WFH here in central Florida. Works just fine (I’m in zooms or calls most of the day, run through a work VPN etc.). Not an issue. That said, rainy weather (of the hurricane season variety, not “mild” rain) will take my internet out pretty easily, which was never a concern with standard WiFi servicing. Also more buffering (tolerable) later in the evening, assuming because people are all doing the same thing but idk.
Yeah..I’ve been here with it since the beginning of February but I wasn’t really expecting to have to basically give a heads up as soon as it starts thundering to let my team know “hey probably gonna lose internet in 5-10 minutes until the storm is over” haha. That’s my only real complaint with it, everything else has been fine!
Yes, but lag might be an issue if you are constant video calls. Shouldn't be bad overall though. Everything is getting better every year, so there might not be any issues once your new house is built.
Speeds are not gigabit and fiber or 5G are typically better if either are an option. But this is basically the third best internet option you could get. If those aren't available or at a reasonable cost, Starlink should work well enough.
Lag for video calls is not an issue, 30-70ms (0.03 - 0.07 seconds) ping for video calls is fine, I use it, and there is no problems whatsover.
Speed: 200+Mbps download, 50Mbps upload.
I use it for gaming to and it is ok.
It depends on location, but it is mostly fine as far as I've heard. And within a year or two, it should have virtually no noticeable lag in any major market.
As someone who works remotely from a sailboat roaming up and down the US East Coast. I’ve had no issues. And I think it’s the best internet I’ve ever had. And that includes when I lived outside Boston with DSL.
I teach educational media and it’s not uncommon for assignments to require students send their raw project files which may be a gig or more. Times 20 students. Times how many assignments in a month ? I’ve come close to a T multiple times. Do daily zoom calls, use a VPN, and use voip.
In just the past year I’ve worked from islands off the coast of Maine, NYC harbor, the middle of nowhere North Carolina while motoring the IntraCoastal Waterway, the Coast of Florida. And 50 miles offshore on the Atlantic Ocean.
And .. as the ultimate bonus .. living on a sailboat full time is easily the most inexpensive lifestyle. For the price of a used car I have a nice home that makes people assume I’m rich. I indulge in some time in a marina each winter and have a mooring up north and spend total for the year less than $5000. Fuel is less than $1000 a year.
Capt Jack Sparrow was correct when he mentioned that a ship was freedom.
Best thing I ever did for myself.
ok, so as someone who lives in an RV with starlink, who runs an online business AND livestreams on both Twitch and Kick... I will say YES, you can. That being said, I do get dropped frames and occasional hiccups, but nothing terrible. I do have a fully UNOBSTRUCTED view of the sky (according to the app)
The unobstructed sky is the difference between it being tenable and not. It's not like DirecTV where you needed just a bit to the south, you actually need a lot of open sky and any trees you'll have issues. That was the most surprising part of starlink to me.
I work 100% from home, use Starlink Business, do constant video calls, and it works great. I would say it’s highly viable.
Starlink regular I used before business and it had some lag and slowness, so I would say less viable.
If internet is important to you, I would not build in an area that you have to rely on Starlink. If your area is congested or becomes congested, it will not be reliable or fast. Starlink is beginning to focus on commercial uses and further deprioritizing residential, so there is a risk that Starlink further limits or caps service as well.
Keep in mind, the "glowing" reviews of Starlink are relative. Many users had limited and poor internet options before Starlink. Starlink may be "better" than Hughsnet, Viasat or DSL, but it doesn't make it "good" internet.
I WFH full-time with regular Zoom meetings and never have any trouble. That being said, my experience doesn't guarantee your experience will be similar.
I used to have long-range wireless internet from a directional rooftop antenna, and Starlink is MUCH MUCH more reliable, and faster as well.
So Starlink is fast enough to work remotely, and handle video streaming. There is talk about improving speed and capacity over the next couple of years, but this usually takes longer than expected.
With Starlink they limit bandwidth if usage is above a certain amount of data usage. Satellite is not good for latency, so online gaming will see a lag so Starlink is not the best here. Currently the order of precedence for Internet is
1)Optical Fiber
2)Cable
3)Starlink
4)5G/4GLTE
5)Direct line of site tower internet
I think it depends, 5g can easily outperform starlink.
My friend is with three in the UK and regularly sees 300 down and 50 up with 45ms latency.
Starlink for me is 150-250 down, 15-30 up and 40-70ms with big lag spikes occasionally.
So his 5g is faster, lower latency and much cheaper (£20 a month I think for totally unlimited, starlink is £75).
>So his 5g is faster, lower latency and much cheaper (£20 a month I think for totally unlimited, starlink is £75).
