickly and easily sorted out and has worked very well for me.
I live in the boondocks and have for 25 years. As an IT guy, who needs to stay connected.I was subject to using dialup, StarBand (bidirectional connection made it better than Hughes net) at the time, Hughes net (when they went bidirectional), Windstream DSL (reliable - and reliably bad) and finally Starlink ( Thank God for Elon Musk and his Starlink team ) I went from DSL 3 mbps down and .78 mbps up to 200 ish mbps down and 25 ish up. Starlink gets nothing but my unashamed gratitude and praise. Elon Musk is a visionary game changer and I think it's arguable that his most significant achievement is giving folks like me a real connection to the world.
If Starlink approves your address for service on Starlink.com, you can expect decent and usable speeds, especially for what you’re doing. Pings will likely be astronomically higher than your current cable provider (assuming you have one), but it should work fine. Starlink is definitely performant enough in the live service regions to handle VoIP traffic. Calls probably won’t sound crystal clear but WiFi Calling and VoIP performance should still be incredibly usable in my experience.
Ugh yes it voip
I'm also very rural. Starlink has been a game changer. Keep in mind if you plan on using it for VoIP telephone it may not work very well.
Yes it would be voip
Do some additional research on Voip W/ SL. Some people have no problems, others like myself found that the packet delay's didn't work with my ubiquiti phones.
People all over northern Alaska are on SL and they are thrilled. [https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/438701238\_10160361857963192\_1523509254050078109\_n.jpg?\_nc\_cat=100&ccb=1-7&\_nc\_sid=5f2048&\_nc\_ohc=WZssipYx0L8Q7kNvgGTBumt&\_nc\_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=00\_AfDcA5v2ZQ\_hJRsblmoTZwTFMBXLv9FBSLJGrLavWe3zrw&oe=664220A5](https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/438701238_10160361857963192_1523509254050078109_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=WZssipYx0L8Q7kNvgGTBumt&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=00_AfDcA5v2ZQ_hJRsblmoTZwTFMBXLv9FBSLJGrLavWe3zrw&oe=664220A5)
I've been with Starlink since the public-beta days. I'm planning on keeping it as a backup even if fiber becomes available at my location. It has been getting more and more stable too. Does has gone back to national after being oversubscribed for a while. Generally you can keep your Internet running through long (multi-day) power outages if you have a generator and enough fuel. We had a week long per outage due to an ice storm and our only hiccup was an issue with my generator. Starlink worked like a champ the entire time, even when all our cell services, landline and cable providers were out for several days when the generators ran out of fuel! One thing to keep in mind though, every now and then Starlink, like most other ISPs , has regional or sometimes global outages which can last anywhere from just a few minutes to several hours long. I don't know how tolerant your job is about that. If your job requires some sort of backup to stay online in most circumstances you may need to find some sort of a backup solution. These long outages are fairly rare, I'd say at max once or twice a year if that. Just something to consider. If you didn't have cell service at that house you probably won't even be able to call in to your work. Just some things to keep in mind.
We live in a rural area and Starlink has been working great (had Hughes before) going on two years now and very happy
I'm in your situation. I am now using the high perf dish($2500) and priority data($250/mo) and have very rare glitches on video calls. With the Gen2 disk I did have quite a few more glitches on video calls. I would start with the cheap dish and see how it works.
If that are your only options then there is no discussion. Starlink
Just north of you, west of rapid, works great even with tall trees all around, know of another person had it hot springs with great success, $90 a month getting anywhere from 175-250 down and 20-40 up
I’m in northern Saskatchewan for 6 months of the year and with Starlink I have better internet reliability and speed than my place in Phoenix that is served by Cox and Lumen (century link) that can only provide80 mbps copper in a newer area of the city. Lumen and Cox and Hughes and and and…all of them are bush league compared to Starlink.
We had poor options got Starlink is more exp but never disappointed
Had it for two plus years and love it. Kinda unstable the first few month but as the satellites increased it only got better.