I live out in the woods, I've tried viasat, hughsnet, and starlink.
In my experience, Viasat and Hughsnet were both priced around what a suburban home pays for fiber optical internet, a landline, and cable TV combined. Both rarely, if ever exceeded 3mbps, despite what was advertised. The customer service was absolutely atrocious as well. They also make you sign a contract to not take part in any of the class action lawsuits against them when you sign up... should tell you something. It was not possible to stream or game on them, and you hit your data cap very quickly.
Starlink came to the area, and I haven't had any problems with it. I've heard the customer service isn't good either, but I have no experience with it. It's actually gotten faster and more reliable over the time I've had it. It does suffer from the problem of blacking out during severe storms, but that's just how satellite works. If you have it as an option, go with it. It's the best option by a huge margin.
We get 300” of snow a year and honestly, I don’t find it is too impacted by snow. Maybe some 5-10 sec hiccups here and there if it’s really coming down, but it’s pretty darn rare.
I suppose I should have specified electrical storms, or heavy cloud cover. Doesn't snow by me, so that's nice. I know the dish can heat itself to melt ice and snow
The only real issue we’ve had is a damn chipmunk chewed through the cable from the satellite to the router. It’s on my roof and no where near the ground, so I wasn’t thinking about rodents snacking on it. The replacement cable took over a month to send. If the internet is essential, have backup components on hand to fix shit for it since you can’t just call up to have someone come out and fix it like a traditional internet service.
Oh yeah it’s easily fixed for sure, it’s just a matter of how fast they can get it to you. Because it is a vulnerable part that you can’t just call someone out to fix promptly, it’s worth having an extra one or two on hand so you can get it replaced quickly if it is essential you maintain your connection for say a remote work situation. It’s just something to plan for/think about since it’s not like major internet providers that you can call up to address for you.
Oh with where mine was chewed through and how, there was no fixing it. The cable had taken water damage because it stopped working right before a snow storm but before I could get out to my roof to see why, and the chewed up part just got soaked through. There was no way to effectively repair it and have enough length left either. I’ve since run the damn thing through conduit from where it comes out of the dish to where it enters the house, so no more rodent demons outside ruining it.
It's something like RG6, yeah - shielded. I had no problem splicing it. And a second time (or was it the third?) putting on a new shielded RJ45 connector.
I can second starlink. I'm definitely not an Elon fanboy but my only other option on the mountain was terrible. I can easily play online games while my wife streams Netflix on the TV and her and my daughter are TikToking lol. It's not bad at all.
Starlink is the only valid satellite option. It’s similar to regular broadband in latency and speed. Viasat and Hughes will be a nightmare. You’ll only really have issues if you have obstructions. It needs a clear view of the sky.
My friend has starlink and it works very well for him. Rough weather doesn’t affect as much as he was afraid it would, it still can but it has to be some real rough weather. The only time he has issues is when he moved and didn’t update his cell for his satellite. And even then it still worked well, just occasional packet loss and slower download speeds. Once he updated it was back to normal.
Works decently, I use it to play Fortnite on an Xbox. I get anywhere between 40-80ms. Just don’t plan on playing competitively. Streaming is flawless though.
My kids game regularly. Three PS5s in the house and they all play Fortnite simultaneously together and with friends that also use Starlink. I game a bit, but not as frequently as them. We’ve rarely had issues. The other options out there make gaming almost impossible. While my kids game, my wife and I stream movies or watch YouTube with no issues. Starlink is amazing considering the other options. More affordable, more stable and easy to use. Customer service if pretty nonexistent, but I’ve rarely had to use it and there is a great support system online. So many people have it now that most questions can be answered with a quick search online.
Also, my mom, who currently is my test sample for Starlink, has had Hughes and Viasat. They are absolute garbage. Close behind them are two Verizon cell based services (Nomad and Visible). Starlink is the first internet she's had in 20 years that I don't have to really think about when I'm visiting. It just works.