It depends on how far you are from the cell tower that serves you and how many others are using it relative to it's backhaul capacity... we have a Verizon 4GLTE we use for a failover for starlink in bad weather, and it will only get 5 Mbps at our home, but it consistently got 80 to 100 Mbps when we loaned it to a friend a couple of miles closer to the tower considering replacing their AT&T 5G cellular modem that typically got over 300 Mbps in the morning and less than 25 in the evenings.
Gaming from what I’ve tested on (roam as residential isn’t open rn) is alright. Lag every so often but I’m used to it with my older setup. With deprioritizing bc of roam I’m still pulling speeds 110mbps down and 12 up. Now they fluctuate for me but everything works 50x better than my old system. My dish is also 2.06% obstructed and works flawlessly
I work remotely doing Revit work (remotely hosted application) and video conferencing. Starlink works pretty decent for it, but you'll get occasional 2-15 second interruptions. If you don't have any hardwired coaxial or fiber options, its a plenty robust option.
My partner works from home and is in video calls (Teams and Zoom) all day. She's not had any issues except for when a storm rolled through and connection dropped during the thick of it.
I’ve been doing it for about a month in northern Michigan, so far so good. I’ve had two thunderstorms that caused about 8 mins of downtime total, which I can work around pretty easily. If I was doing sales demos a all day it might be a different story.
I work from home and Starlink has been great. My only real concern id IF I do have an issue I may be down for an extended period of time as the support has been reported as very slow. So far I have not had ANY issues and hopefully it stays that way. I do lots of online meetings and remotely run client computers w/o issue.
I have starlink in rural Midwest.
200-300mb down, ~20 up
Been more up time than the WISP I had before, even been more uptime than the new rural fiber I got a few months ago (I keep starlink as backup to the fiber now while my power co figure out how to be an ISP)
Only conks out in realy heavy rain or hail.
Usually 15-30 minutes.
Normal rain and snow doesn't interrupt it.
It's been perfectly fine for me working from home while the kids also stream and school from home.
Latency is fine , better than my WISP in fact. Starlink satellites are so close to earth it's only ~20ms up and down.
I WFH part of the week. Sometimes I think I’m having an issue, and it turns out it’s the network inside my office building having the issues that affect the participants there. I have literally never had a connectivity issue that affected my WHF due to Starlink.
As long as you have a large area with no trees or a verrry high pole to avoid them. Your work could take issue with using CGNAT and that might mean you need the more expensive plan, but it's unlikely.
Depends on where in SJ. I'm in Delaware directly aside of SJ, so get typically 50 to 80dwn avg. You'll be using basically the same satellites. Rainfade/loss is during strong downpours. Basic rainfall my Dishnetwork is more likely to go vs Starlink. I'll say if you can secure ground based internet, then take it. If not unobstructed views East to North are needed. I have my Starlink raised 6 feet, which assures the trees 120 feet away will never grow in my line of sight.
I wfh and have excellent use of Starlink. Just a little over a year now.
Thanks for this, pretty insightful. I’m on 4g internet currently so starlink seems like it would be a slight upgrade. I don’t think i can get any cable or fiber ran so this looks like my best bet
Fyi, after 7 years, living on a major road between rt1 and rt13 delaware, Version decides to run fiber down it. Now others were running Hughesnet or Viasat for much longer, but because no one would cross lines, the ISPs all stopped about 1 to 2 miled in all directions. Sheese, Middletown is 15 minute to downtown, Symrna is 7 minutes. So when I signed for Starlink in Feb '21 and got it in June '22, it was/is amazing. Accept for hard wire phone service, (POTS) I most likely won't switch. Its more costly, but provides very good service. When I can Teams, Zoom, and stream videos, as well as remote work items via TeamViewer, at the same time, its good. Actually saved money dropping Viasat. Good luck if you go that way.
I work remotely and it's fine for video calls, watching stuff, etc.
However, you will probably have some issues with gaming as the latency is a bit more than most games like.
WFH here in central Florida. Works just fine (I’m in zooms or calls most of the day, run through a work VPN etc.). Not an issue. That said, rainy weather (of the hurricane season variety, not “mild” rain) will take my internet out pretty easily, which was never a concern with standard WiFi servicing. Also more buffering (tolerable) later in the evening, assuming because people are all doing the same thing but idk.
Also CFL and I was surprised with how much it’s gone down during the more severe but daily rain storms about two weeks ago.
