Internet Providers

[sandyut]

We live in the mtns. Lucky our area has Comcast. Not all areas up here do.

As some of you know we have frequent power outages and that is getting worse due to Xcel's PSPS (planned safety power shutoff) that they implement to reduce fire risk. We have a back up generator so we have power. But Comcast shuts off about 20 min after the power. Cell signal is useless at our address. Its a thing, its real.

During the 4 day outage I had to drive a couple miles away to get updates, emails etc. It sucked.

Bought a Starlink dish for back up, pretty sure im gonna switch to SL full time very soon. Tired of talking to Comcast over couple years to "renegotiate" a deal when I have had them for like 25+ years...why is it that they act like its 1980?! SL is all online, no people just click what you want and thats what you get. AND it will work when the power is out (on the gen).

 

[chef k-dude]

Was there a question on this Dave? I've never used starlink but dealt with Comcast before we got our rural broadband initiative fiber. Their service was good but I had a business account, so getting it back up if it went down was a priority for them over regular residential customers. We've since moved to Firefly Fiber and have what they "call" gigabit service. It has varied more as more people get on the service but still very reliable.

Our power cooperative teamed up with Firefly to let them use their poles, so unlike Comcast, they didn't have to dig much. I guess that rural broadband initiative hasn't reached you. We got the fiber even though we had Comcast. Maybe thats how they prioritize, if you already have cable they dont consider you "underserved". We had Comcast in my neighborhood becasue we as a neighborhood went directly to them and we paid for part of the cable runs and boxes to get it here. I was using a cell based modem before that that got expensive with any real data moving, and before that...dialup! My wife and I had shotgun modems in our PC's and multiple land lines to double up the dialup.

The power co-op was setting up this whole area for fiber, so we got the fiber anyway. Comcast paid a lot more of the install than we did and within a couple years we had fiber and was ditching them!

 

[mike243]

Live out in the country and have had Comcast for a lot of years, we got our first computer in early 2000 when they didn't know if they would work when 2000 got here, we were on dialup for a long time and I smoked then, I would click to look at a picture or send 1 and could mostly have a cigarette smoked by the time it loaded, quit smoking soon after so no more 3-5 packs a day. Son has worked for Comcast for close to 20 years, he gets a good discount, wife works from home and has to have fast service, you get spoiled pretty quick. running over 600mbps most of the time.

 

[schlotz]

Yep, you're pretty much out on the edge up there in the mountains. Best solution for consistent connection is what you've done with SL. Get its collection point installed outside where there is a clear access to their satellites. Not familiar with their equipment, one question, does snow covering them affect their service?

 

[civilsmoker]

One of my co-workers lives in the sticks and he went to SL because it’s the only thing that can handle the data he works with

 

[sandyut]

Yep, you're pretty much out on the edge up there in the mountains. Best solution for consistent connection is what you've done with SL. Get its collection point installed outside where there is a clear access to their satellites. Not familiar with their equipment, one question, does snow covering them affect their service?

It has a snow melt function if it does.

I have it set up on a roaming plan in the closet (yes inside). Speeds are slower for sure, but still strong enough to run all the streaming TV. That was the litmus test. Now I am pretty convinced that with the dish outside we would have no issues. we had a power outage since I got it. Soon as the gen kicked in it rebooted and was online in a couple minutes.

I am not an Elon fan, but SL is very slick. So if thats what we need, thats what we will use.

 

[sandyut]

Live out in the country and have had Comcast for a lot of years, we got our first computer in early 2000 when they didn't know if they would work when 2000 got here, we were on dialup for a long time and I smoked then, I would click to look at a picture or send 1 and could mostly have a cigarette smoked by the time it loaded, quit smoking soon after so no more 3-5 packs a day. Son has worked for Comcast for close to 20 years, he gets a good discount, wife works from home and has to have fast service, you get spoiled pretty quick. running over 600mbps most of the time.

If our power didnt go out all the time I would stick with Comcast, we get great speeds and reliability...till the power crap s out. I mean, we bought a back up gen. Not very affordable but the power issues are real and significant

 

[JLinza]

We got starlink awhile back. Its been good. Haven't seen the snow be a factor yet, and we've had a few good snows since we've had it.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Thunderstorms don't affect the SL any? Like it does satalite tv ?

 

[JLinza]

Thunderstorms don't affect the SL any? Like it does satalite tv ?

Nope, the only time we've ever lost it was when the outage happened that was world wide. Other than that, ours has been solid.

 

[MileHighSmokerGirl]

I've had StarLink since Jan 2023. I love it. Not a single issue.

Tip on the dish heater. I turn my on Nov 1st and leave it on till Apr 30th. If it's on, it'll melt snow as it hits (shorter wait) as opposed to waiting for the dish to heat up and melt through the snow (longer wait).

Thunderstorms don't affect the SL any? Like it does satalite tv ?

Heavy hail will interrupt it temporarily. I've had no issues in torrential rain at my house.

 

[JLinza]

I've had StarLink since Jan 2023. I love it. Not a single issue.

Tip on the dish heater. I turn my on Nov 1st and leave it on till Apr 30th. If it's on, it'll melt snow as it hits (shorter wait) as opposed to waiting for the dish to heat up and melt through the snow (longer wait).



Heavy hail will interrupt it temporarily. I've had no issues in torrential rain at my house.

I didn't know you had to turn the heater on lol. We've had ours buried in 2 foot of snow and still worked. Good to know. Im not very hip on all this fancy technology

 

[MileHighSmokerGirl]

I didn't know you had to turn the heater on lol. We've had ours buried in 2 foot of snow and still worked. Good to know. Im not very hip on all this fancy technology

Yep. Go in your app. There's two settings.

Auto or Pre-heat. Mine is set to Pre-heat from Nov 1 to Apr 30.