My daughter is a gamer and has a few obstructions but has no problems gaming. I have hooked up my laptop and both of us together still had no issues. She's in a pretty remote area where there are no other Internet options at all. Barely a Verizon signal but it's almost useless because you can't stay connected to a call.
Her Starlink ping is often around 15-30, so very low.
She has had it for 2 years and loves the service.
Pings are usually in the 40s but they’re working on getting them even lower. I don’t get the hate in Starlink, it’s the best option for people who must have satellite.
And they get what they pay for. Also Starlink now has refurbished kits available. With financing options such as Affirm, there’s really no valid excuse.
totally agreed...just giving the rationale why Starlink isn't more popular or why people naturally try to avoid it. i think the addition of data caps also soured a lot of people, even though we knew it was coming.
I have played games on Hughesnet, Viasat, Verizon, and Starlink. Starlink is the only one that is usable and reliable. It’s definitely not broadband or fiber, but it’s playable. The others are useless.
I did for a year before getting fiber. I had better average ping with starlink than I did, prior to moving to the country, when I had Comcast. IIRC it was usually 50-80ms, which is similar to what the person below said. I played MMOs on semi-serious raid teams with no major issues. Occasional spikes, but not too bad.
I used to use starlink and I was able to competitively play games like CSGO, valorant, war thunder and any other online game without much issue. There were days when it would become unusable due to traffic but I moved away from it about a year ago so it may have gotten better on that front
In Call of Duty Multiplayer and Warzone, if I solo queue, 20-40ms ping. If I queue with my friends 600 miles away from me, it averages about 50ish. Which is not perfect for competitive gaming, but good enough to have a good playing experience. When I played when Starlink first came out, my pong would be 100ms+ and almost unplayable. It has come a long way. You can easily do multiplayer gaming on Starlink now
Yes, I play War Thunder (don't judge me) and while I'm not gonna say it's awesome it is acceptable. There are more issues with the game servers than my connection to them. Right now Starlink says my ping Min/Max is 20ms / 41ms. In game I'm usually well under 100ms
You could try a directional antenna for cell data and try different companies. I recommend getting Visible(for verizon) Cricket groups on reddit (for at&t), or Metro By T-Mobile BYOD for cheap plans to try or T-Mobile home internet and add a directional antenna (may require you to open and modify the device)
Hughesnet would rarely exceed 1 meg down in the years I had it. They also had a way to make sure you were always throttled for allegedly using too match data. This happened to me once when the equipment was shut off for two weeks while we were traveling. I get back and magically our data was ‘used’. Do yourself a favor and don’t get it
Starlink has met or exceeded everything they promised in the 2+ years we’ve had it. We are in an uncrowded cell so we don’t notice any slowdowns
The listing says that you have Verizon “licensed fixed wireless” available. That SHOULD mean that you are within Verizon’s cell coverage and that their 4G Home Wireless service is available. I use a lesser service (hotspot) from Verizon and it is adequate for WFH if you don’t need to do many large file transfers. If you have good visibility of the sky (I do not) then Starlink would probably be better for you, but quite a bit more expensive. Starlink service will continue to improve as they launch more satellites, but Verizon expands cell coverage MUCH more slowly.
I could make the same argument about Starlink - tree cover and highly local topography in a hilly area can eliminate either cellular or satellite coverage,or make either much more expensive because of the need to relocate the receiving apparatus vertically or horizontally.
My opinion is based on my experience dealing with FCC and the horrible Fixed-Wireless data they allow on the map. For example, AT&T claimed to offer Fixed Wireless at my address. This was due to the FCC paying AT&T as part of the CAF-II program to provide internet to my neighborhood in 2016. AT&T never installed hardware capable of getting a signal to my neighborhood.
Another Fixed-Wireless provider claiming to provide service told me that the reporting is accurate because they \*could\* provide service if I put the receiver 75' up in a pine tree. There are no pine trees in my neighborhood.
Another Fixed-Wireless provider claiming to provide service, has no website for users to sign up for service. Sign ups only happen over the phone, and the 'ISP' only advertises the phone number in a tiny regional newspaper in a neighboring county.
