Starlink advice

agesilaus · February 16

Thinking seriously about getting starlink. Looking for any suggestions by those that have it. Probably looking at RV stationary antenna the white plates I see hooked to the RV by a cable. I understand there is a noble version but we do not need it.

What is the delivery time after you order it.? Any accessories needed? Any other advice or suggestions?

Vladimir · February 18

I am surprised that no one has answered your post. So here goes.

I bought and own both the Generation One and Generation Two dish.

The Generation Two dish works real well for RV'ing. The box is well designed for travel. It is fairly small.

I installed the Generation Two at my vacation home business. It was a residential install. A couple of weeks ago, I took it on the road and switched to the mobile account.

The install at the vacation home has wiring, router, etc. totally set-up that when I need to have the dish with me I just remove the dish. I have an extra router than works well at the vacation home, but I take it on the road so I don't have to remove it. I did get another modem cable to take on the road.

The extra router made a huge difference in coverage at the vacation home.

I ordered the Generation One dish when there was a waiting list. The Generation Two dish was a warranty replacement for the Generation One dish. I don't know what current waiting times are today.

I understand that residential use is still limited in certain cells. You can get a mobile account right away, but when I switched plans I was warned that I might not be able to reinstall the dish at my residential local except as a mobile device. The speed did go down now that I am in the southwest. I don't know why that is, but it might be the greater number of dishes in my southern location.

The biggest issue I have had is the StarLink web sites. They are awful. No voice support. Everything goes through the internet.

Once you find where you need to be it is simple to change services.

I was in Bakersfield, when the campground wanted me to sign up for their internet service. I thought that it might be a good time to set up my StarLink dish. In less than five minutes, I had the dish setup and changed my account to mobile and StarLink told me that billed me $14 for the remainder of the month. It took a bit longer for the StarLink to come totally on line.

I would start a StarLink notebook with passwords and other information. It does make up for the lack of personal support.

Do change your phones to wifi calling. In my view, this is one of the best reasons to switch to StarLink. Phone service everywhere. My next step is too go to a very cheap data and phone plan. No point paying $65 per line now. That helps take the sting out of buying the dish.

It is limited to three devices hooked up at one time per agreement. I have never tried to hook four up at one time.

Hope this helps.

Oh set up instruction are there pictures!!! Just hook everything up and DON'T DO ANYTHING else. It will connect on its own!! First time I tried to point it north, etc. Don't.

Edited February 18 by Vladimir

lappir · February 18

Thanks for replying Vladimir. I don't have and could not help.

I do find your post interesting as far as the internet/WIFI calling. I have yet to try that, but I do use my cell plan for my internet so it would have to be on someone else's WIFI.

Rod

Chad Heiser · February 20

I have Starlink (gen 2). It is on a residential plan with mobility (I’m not sure if they still offer this option). I use it at my home and when I travel in the RV. I have a second data cable and power plug that are permanently installed in my RV in my router cabinet. The data cable (the cable that connects the dish to the router) is run from the cabinet out to my RV’s wet bay. I leave the cable coiled up until I deploy the dish. I then pull out enough cable to reach the dish. I run the cable out the bottom of the wet bay where the water hose exits. I usually install the dish on a Flagpole Buddy pole mount on the ladder of my RV. The only pieces that move between the house and RV are the router and the dish. I am considering buying a second router so that I will only have to move the dish itself between the house and RV.

The service is great and has worked everywhere I have tried it so far. It is especially nice when we get to an area that doesn’t have cell coverage or has weak cell coverage. As mentioned above, we can use WiFi calling on our cell phones when they are connected to the network. I have cellular networks at both my house and in my RV that are always on and act as backups to the Starlink. I feed the Starlink data into my cellular router’s WAN port and pass it through when it is active so I don’t have to manually switch my devices between the two networks. Everything connects to the cellular based network and then uses the data from either source (Starlink or Cellular) based on settings in my router. I am very pleased with this set up.

Edited February 20 by Chad Heiser

lappir · February 20

Chad,

What does your significant other do for internet when you are off to the east coast or other places without her?

Rod

Chad Heiser · February 21

On 2/20/2024 at 11:13 AM, lappir said:

Chad,

What does your significant other do for internet when you are off to the east coast or other places without her?

Rod

We have Cellular internet in both the house and the RV. I have two old Mobley’s with the original AT&T connected car plan. One is always on in the house and one is always on in the RV. I don’t always bring the Starlink along in the RV, but if I do the house still has Internet.

Edited July 2 by Chad Heiser

brotherv · July 1

On 2/19/2024 at 1:04 AM, Vladimir said:

I am surprised that no one has answered your post. So here goes.

I bought and own both the Generation One and Generation Two dish.

The Generation Two dish works real well for RV'ing. The box is well designed for travel. It is fairly small.

I installed the Generation Two at my vacation home business. It was a residential install. A couple of weeks ago, I took it on the road and switched to the mobile account.

