Starlink satellite internet

TonyR

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Man, this sounds great (ZeroTier)...I'm on AT&T Fixed Wireless with CGNAT and haven't been able to access BI remotely.

I wonder if when you leave it "on" as suggested by @Jessie.slimer that it uses much data in "idle"?
Maybe just enough to satisfy a watchdog or heart beat?
I have a 350 GB allotment per month and so far have only used half of that, as we don't stream much.
 

concord

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I've been reading about ZeroTier and apparently if you want your connections to work without internet connectivity, you should set up your own "Moon". Manual – ZeroTier

According to the github readme, it's using UDP port 9993

And quote:
"...
If a firewall between you and the Internet blocks ZeroTier's UDP traffic, you will fall back to last-resort TCP tunneling to rootservers over port 443 (https impersonation). This will work almost anywhere but is very slow compared to UDP or direct peer to peer connectivity.
..."
 

bp2008

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And quote:
"...
If a firewall between you and the Internet blocks ZeroTier's UDP traffic, you will fall back to last-resort TCP tunneling to rootservers over port 443 (https impersonation). This will work almost anywhere but is very slow compared to UDP or direct peer to peer connectivity.
..."
If this proves to be a problem, I think a paid NeoRouter Mesh subscription would probably be faster. But UDP hole punching should work in most situations these days I think, so speed should not be a problem.

Man, this sounds great (ZeroTier)...I'm on AT&T Fixed Wireless with CGNAT and haven't been able to access BI remotely.

I wonder if when you leave it "on" as suggested by @Jessie.slimer that it uses much data in "idle"?
Maybe just enough to satisfy a watchdog or heart beat?
I have a 350 GB allotment per month and so far have only used half of that, as we don't stream much.
It likely does use a little bit of bandwidth, but I bet it is on the order of a few megabytes per month and nothing to worry about even if you were on cellular. Just the tunneling overhead data will be substantially more than the idle keepalives.
 

TonyR

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If this proves to be a problem, I think a paid NeoRouter Mesh subscription would probably be faster. But UDP hole punching should work in most situations these days I think, so speed should not be a problem.

It likely does use a little bit of bandwidth, but I bet it is on the order of a few megabytes per month and nothing to worry about even if you were on cellular. Just the tunneling overhead data will be substantially more than the idle keepalives.
I'm stoked about this. Since I canned the s-l-o-o-o-o-w CenturyLink DSL (1.5 Mbps down!) 18 months ago in favor of this 25 to 50 Mbps down AT&T Fixed Wireless I've been pleased with its speed and dependability and even the price (DSL was $85/mo for data only, AT&T is $50/mo) but missed the public IP it provided and subsequent remote access of my BI server.

Gonna jump on this ZeroTier wagon later this upcoming week after addressing a couple of mandatory obligations Mon thru Wed and will report back.
 

Jessie.slimer

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Email just received
Starlink Logo
Throughout the beta program, customer feedback has helped drive some of our most important changes to date as we continue to test and scale the network.

The Starlink team has implemented a number of improvements since our last update. Below are some of the key highlights:
Starlink Expansion
Since rollout of initial U.S. service in October 2020, Starlink now offers limited beta service in Canada, U.K., Germany and New Zealand. To date, we have deposits from almost every country around the world; going forward, our ability to expand service will be driven in large part by governments granting us licensing internationally.

Preventative Maintenance
Recently some beta users saw short but more frequent outages, particularly in the evening hours. This was caused by two main issues— preventive maintenance on various ground gateways, coupled with a network logic bug that intermittently caused some packet processing services to hang until they were reset. The good news is fixes were implemented and users should no longer see this particular issue.

Gateway Availability
As more users come online, the team is seeing an increase in surges of activity, particularly during peak hours. The gateway infrastructure to support these types of surges is in place, but we are awaiting final regulatory approval to use all available channels. Near term fixes have been implemented to facilitate better load balancing in the interim, and this issue will fully resolve once all approvals are received.

Dynamic Frame Allocation
The Starlink software team recently rolled out our dynamic frame allocation feature which dynamically allocates additional bandwidth to beta users based on real time usage. This feature enables the network to better balance load and deliver higher speeds to the user.

Connecting to the Best Satellite
Today, your Starlink speaks to a single satellite assigned to your terminal for a particular period of time. In the future, if communication with your assigned satellite is interrupted for any reason, your Starlink will seamlessly switch to a different satellite, resulting in far fewer network disruptions. There can only be one satellite connected to your Starlink at any time, but this feature will allow for choice of the best satellite. This feature will be available to most beta users in April and is expected to deliver one of our most notable reliability improvements to date.
These upgrades are part of our overall effort to build a network that not only reaches underserved users, but also performs significantly better than traditional satellite internet.