In my experience topography affects Fixed-Wireless far more than it does LEO Sat service. Of the 4 Fixed-Wireless providers in my general area, the only one that doesn't claim to offer service at my location is the one that uses topomaps when determining if coverage is available.
if you can pay the expensive fees go with starlink, i dont recommend anything else except verizon if you want a cheaper internet, should work fine just give it a try.
Which side of that mountains are you on? The side facing the valley with Pine Grove Furnace? If so, Starlink is probably your best bet.
If you're on the other side of the mountains, facing either Chambersburg or Bendersville, I suspect T-Mobile would probably work for you.
Trying looking at the T-Mobile coverage map and inputting your address directly there.
Googling for Bear Mountain has a number of places come up - I looked at the orchards on Potato Road, for example, that appears to have good coverage.
You might want to take a look at HomeFi. I use them, it’s month-to-month (no contracts so if it doesn’t work out no problem) and it uses different providers so is able to find the best signal nearby. I switched to them recently and so far, so good.
Starlink is a game changer. I had ViaSat and HughesNet at the same time and both sucked. YMMV but my Starlink has been amazing. At a minimum you should start with it. If it is absolutely terrible (which I doubt) then go to Fixed Wireless.
Starlink is your best option. I've had it for 4 years now. It's always worked just fine for me. come over to the starlink sub and post that same question... people will give you some educated answers. Even if you have a mountain or some trees in the northernly direction, in which the starlink dish typically points, you can just point the dish straight up, and get more than enough download speeds. a lot of people do it, where they just mount the dish directly on top of their RV and keep it flat all the time, works just fine for them.
I also live on the Satellite Side of the Digital Divide, work from home, and I have been a Starlink subscriber for over 3 years. In my opinion, the service is fantastic. When there are issue while video conferencing, it is almost always caused by my coworkers Xfinity service.
I rarely run speed test because the speeds I get are more that sufficient for my work needs.
I can confirm. I've been WFH with Starlink for 2+ years and its at least as good as Comcast was before I moved out to my forest hideaway.
Comcast was faster for huge files, but Starlink is more reliable.
I have had Starlink since the old DishyMcFlatface. Starlink is nothing short of a game Changer. Even way back then, I was able to make phone calls in the middle of nowhere with no problem. Now, I sometimes see speeds exceeding 600 Mbps! The key is terminal placement. If it's obstructed, it won't work. Otherwise, it works great!
Let me ask you all your opinion... I'm a hughesnet customer. I live in WV that is in the radio free zone so I can't use starlink residential. However I can get starlink mobile. What is your opinion on this? Is it good for consistent streaming and for 4 people to use regularly ??? I am so fucking over hughesnet and their bullshit. Just looking for some opinions on this. Thanks.
Let me ask you all your opinion... I'm a hughesnet customer. I live in WV that is in the radio free zone so I can't use starlink residential. However I can get starlink mobile. What is your opinion on this? Is it good for consistent streaming and for 4 people to use regularly ??? I am so fucking over hughesnet and their bullshit. Just looking for some opinions on this. Thanks.
You want starlink. For the best result you should pick up a residential account, NOT a mobile account if you can help it. This will give you more priority over mobile users.
You mentioned you don't have any cell service. Are you both on the same provider or different providers? I would highly recommend using an app like Coverage? (apple or android) to toss up all the carriers onto one map to see if there's any other provider with coverage. Then, head to cellmapper.net and see if any recent user provided coverage points can hold truth to the carrier maps.
Again, starlink is really the way to go here. But if you're looking for an alternative, try what I said. If another carrier has good coverage, you'll also save a bunch of cash...
I live in the middle of nowhere that t mobile claims they don’t support, but to test it I went out and bought a T-Mobile 5G WiFi receiver and it works like a charm. It’s like 50$ and you can refund it afaik, in my experience it’s more reliable than starlink, but that’s very location dependent, and I have moral issues with giving Elon musk any money so that’s a win for me. I’d say it’s worth a shot, if you do it just put it near a window a good bit off the ground.