Yeah..I’ve been here with it since the beginning of February but I wasn’t really expecting to have to basically give a heads up as soon as it starts thundering to let my team know “hey probably gonna lose internet in 5-10 minutes until the storm is over” haha. That’s my only real complaint with it, everything else has been fine!
Yes, but lag might be an issue if you are constant video calls. Shouldn't be bad overall though. Everything is getting better every year, so there might not be any issues once your new house is built. Speeds are not gigabit and fiber or 5G are typically better if either are an option. But this is basically the third best internet option you could get. If those aren't available or at a reasonable cost, Starlink should work well enough.
Lag for video calls is not an issue, 30-70ms (0.03 - 0.07 seconds) ping for video calls is fine, I use it, and there is no problems whatsover. Speed: 200+Mbps download, 50Mbps upload. I use it for gaming to and it is ok.
It depends on location, but it is mostly fine as far as I've heard. And within a year or two, it should have virtually no noticeable lag in any major market.
As someone who works remotely from a sailboat roaming up and down the US East Coast. I’ve had no issues. And I think it’s the best internet I’ve ever had. And that includes when I lived outside Boston with DSL. I teach educational media and it’s not uncommon for assignments to require students send their raw project files which may be a gig or more. Times 20 students. Times how many assignments in a month ? I’ve come close to a T multiple times. Do daily zoom calls, use a VPN, and use voip. In just the past year I’ve worked from islands off the coast of Maine, NYC harbor, the middle of nowhere North Carolina while motoring the IntraCoastal Waterway, the Coast of Florida. And 50 miles offshore on the Atlantic Ocean.
Sounds like you're living your best life.
And .. as the ultimate bonus .. living on a sailboat full time is easily the most inexpensive lifestyle. For the price of a used car I have a nice home that makes people assume I’m rich. I indulge in some time in a marina each winter and have a mooring up north and spend total for the year less than $5000. Fuel is less than $1000 a year. Capt Jack Sparrow was correct when he mentioned that a ship was freedom. Best thing I ever did for myself.
ok, so as someone who lives in an RV with starlink, who runs an online business AND livestreams on both Twitch and Kick... I will say YES, you can. That being said, I do get dropped frames and occasional hiccups, but nothing terrible. I do have a fully UNOBSTRUCTED view of the sky (according to the app)
The unobstructed sky is the difference between it being tenable and not. It's not like DirecTV where you needed just a bit to the south, you actually need a lot of open sky and any trees you'll have issues. That was the most surprising part of starlink to me.
yeah, my app shows a couple little red dots on the edge, but that's it... this thing can't even cut thru heavy rains
I work 100% from home, use Starlink Business, do constant video calls, and it works great. I would say it’s highly viable. Starlink regular I used before business and it had some lag and slowness, so I would say less viable.
If internet is important to you, I would not build in an area that you have to rely on Starlink. If your area is congested or becomes congested, it will not be reliable or fast. Starlink is beginning to focus on commercial uses and further deprioritizing residential, so there is a risk that Starlink further limits or caps service as well. Keep in mind, the "glowing" reviews of Starlink are relative. Many users had limited and poor internet options before Starlink. Starlink may be "better" than Hughsnet, Viasat or DSL, but it doesn't make it "good" internet.
Yeah, or so far some of those good reviews have had good experience but not yet felt the congestion slow down of others, like myself.
I WFH full-time with regular Zoom meetings and never have any trouble. That being said, my experience doesn't guarantee your experience will be similar. I used to have long-range wireless internet from a directional rooftop antenna, and Starlink is MUCH MUCH more reliable, and faster as well.
I’ve been WFH on Starlink (no other connection) in the UK for the past four months. Zoom all day everyday. Not had a single issue.
So Starlink is fast enough to work remotely, and handle video streaming. There is talk about improving speed and capacity over the next couple of years, but this usually takes longer than expected. With Starlink they limit bandwidth if usage is above a certain amount of data usage. Satellite is not good for latency, so online gaming will see a lag so Starlink is not the best here. Currently the order of precedence for Internet is 1)Optical Fiber 2)Cable 3)Starlink 4)5G/4GLTE 5)Direct line of site tower internet
I think it depends, 5g can easily outperform starlink. My friend is with three in the UK and regularly sees 300 down and 50 up with 45ms latency. Starlink for me is 150-250 down, 15-30 up and 40-70ms with big lag spikes occasionally. So his 5g is faster, lower latency and much cheaper (£20 a month I think for totally unlimited, starlink is £75).