To that end, the Starlink team is always looking for great software, integration and network engineers. If you want to help us build the internet in space, please send your resume to starlinksoftwarejobs@spacex.com.
Thank you for your feedback and continued support!
The Starlink Team
Space Exploration Technologies Corp | 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne, CA 90250 | Unsubscribe
Questions? See Starlink FAQs
 

Ssayer

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Jessie.slimer

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Figured I'd update, since I just made the cancelation call to AT&T. I kept them as a backup just in case something went wrong, but Starlink has been up and running for 2 months now. I haven't used a single byte from AT&T in that time, so I would consider it a successful transition.

Speeds are generally around 70 down and 25 up, but sometimes are over 100. I rarely, if ever, see it go below 50. Ping is usually in the 30s.

According to the stats, I show no obstructions, and only a couple minutes a month for no satellites or beta downtime.

I had to reset the dish one time during a really bad storm a couple weeks ago. It stayed connected to my router but showed no internet. I left it sit for about 45 min to see if it would recover on its own but finally reset it and it came back online right away.

Overall, very happy. I hope it sticks around.
 

concord

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Did you stick with zeroTier or go in another direction for outside access?
 

Jessie.slimer

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Oops, forgot to add that. I've had zerotier this whole time and it's been working perfectly as well. It's a little clumsy because the blue iris webserver address is required to be set to their private lan ip, which means I can only see my cameras on my local lan if I turn zeroturn on in the device first, but its not a big deal. It's a great workaround for cgnat.
 

bp2008

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Blue Iris normally listens on all network interfaces and Zerotier's virtual interface should be no different. Make sure the "Bind exclusively" checkbox is not checked in BI's web server settings.

The choice of network adapter might affect which addresses are considered to be on your LAN for the purposes of anonymous access on LAN only.
 

Jessie.slimer

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Yep, it works. In the BI mobile app I had to set my LAN address to my BI machine with port number. WAN had to be set to the Zerotier private ip. Bind exclusively unchecked under the blue iris webserver tab. LAN set to my blue iris cpu as well.

Tried it on my network and on my cellular network, working good.

Thanks. One less thing to do in order to view cameras when at home.
 

TonyR

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OK, just took the plunge and ordered Starlink satellite a few minutes ago. Hope to see a fall 2021 roll-out to my area. VERY much looking forward to being Jessie's downlink amigo.

I've had 'em all since 2004: HughesNet ('04 to '06), WildBlue ('06 to '09), CenturyLink ADSL ('09 to '18) , AT&T mobile hotspot ('18 to '19) and currently, AT&T Fixed Wireless since Nov. 2019....they all pretty much suck. The current fixed wireless was great until a month ago, May 4th when a wind, rain and lightning storm rolled through. It was 25 to 40Mbps down/4-6 Mbps up reliably for 18 months until then, been out now for over a month now. AT&T replaced my modem and the outdoor powered antenna and its POE supply....no joy. I've spent over 2 hours via 6 phone calls to the CSR's...no more...I'm done with 'em. They couldn't find their butt with both hands. :mad:

You folks that live in the metro area of better developed/equipped areas with your 100 Mbps, 200Mbps and gigbit downloads are fortunate in that regard. I love my 6 acres, 8 or 10 deer in the yards throughout the day/night and yes, even the 'coons, foxes, rabbits, snakes, owls and red tail hawks....not to mention plenty of bugs to round out the rural habitat. :highfive:

I can't update PC's I repair for folks, can't order meds from the VA, pay my bills, order pet supplies, etc, etc..... y'all know how much all of us depend on the Internet. I had to use my wife's phone as a hotspot to place the order with Starlink and post this as I've maxed out my phone's 10GB data until the 20th, its was slowed down to 128Kbps which is a frickin' joke....just twice as fast as a 56K (V.92) dial-up modem from 2000.....when it was mostly text being downloaded! :headbang:
 
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bp2008

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I hope you get it soon @TonyR. I've been there, dealing with ISPs that don't want to invest the resources to fix tougher problems.

I canceled my Starlink pre-order recently because I'm moving soon. Ironically the place I'm moving to has Starlink available for immediate shipping, but I should not need it. There is "gigabit" cable service available ... if you can call internet with 35 Mbps upload "gigabit". Cable internet is notoriously bad in a lot of places so my fingers are crossed. There's also a good fixed wireless provider in the area which my parents have been on for 5+ years. But it is good to have Starlink as an option in the back pocket.
 
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