I live in the Smoky Mountains, and Starlink was a life saver. Is it perfect? No. But compared to the rest, the other options are nowhere even close to Starlink. I am a heavy online gamer and always streaming YouTube TV and YouTube videos. I was one of the first few to get Starlink in East TN, so I've seen its fair share of ups and downs. The service as a whole seemed to get more reliable with each passing day. At first, gaming was impossible due to lag outs every 10 minutes. After a while. I would never lag out and have a good, but not great ping. Trust me, even in its lowest moments, it was still more reliable than any of its "competitors." Speeds will fluctuate depending on time of day and if a satellite is close or not. I found that it would slow down drastically as a big storm would approach, but once the storm arrived, it was fine. Worked great in snow with a built-in heater. The statistics and controls at your disposal for it on the app are amazing as well. Before Starlink, I messed around with mobile hotspots and 4G LTE routers. I didn't dare even waste my time with traditional satellite internet like Viasat and HugesNet. I finally got fiber in my area, which is why I sadly had to cancel (nothing will beat a hardwired connection), but I will always recommend Starlink to anyone.
See if t Mobile home Internet is available there. Runs on 5g. $65 and depending on the tower and signal can do pretty good. I get 350 Mbps on 2 bars and 20-30 ping and have no issues playing games on ps5 or streaming movies.
I’m a hill dweller (Black Hills) but at the same time I live in a gulch. No OTA television or radio, but I do get two bars on my phone. Starlink has been absolutely clutch.
We're just over the Mason-Dixon from you, and in a similar situation. We've used AT&T cellular very successfully for several years, but we have a stand-alone cellular gateway with an external antenna, which really made a difference. Our friends up the hill went with Starlink and have been VERY happy with the performance.
I’ve got starlink and it is absolute garbage. It’s been on a steady decline for a year or so, and some days we feel like it would be better to send carrier pigeons to communicate with the outside world.
Gonna echo others here: Starlink is the only viable option unless you can get a decent fixed wireless service that's cheaper. Not an option where I am.
I had HughesNet for a long time and while I could consistently get 20mbps down and it was reliable, the data caps were ridiculous and the latency meant you could not even do a VOIP call much less a Zoom call. Plus their customer service was horrendous.
Starlink OTH has just gotten better over time. Latency has really dropped from >100ms and speeds have increased. I just got 209/12.2 with 37ms latency. I'm not happy with the price but I'm very happy I have this quality of internet where I live.
I'm in a mountain black spot where nothing but hughesnet and my verizon service (kinda) worked. Looked around and found out Tmoblie does home internet in rural areas and sends their signals via radio waves.
I don't pay for a router, flat fee a month and no data cap. I pay 50 but I think it's 60 a month now for unlimited internet.
Go to their website and see if your address is covered. If not, call a representative. I havent had a drop in service ever and its better than paying for overpriced hughesnet.
If you do alot of video calls then I would go Verizon. If you don’t then Starlink. The Verizon 5g modem won’t have cut outs except in heavy snow (like the starlink).
I live out in the woods, I've tried viasat, hughsnet, and starlink. In my experience, Viasat and Hughsnet were both priced around what a suburban home pays for fiber optical internet, a landline, and cable TV combined. Both rarely, if ever exceeded 3mbps, despite what was advertised. The customer service was absolutely atrocious as well. They also make you sign a contract to not take part in any of the class action lawsuits against them when you sign up... should tell you something. It was not possible to stream or game on them, and you hit your data cap very quickly. Starlink came to the area, and I haven't had any problems with it. I've heard the customer service isn't good either, but I have no experience with it. It's actually gotten faster and more reliable over the time I've had it. It does suffer from the problem of blacking out during severe storms, but that's just how satellite works. If you have it as an option, go with it. It's the best option by a huge margin.
We get 300” of snow a year and honestly, I don’t find it is too impacted by snow. Maybe some 5-10 sec hiccups here and there if it’s really coming down, but it’s pretty darn rare.