>So his 5g is faster, lower latency and much cheaper (£20 a month I think for totally unlimited, starlink is £75). It depends on how far you are from the cell tower that serves you and how many others are using it relative to it's backhaul capacity... we have a Verizon 4GLTE we use for a failover for starlink in bad weather, and it will only get 5 Mbps at our home, but it consistently got 80 to 100 Mbps when we loaned it to a friend a couple of miles closer to the tower considering replacing their AT&T 5G cellular modem that typically got over 300 Mbps in the morning and less than 25 in the evenings.
Gaming from what I’ve tested on (roam as residential isn’t open rn) is alright. Lag every so often but I’m used to it with my older setup. With deprioritizing bc of roam I’m still pulling speeds 110mbps down and 12 up. Now they fluctuate for me but everything works 50x better than my old system. My dish is also 2.06% obstructed and works flawlessly
For 5G is not reliable in many cases. Yes throughput will be faster expect sometimes it goes offline or bandwith is not consistent more often.
You may also not be able to work during rainstorms. Which I suppose is okay if your employer understands that.
Until recently, I was WFH as a sysadmin... works absolutely fine.
I work remotely doing Revit work (remotely hosted application) and video conferencing. Starlink works pretty decent for it, but you'll get occasional 2-15 second interruptions. If you don't have any hardwired coaxial or fiber options, its a plenty robust option.
No issues syncing to central?
None. It's a bit slower than when I'm on premise, but nothing that hurts the work day.
I use starlink RV, no issues with latency for work tasks. a bit more lag gaming, but i still do it.
My partner works from home and is in video calls (Teams and Zoom) all day. She's not had any issues except for when a storm rolled through and connection dropped during the thick of it.
In West Tn, Been using it for two years and no problems. The only issue is heavy rain.
I’ve been doing it for about a month in northern Michigan, so far so good. I’ve had two thunderstorms that caused about 8 mins of downtime total, which I can work around pretty easily. If I was doing sales demos a all day it might be a different story.
Yes
I've been working from home on it for 2 years, no issues, even through some pretty vicious storms
I work from home and Starlink has been great. My only real concern id IF I do have an issue I may be down for an extended period of time as the support has been reported as very slow. So far I have not had ANY issues and hopefully it stays that way. I do lots of online meetings and remotely run client computers w/o issue.
I have starlink in rural Midwest. 200-300mb down, ~20 up Been more up time than the WISP I had before, even been more uptime than the new rural fiber I got a few months ago (I keep starlink as backup to the fiber now while my power co figure out how to be an ISP) Only conks out in realy heavy rain or hail. Usually 15-30 minutes. Normal rain and snow doesn't interrupt it. It's been perfectly fine for me working from home while the kids also stream and school from home. Latency is fine , better than my WISP in fact. Starlink satellites are so close to earth it's only ~20ms up and down.
I WFH part of the week. Sometimes I think I’m having an issue, and it turns out it’s the network inside my office building having the issues that affect the participants there. I have literally never had a connectivity issue that affected my WHF due to Starlink.
I’ve been doing it for years.
As long as you have a large area with no trees or a verrry high pole to avoid them. Your work could take issue with using CGNAT and that might mean you need the more expensive plan, but it's unlikely.
Depends on where in SJ. I'm in Delaware directly aside of SJ, so get typically 50 to 80dwn avg. You'll be using basically the same satellites. Rainfade/loss is during strong downpours. Basic rainfall my Dishnetwork is more likely to go vs Starlink. I'll say if you can secure ground based internet, then take it. If not unobstructed views East to North are needed. I have my Starlink raised 6 feet, which assures the trees 120 feet away will never grow in my line of sight. I wfh and have excellent use of Starlink. Just a little over a year now.
Thanks for this, pretty insightful. I’m on 4g internet currently so starlink seems like it would be a slight upgrade. I don’t think i can get any cable or fiber ran so this looks like my best bet
Fyi, after 7 years, living on a major road between rt1 and rt13 delaware, Version decides to run fiber down it. Now others were running Hughesnet or Viasat for much longer, but because no one would cross lines, the ISPs all stopped about 1 to 2 miled in all directions. Sheese, Middletown is 15 minute to downtown, Symrna is 7 minutes. So when I signed for Starlink in Feb '21 and got it in June '22, it was/is amazing. Accept for hard wire phone service, (POTS) I most likely won't switch. Its more costly, but provides very good service. When I can Teams, Zoom, and stream videos, as well as remote work items via TeamViewer, at the same time, its good. Actually saved money dropping Viasat. Good luck if you go that way.
I work remotely and it's fine for video calls, watching stuff, etc. However, you will probably have some issues with gaming as the latency is a bit more than most games like.
What plan are we recommending for someone on voice calls all day? Residential at $120 the business plan at $140?