Well, we’ve gone and done it!

I am now writing this post while hooked into our Starlink internet.

Oh, my goodness, what a difference!

It was not without issues, though.

The first thing I had to do was some shovelling.

I had to use the ice chipper to break up the snow before I could shovel a path to the corner, where the current cables enter the house.

We had talked about pulling one of these out and drilling the hole better, but they are well sealed, plus on the inside of the house, not very accessible. We decided to make the new hole higher.

Using their app, I found a clear spot off the path to the kibble tray under the shrine and dug it out.

Which got immediately claimed.

Before drilling a hole, though, we needed to pick up some more sealant, so a quick run into town and a visit to the hardware store was in order.

That turned out to be… not quite what we needed.

Once we had the inside parts inside, we set the dish itself up, so we could fuss with the cables.

I am going to be much happier when this is on the roof!

Then the issues started. Drilling a hole through the wall.

A log wall.

We have a long set of drill bits that go up to half an inch, which is wide enough for the end of the cable. It’s too bad we couldn’t just use the coax that was already there, but it is what it is.

Except…

Just a few inches from the end of the new cable, there is a wider part. I don’t know the name of it, but it’s wider than half an inch. Still, we did create a half inch hole through the wall, almost 2 feet higher than the other cables. This was a pain, because my drill sucks and the chuck key is stripped. We still needed a larger hole, though, and that meant a trip to the basement, were I remembered a set of spade drill tips we found when cleaning the basement out.

We ended up having to drill a 7/8th inch hole, from both sides, because the spade tips were not long enough to go all the way through.

That is a large hole!!

We still couldn’t get the cable through. So for the next while, we used the long bit to try and smooth out whatever the wide part of the cable was getting caught on, somewhere in the middle. Having to drill the larger hole from both sides caused a “bend” in the hole, and the wider part of the cable, which is inflexible, was too long to get past.

Eventually, it got done, and the cable made it through. My daughter pulled through a few feet of slack, then set up the inside parts. As soon as the dish had power, it set itself.

I foresee a problem! :-D

It’s only temporary.

While still outside, I used the app on my phone to set up our account, then my daughter and I tucked away the extra cable, until we can set things up permenently.

By the time we were finished fighting with it, I completely forgot to take a photo of the hole. It looks so ridiculously big for the cable that’s running through it. We’re going to need to pick up some sort of spray foam to seal it properly. For now, it’s got some fibre fill shoved in, on the inside, to keep the wind out.

After using my phone to set up the Starlink, I went ahead and did a speed test.

Not too bad at all!

Now, download and upload speeds were not something we had much to complain about. Especially my husband. His computer is set up right next to the router, so he can plug a cable right in. He hasn’t been able to use WiFi since his Windows OS updated a while back. This is what he got.

Which is just insane!!! Wow!!!

The girls upstairs got hooked up and immediately noticed a difference, though I don’t think they’ve got speed test software on their machines.

Once I was settled in and hooked up, I went to a few places where I knew I would see a difference, if there was any. Images on Pinterest, for example, which loaded without issue, or Discord, which has always been a huge problem for me. It also connected almost immediately.

I didn’t have speed testing software on my desktop, so I downloaded some and did a test.

Before I show you the test results, however, keep in mind that I am in what’s probably the worst place in the house for WiFi, even with a booster.

Yes. My download speed was 0.16mbps. My upload speed was faster at .23mbps

Out of curiosity, I did another test on my phone, while sitting at my desktop.

Yeah, even my phone’s WiFi sucks in my office corner.

I tested my desktop again, after waiting a few minutes, and it did improve.

Then a few minutes later…

Yes. This is an improvement.

There was, however, a different problem.

Once we got this set up, my husband called our satellite provider and suspended both our internet accounts with them. We will test the Starlink for a couple of weeks before we cancel our old accounts. We won’t need to switch from one account to the other, part way through the month, and we no longer have data limits. It all comes down to how stable and reliable the connection is.

Then, because our old router was still pushing out signal, my husband unhooked the old satellite routers (that will need to be returned when/if we cancel) and turned off our router.

Suddenly, I no longer had a live feed to our garage security camera. The one that lets me keep an eye on the driveway and gate. Because the camera is so far from the house, we have a set up that hooks into our internet system via the electrical wires, and is then plugged into our router, which has something like six ports on it.

The router the Starlink system came with had only one port available.

We talked about it for a bit, then my husband went looking. He found a fix for his computer, and was able to start using his WiFi, and was able to hook our IP camera to the Starlink router. I now have a live feed again!

My husband’s computer, however, has gone down to 158.49 mbps download and 12.65 mbps upload. I just tested my phone. It’s at 52.6 for download and 9.2 for upload right now. My desktop is…

… 4.78 mbps download and 0.71 mbps for upload.

Excuse me while I don’t feel sorry for him. :-D

You know what I think I’m going to do?

I think I’m going to make some popcorn, go online and watch a full length movie or something. At highest resolution.

Maybe even two of them.

And not worry a bit about data limits!

The Re-Farmer