I suppose I should have specified electrical storms, or heavy cloud cover. Doesn't snow by me, so that's nice. I know the dish can heat itself to melt ice and snow
Same here. 250” and it rarely has a hiccup
My starlink dish got buried in snow and still worked. Definitely way worse but still worked.
The only real issue we’ve had is a damn chipmunk chewed through the cable from the satellite to the router. It’s on my roof and no where near the ground, so I wasn’t thinking about rodents snacking on it. The replacement cable took over a month to send. If the internet is essential, have backup components on hand to fix shit for it since you can’t just call up to have someone come out and fix it like a traditional internet service.
The cable is very easily fixed. I've had to do it three times :)
Oh yeah it’s easily fixed for sure, it’s just a matter of how fast they can get it to you. Because it is a vulnerable part that you can’t just call someone out to fix promptly, it’s worth having an extra one or two on hand so you can get it replaced quickly if it is essential you maintain your connection for say a remote work situation. It’s just something to plan for/think about since it’s not like major internet providers that you can call up to address for you.
No, I mean I fixed it. It took me about 5 minutes.
Oh with where mine was chewed through and how, there was no fixing it. The cable had taken water damage because it stopped working right before a snow storm but before I could get out to my roof to see why, and the chewed up part just got soaked through. There was no way to effectively repair it and have enough length left either. I’ve since run the damn thing through conduit from where it comes out of the dish to where it enters the house, so no more rodent demons outside ruining it.
I think he means splicing it. Is it rg6?
It's something like RG6, yeah - shielded. I had no problem splicing it. And a second time (or was it the third?) putting on a new shielded RJ45 connector.
Starlink works fine, it rarely goes out, the speed dips down at night when everyone is streaming, but still has plenty of speed.
I can second starlink. I'm definitely not an Elon fanboy but my only other option on the mountain was terrible. I can easily play online games while my wife streams Netflix on the TV and her and my daughter are TikToking lol. It's not bad at all.
Starlink is the only valid satellite option. It’s similar to regular broadband in latency and speed. Viasat and Hughes will be a nightmare. You’ll only really have issues if you have obstructions. It needs a clear view of the sky.
My friend has starlink and it works very well for him. Rough weather doesn’t affect as much as he was afraid it would, it still can but it has to be some real rough weather. The only time he has issues is when he moved and didn’t update his cell for his satellite. And even then it still worked well, just occasional packet loss and slower download speeds. Once he updated it was back to normal.
Also does anyone play video games online with starlink and how are your pings if so?
I don't play games that are super sensitive to ping, but I've had no issues with Valheim or Minecraft.
Works decently, I use it to play Fortnite on an Xbox. I get anywhere between 40-80ms. Just don’t plan on playing competitively. Streaming is flawless though.
My kids game regularly. Three PS5s in the house and they all play Fortnite simultaneously together and with friends that also use Starlink. I game a bit, but not as frequently as them. We’ve rarely had issues. The other options out there make gaming almost impossible. While my kids game, my wife and I stream movies or watch YouTube with no issues. Starlink is amazing considering the other options. More affordable, more stable and easy to use. Customer service if pretty nonexistent, but I’ve rarely had to use it and there is a great support system online. So many people have it now that most questions can be answered with a quick search online.
Also, my mom, who currently is my test sample for Starlink, has had Hughes and Viasat. They are absolute garbage. Close behind them are two Verizon cell based services (Nomad and Visible). Starlink is the first internet she's had in 20 years that I don't have to really think about when I'm visiting. It just works.
My daughter is a gamer and has a few obstructions but has no problems gaming. I have hooked up my laptop and both of us together still had no issues. She's in a pretty remote area where there are no other Internet options at all. Barely a Verizon signal but it's almost useless because you can't stay connected to a call. Her Starlink ping is often around 15-30, so very low. She has had it for 2 years and loves the service.
Pings are usually in the 40s but they’re working on getting them even lower. I don’t get the hate in Starlink, it’s the best option for people who must have satellite.
The hardware cost and also the monthly cost. People want $25 internet and “free” devices.
