Starlink

On a sunny day (Wed, 24 Feb 2021 08:50:44 +0000) it happened TTman wrote in :

When it gets available in Europe I may just try it for fun. Likely won't beat my G4.

OTPH there is limited space so maybe fair to leave it for those who really need it.

The duopoloy telcos, Verizon and Comcast/Xfinity/Buzz Lightyear/whatever they call themselves now, really drill the s*it out of customers in my area.

I discovered my elderly mother was paying $95 USD a month to Verizon for domestic landline phone service and get this, 1.5 megabit down/768k down DSL. Faster DSL used to be available I believe but they've let the infrastructure run down or something she's under a half-mile from the CO and their claim is that's the maximum available now. And there's a state-mandated $20 surcharge to all landline phone customers that's supposed to go to copper upkeep but the belief is Verizon just pockets most of that.

Once you get through the promotional rates Comcast has you're paying close to the same but at least you're getting 20/20 symmetric for the price, getting close to Bulgaria-quality internet.

Fiber optic? Forget it, nobody really wants to be in the business of fiber-to-the-premesis for consumer customers anymore. If you live in a major city you might be able to get it but 40 miles out, nah. 4G/LTE wireless internet not available either, the list of towns in this state you can get it is tiny, basically Cape Cod and the islands and a few communities way out west by the New York state border.

If ol' Musko can provide low-latency satellite internet with a small dish as is the claim I'm totally ready to give these bastards the boot

And they ding you any way they can for everything regardless, $200 "install" fees for residences that are already set-up for cable internet, they want to _lease_ you a cable modem for $8/month unless you bring your own equipment, etc.

On a sunny day (Wed, 24 Feb 2021 07:55:15 -0500) it happened bitrex wrote in :

My 4G here is maximum 75 Mbps download, 25 Mbps upload, wireless, And I can put the Huawei USB 4G stick in the the laptop and go anywhere in the country, or Europe I suppose. Paying about 31 Euro a month (say 35$), can quit any month, its cheaper if you take a one year contract. At home I use a raspberry pi 1 as router for the LAN with the 4G stick in it. So far everything works great, zero down time. But this is a data only subscription. You can send SMS but that costs extra, but you can use streaming services. And I have 3 prepayed phones for normal incoming calls, Normal phone lines will probably disappear altogether. 2G is being phased out too, data only the future. The 4G Xiaomi smartphone with prepayed sim card can go on the LAN WiFi at home if needed. I did get a letter if I wanted fiber, but why? And with fiber you are fixed to home ! Some youtube videos I use, some downloads from Linux distros etc, some uploads to my website, no need for more speed, using less than 200 MB / day normally, have 10 GB / month data cap.

I was reading today there is a danger of the World Wide Web coming to an end:

hehe

et on the band wagon....not!

lly need it.

ea.

I have only satellite ISP. (Hughes net ~$80/ mo.) I will have to look into starlink.

Hmm well no coverage in my area till mid- late 2021. ~$600 for the hardwar e and $100/mo. for the service. Is anyone out there using this yet?

George H.

Social media has become "The Web", most people go to about four different sites in an average day and almost all content they see is fed to them through Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

Remember RSS? When the idea was there'd be many independent sites you'd go to and click the button and you'd manage your own news feed? The social media company's "algorithms" handle that stuff for you, now.

Like outside social media and e-commerce sites, to 99% of the population, 99% of the Web is superfluous crap nobody looks at.

My Comcast at home has classic TV and 130 Mbit internet and POTS. It's been really good. Sonic wants to run fiber to our house, but the Comcast is good enough.

At work we use MonkeyBrains, a line-of-sight dish. We paid for 50+50 and get 500+500.

Won't Starlink have intermittent coverage?

On a sunny day (Wed, 24 Feb 2021 11:21:29 -0500) it happened bitrex wrote in :

I stayed away from farcebook and only posted once to twitter ever.

Yea, never took of here for me.

Better to go to the source, faster, takes less time and because of the way they look at things they will expose the bad in other 'systems' (like countries I mean) It is hard to see the world in the right perspective if you only read UK or US or EU composed brainwash. Or only opinions taken from US DemonCrates. Things are getting much worse now with the covid control crowd, and mRNA vaccines being used to kill older people by the dozens,

It all reminds me of the medieval times, witch hunts, now it is some virus and CO2. Society is sick, the rulers here where I am are dictators, they deny or manipulate science, all to stay in power and for profit. RESIST!

and wagon....not!

ally need it.

rea.

Yeah I don't know. My satellite signal goes away during heavy rain or snow , and with snow on the dish. That said it's good enough to link up with my TV and watch "the grand tour" from amazon prime.

George H.

on"

Have you used their app to make sure you have a view of that part of the sky? I did yesterday and all I could see through the app were trees. *sigh*

I just finished opening a complaint case with the FCC against Hughsnet. I paying for up to 25Mbps. I usually get 500kbps or less. Today its so slow that it is practically unusable. I've wasted almost

John

I researched that last night. Ole Elon claims he'll have over 1200 satellites when the cluster is finished. Maybe he can pull it off.

John

These little dishes are heated to melt ice and snow. I downloaded their Android app last night and did a site survey. Unfortunately all I saw was trees on other peoples' properties. With this system, one doesn't aim the dish at a point in the sky. Simply pointing in the vicinity of the Equator, as directed by the app, is enough.

John

Huh, So I mostly need a view of the whole equator... Rather than a single direction

I don't think I've ever gotten more than ~500kbps from hughsnet. George H.

We don't get that sort of stuff, and the hop is a few city blocks. I think the link power budget is something like 170 dB.

We're in the warm part of town so don't get fog.

No, you can aim it anywhere in a large arc at the equator. The app shows you the limits.

Today I opened a formal complaint with both the FCC and the FTC. What Hughsnet is doing is fraud, pure and simple.

It's real easy to open a case with the FCC. Google the FCC Complaint Number, talk to the nice lady and she'll take it from there. She commented that the FCC is flooded with Hughsnet cases.

John

Yeah but you have californians. I'd rather go to prison than be forced to live in CA.

John

At the age of 30, I decided to start over. I researched America for 7 months. Traveled, ordered newspapers, studied pollen distributions and ski areas. I picked San Francisco. It's a good place to be a geek.

It was a simpler time. SF was just another city. I left my 1BR apartment in New Orleans ($250 a month) and rented an entire flat near Dolores Park for $315.

The people that I know here are mostly great. I never fit in New Orleans.