The install at the vacation home has wiring, router, etc. totally set-up that when I need to have the dish with me I just remove the dish. I have an extra router than works well at the vacation home, but I take it on the road so I don't have to remove it. I did get another modem cable to take on the road.

The extra router made a huge difference in coverage at the vacation home.

I ordered the Generation One dish when there was a waiting list. The Generation Two dish was a warranty replacement for the Generation One dish. I don't know what current waiting times are today.

I understand that residential use is still limited in certain cells. You can get a mobile account right away, but when I switched plans I was warned that I might not be able to reinstall the dish at my residential local except as a mobile device. The speed did go down now that I am in the southwest. I don't know why that is, but it might be the greater number of dishes in my southern location.

The biggest issue I have had is the StarLink web sites. They are awful. No voice support. Everything goes through the internet.

Once you find where you need to be it is simple to change services.

I was in Bakersfield, when the campground wanted me to sign up for their internet service. I thought that it might be a good time to set up my StarLink dish. In less than five minutes, I had the dish setup and changed my account to mobile and StarLink told me that billed me $14 for the remainder of the month. It took a bit longer for the StarLink to come totally on line.

I would start a StarLink notebook with passwords and other information. It does make up for the lack of personal support.

Do change your phones to wifi calling. In my view, this is one of the best reasons to switch to StarLink. Phone service everywhere. My next step is too go to a very cheap data and phone plan. No point paying $65 per line now. That helps take the sting out of buying the dish.

It is limited to three devices hooked up at one time per agreement. I have never tried to hook four up at one time.

Hope this helps.

Oh set up instruction are there pictures!!! Just hook everything up and DON'T DO ANYTHING else. It will connect on its own!! First time I tried to point it north, etc. Don't.

Wow, thank you so much for the incredibly detailed and helpful response, @Vladimir! It's great to get insights from someone with firsthand experience using Starlink. I can see why it would enhance the RV experience immensely.

rickeieio · July 1

We've only had Starlink for a few months, but are happy with it so far. We're travelling the Alaska Highway, with long stretches of no cell coverage. The wifi calling lets us stay in touch.

lappir · July 2

9 hours ago, rickeieio said:

We've only had Starlink for a few months, but are happy with it so far. We're travelling the Alaska Highway, with long stretches of no cell coverage. The wifi calling lets us stay in touch.

So are you able to keep it on while moving?

Did you mount it permanently or Semi permanent in case you have to park under trees?

If I start doing more frequent moves I may have to try it, still seems expensive to me.

Rod

rickeieio · July 2

2 hours ago, lappir said:

So are you able to keep it on while moving?

Did you mount it permanently or Semi permanent in case you have to park under trees?

If I start doing more frequent moves I may have to try it, still seems expensive to me.

Rod

No, and no. We have the plan that lets us use it at home, or take it with us. It will not track while in motion. When we set up in a site, I set it where I think it has the best view of open sky, then look at the app on my phone to adjust as necessary. Oddly, at home (near Cincinnati, OH), we point it due north. Where are now, near Whitehorse, YT, it says to point it south.

As mentioned earlier, the directions consist of a few crude drawings, and the online support is dismal, at best. If you have no internet, you're screwed. And if you have internet, maybe you don't need the Starlink in the first place. That said, it's working for us, and since January, has saved us enough over our old cable plan to pay for the hardware.

lappir · July 2

I've been using my cell phone for internet for a lot of years and so far it works very well for me. Of course for most of those years I was working and had to be within 20 minutes of my work and needless to say I wasn't boondocking.

I fell for the Satellite TV for a very short time early in my Full Time mobile life. Wind blowing down the dish and getting it aimed correctly really soured me on having to put an antenna out all the time. I haven't put my little digital TV antenna out for over two years and really don't miss it. Gave up "Cable TV" when I started Full time.

Enjoy your Alaska adventure, trying to think of how I can do it in the next few years, but I want to bring my motorcycle too, did you bring any?

Rod

Dutch_12078 · July 2

1 hour ago, lappir said:

I've been using my cell phone for internet for a lot of years and so far it works very well for me. Of course for most of those years I was working and had to be within 20 minutes of my work and needless to say I wasn't boondocking.

I fell for the Satellite TV for a very short time early in my Full Time mobile life. Wind blowing down the dish and getting it aimed correctly really soured me on having to put an antenna out all the time. I haven't put my little digital TV antenna out for over two years and really don't miss it. Gave up "Cable TV" when I started Full time.

Enjoy your Alaska adventure, trying to think of how I can do it in the next few years, but I want to bring my motorcycle too, did you bring any?

Rod

When we were still fulltiming, I didn't mind the ~15 minutes it typically took me to set up and aim our sat dish. Then we got into streaming, and our dish has stayed stowed since last year when we came off the road. In our current limited travels so far, we've had good enough cell service with either AT&T or Verizon for streaming, but if we were still fulltime, we'd very likely have signed up with Starlink by now. As said, WiFi calling is very handy. If we're in a strong AT&T area, our Verizon phones work quite nicely using it.