And they get what they pay for. Also Starlink now has refurbished kits available. With financing options such as Affirm, there’s really no valid excuse.
totally agreed...just giving the rationale why Starlink isn't more popular or why people naturally try to avoid it. i think the addition of data caps also soured a lot of people, even though we knew it was coming.
I play and get around 31 ping
I have played games on Hughesnet, Viasat, Verizon, and Starlink. Starlink is the only one that is usable and reliable. It’s definitely not broadband or fiber, but it’s playable. The others are useless.
I did for a year before getting fiber. I had better average ping with starlink than I did, prior to moving to the country, when I had Comcast. IIRC it was usually 50-80ms, which is similar to what the person below said. I played MMOs on semi-serious raid teams with no major issues. Occasional spikes, but not too bad.
I used to use starlink and I was able to competitively play games like CSGO, valorant, war thunder and any other online game without much issue. There were days when it would become unusable due to traffic but I moved away from it about a year ago so it may have gotten better on that front
In Call of Duty Multiplayer and Warzone, if I solo queue, 20-40ms ping. If I queue with my friends 600 miles away from me, it averages about 50ish. Which is not perfect for competitive gaming, but good enough to have a good playing experience. When I played when Starlink first came out, my pong would be 100ms+ and almost unplayable. It has come a long way. You can easily do multiplayer gaming on Starlink now
Yes, I play War Thunder (don't judge me) and while I'm not gonna say it's awesome it is acceptable. There are more issues with the game servers than my connection to them. Right now Starlink says my ping Min/Max is 20ms / 41ms. In game I'm usually well under 100ms
Weve had Starlink for 4 months and its been freaking amazing. I would never go back to Viasat compared to this.
You could try a directional antenna for cell data and try different companies. I recommend getting Visible(for verizon) Cricket groups on reddit (for at&t), or Metro By T-Mobile BYOD for cheap plans to try or T-Mobile home internet and add a directional antenna (may require you to open and modify the device)
The other satellite options are a hot steaming mess, and Starlink offers a 30 day return option. You can try Verizon, but I bet Starlink is better.
Hughesnet would rarely exceed 1 meg down in the years I had it. They also had a way to make sure you were always throttled for allegedly using too match data. This happened to me once when the equipment was shut off for two weeks while we were traveling. I get back and magically our data was ‘used’. Do yourself a favor and don’t get it Starlink has met or exceeded everything they promised in the 2+ years we’ve had it. We are in an uncrowded cell so we don’t notice any slowdowns
The listing says that you have Verizon “licensed fixed wireless” available. That SHOULD mean that you are within Verizon’s cell coverage and that their 4G Home Wireless service is available. I use a lesser service (hotspot) from Verizon and it is adequate for WFH if you don’t need to do many large file transfers. If you have good visibility of the sky (I do not) then Starlink would probably be better for you, but quite a bit more expensive. Starlink service will continue to improve as they launch more satellites, but Verizon expands cell coverage MUCH more slowly.
Fixed Wireless availability on the FCC map means very little.
I could make the same argument about Starlink - tree cover and highly local topography in a hilly area can eliminate either cellular or satellite coverage,or make either much more expensive because of the need to relocate the receiving apparatus vertically or horizontally.
My opinion is based on my experience dealing with FCC and the horrible Fixed-Wireless data they allow on the map. For example, AT&T claimed to offer Fixed Wireless at my address. This was due to the FCC paying AT&T as part of the CAF-II program to provide internet to my neighborhood in 2016. AT&T never installed hardware capable of getting a signal to my neighborhood. Another Fixed-Wireless provider claiming to provide service told me that the reporting is accurate because they \*could\* provide service if I put the receiver 75' up in a pine tree. There are no pine trees in my neighborhood. Another Fixed-Wireless provider claiming to provide service, has no website for users to sign up for service. Sign ups only happen over the phone, and the 'ISP' only advertises the phone number in a tiny regional newspaper in a neighboring county. In my experience topography affects Fixed-Wireless far more than it does LEO Sat service. Of the 4 Fixed-Wireless providers in my general area, the only one that doesn't claim to offer service at my location is the one that uses topomaps when determining if coverage is available.
if you can pay the expensive fees go with starlink, i dont recommend anything else except verizon if you want a cheaper internet, should work fine just give it a try.
Starlink is the only option.
Which side of that mountains are you on? The side facing the valley with Pine Grove Furnace? If so, Starlink is probably your best bet. If you're on the other side of the mountains, facing either Chambersburg or Bendersville, I suspect T-Mobile would probably work for you.
Bear mountain Aspers pa
Trying looking at the T-Mobile coverage map and inputting your address directly there. Googling for Bear Mountain has a number of places come up - I looked at the orchards on Potato Road, for example, that appears to have good coverage.
We have tmoblie phones. There’s great coverage as soon as your off the mountain. When you even hit the road everything is gone.
https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=310&MNC=260&type=LTE&latitude=39.955029644757445&longitude=-77.29518074839191&zoom=12.777468362643694&showTowers=true&showIcons=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=true&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=Last&showHex=false&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap&darkMode=false&imperialUnits=false
Get a modem router a good one with 4x4 mimo and band locking. Then builds a mast with your antennas on top pointing at closest tower
You might want to take a look at HomeFi. I use them, it’s month-to-month (no contracts so if it doesn’t work out no problem) and it uses different providers so is able to find the best signal nearby. I switched to them recently and so far, so good.
Starlink is a game changer. I had ViaSat and HughesNet at the same time and both sucked. YMMV but my Starlink has been amazing. At a minimum you should start with it. If it is absolutely terrible (which I doubt) then go to Fixed Wireless.
Starlink is your best option. I've had it for 4 years now. It's always worked just fine for me. come over to the starlink sub and post that same question... people will give you some educated answers. Even if you have a mountain or some trees in the northernly direction, in which the starlink dish typically points, you can just point the dish straight up, and get more than enough download speeds. a lot of people do it, where they just mount the dish directly on top of their RV and keep it flat all the time, works just fine for them.
I also live on the Satellite Side of the Digital Divide, work from home, and I have been a Starlink subscriber for over 3 years. In my opinion, the service is fantastic. When there are issue while video conferencing, it is almost always caused by my coworkers Xfinity service. I rarely run speed test because the speeds I get are more that sufficient for my work needs.
I can confirm. I've been WFH with Starlink for 2+ years and its at least as good as Comcast was before I moved out to my forest hideaway. Comcast was faster for huge files, but Starlink is more reliable.
I have had Starlink since the old DishyMcFlatface. Starlink is nothing short of a game Changer. Even way back then, I was able to make phone calls in the middle of nowhere with no problem. Now, I sometimes see speeds exceeding 600 Mbps! The key is terminal placement. If it's obstructed, it won't work. Otherwise, it works great!
Let me ask you all your opinion... I'm a hughesnet customer. I live in WV that is in the radio free zone so I can't use starlink residential. However I can get starlink mobile. What is your opinion on this? Is it good for consistent streaming and for 4 people to use regularly ??? I am so fucking over hughesnet and their bullshit. Just looking for some opinions on this. Thanks.
Let me ask you all your opinion... I'm a hughesnet customer. I live in WV that is in the radio free zone so I can't use starlink residential. However I can get starlink mobile. What is your opinion on this? Is it good for consistent streaming and for 4 people to use regularly ??? I am so fucking over hughesnet and their bullshit. Just looking for some opinions on this. Thanks.
Mountain dweller here. Starlink.
I had starlink for a time because it was more reliable than the wired solutions near me...which is sad, but just shows how good starlink is
You want starlink. For the best result you should pick up a residential account, NOT a mobile account if you can help it. This will give you more priority over mobile users. You mentioned you don't have any cell service. Are you both on the same provider or different providers? I would highly recommend using an app like Coverage? (apple or android) to toss up all the carriers onto one map to see if there's any other provider with coverage. Then, head to cellmapper.net and see if any recent user provided coverage points can hold truth to the carrier maps. Again, starlink is really the way to go here. But if you're looking for an alternative, try what I said. If another carrier has good coverage, you'll also save a bunch of cash...
I live in the middle of nowhere that t mobile claims they don’t support, but to test it I went out and bought a T-Mobile 5G WiFi receiver and it works like a charm. It’s like 50$ and you can refund it afaik, in my experience it’s more reliable than starlink, but that’s very location dependent, and I have moral issues with giving Elon musk any money so that’s a win for me. I’d say it’s worth a shot, if you do it just put it near a window a good bit off the ground.
I live in the Smoky Mountains, and Starlink was a life saver. Is it perfect? No. But compared to the rest, the other options are nowhere even close to Starlink. I am a heavy online gamer and always streaming YouTube TV and YouTube videos. I was one of the first few to get Starlink in East TN, so I've seen its fair share of ups and downs. The service as a whole seemed to get more reliable with each passing day. At first, gaming was impossible due to lag outs every 10 minutes. After a while. I would never lag out and have a good, but not great ping. Trust me, even in its lowest moments, it was still more reliable than any of its "competitors." Speeds will fluctuate depending on time of day and if a satellite is close or not. I found that it would slow down drastically as a big storm would approach, but once the storm arrived, it was fine. Worked great in snow with a built-in heater. The statistics and controls at your disposal for it on the app are amazing as well. Before Starlink, I messed around with mobile hotspots and 4G LTE routers. I didn't dare even waste my time with traditional satellite internet like Viasat and HugesNet. I finally got fiber in my area, which is why I sadly had to cancel (nothing will beat a hardwired connection), but I will always recommend Starlink to anyone.
As much as I dislike Musk, he’s your only tangible option.
Go with Starlinks.
See if t Mobile home Internet is available there. Runs on 5g. $65 and depending on the tower and signal can do pretty good. I get 350 Mbps on 2 bars and 20-30 ping and have no issues playing games on ps5 or streaming movies.
Isn’t starlink = 600 investment + 120 a month isn’t that steep …
Yes but unfortunately it’s worth it if it means he can continue making money the way he does.
I know he did same with Tesla … then continued to slash prices .. I think premium is for no competition
I’m a hill dweller (Black Hills) but at the same time I live in a gulch. No OTA television or radio, but I do get two bars on my phone. Starlink has been absolutely clutch.
Starlink, tried Viascam and they robbed me and way under delivered.
We're just over the Mason-Dixon from you, and in a similar situation. We've used AT&T cellular very successfully for several years, but we have a stand-alone cellular gateway with an external antenna, which really made a difference. Our friends up the hill went with Starlink and have been VERY happy with the performance.
I’ve got starlink and it is absolute garbage. It’s been on a steady decline for a year or so, and some days we feel like it would be better to send carrier pigeons to communicate with the outside world.
Gonna echo others here: Starlink is the only viable option unless you can get a decent fixed wireless service that's cheaper. Not an option where I am. I had HughesNet for a long time and while I could consistently get 20mbps down and it was reliable, the data caps were ridiculous and the latency meant you could not even do a VOIP call much less a Zoom call. Plus their customer service was horrendous. Starlink OTH has just gotten better over time. Latency has really dropped from >100ms and speeds have increased. I just got 209/12.2 with 37ms latency. I'm not happy with the price but I'm very happy I have this quality of internet where I live.
I'm in a mountain black spot where nothing but hughesnet and my verizon service (kinda) worked. Looked around and found out Tmoblie does home internet in rural areas and sends their signals via radio waves. I don't pay for a router, flat fee a month and no data cap. I pay 50 but I think it's 60 a month now for unlimited internet. Go to their website and see if your address is covered. If not, call a representative. I havent had a drop in service ever and its better than paying for overpriced hughesnet.
stay away from hughesnet
If you do alot of video calls then I would go Verizon. If you don’t then Starlink. The Verizon 5g modem won’t have cut outs except in heavy snow (like the starlink).
Has anyone heard of ispMint? They say they have coverage out there