It is during a Starlink outage that one ought to cultivate the proper perspective about it, remembering to appreciate the technological miracle and marvel that it is.
This message beamed to space from an undisclosed location and distributed globally within a split second. (Now that service is restored.)
traceroute66 · 5m ago
> the technological miracle and marvel that it is
Its not a miracle or a marvel, its basic physics.
LEO satellites will provide better internet experience than traditional satellites because they are closer to the earth.
Now, whether you want to blow smoke up Mr Musk's backside because he was the first to market with Starlink is a different subject. But it also not a subject worthy of the "miracle" or "marvel" title.
Personally I look forward to the day where there's a competitor product available, its merely a case of when not if.
Most Western countries are also busy improving fibre coverage to rural areas as old copper networks get decommissioned.
qwertox · 1h ago
> This message beamed to space from an undisclosed location
Just as undisclosed as the location I posted this message from, also distributed globally. For Starlink, and therefore for the authorities, your position is well known.
zubspace · 12m ago
Maybe I'm missinformed, but doesn't starlink have to comply with rules made by local authorities? Afaik, when the internet goes down, like it happened in Thailand, Starlink can't be used too, because it always roots traffic to a ground station near the source.
If this would not happen, I would agree that Starlink is the future. But as it is right now, I don't see the point, unless you are living in or travelling to remote places.
bad_haircut72 · 2h ago
Not a time to get philosophical when your drone team on the zero line in Ukraine loses comms
paganel · 6m ago
They should always have had a second, back-up option, because relying on such a brittle a thing as satellite comms when fighting a military power like Russia was bound to have issues.
jwr · 1m ago
I'm pretty sure they know that. Especially as Starlink is brittle mostly because of its (rather disgusting at this point) founder figure and his ramblings. But this is armchair advice: what other options do they have and how do you fund them?
(most of Starlink for the Ukrainian army is being paid for by Poland)
tjpnz · 1h ago
Which is why they don't use it for that. Too susceptible to jamming and Elon's politics on a given day. All their drones will be fly by (fiber optic) wire now.
dmbche · 1h ago
Many use cases are better served without fiber (as fiber causes limited range, limited payload and need for unhampered (not through tree branches for example) access to target
MangoToupe · 1h ago
I think the latest Geran-2s either use starlink (suspect) or guowang (more likely). I can't find reliable confirmation of which one.
Yoric · 57m ago
Geran? That's the Russian drones, right?
YeahThisIsMe · 1h ago
Or one could just not be weird about it.
yzydserd · 1h ago
> appreciate the technological miracle
What part of the solution is a technological miracle?
unkulunkulu · 17m ago
The whole possibility of it.
If you put yourself in a position “one foot from success”, then you will be able to devalue any achievement this way.
If you see from the point of “empty universe”, you will see magic everywhere. This is the real magic.
Joel_Mckay · 1h ago
The Suns 11-year cycle is hitting the ionosphere hard right now.
Great for Ham Radio bounce contacts, but a lot of space equipment won't do well. =3
People are still unsure why the sun hasn't accidentally cooked us thus far:
(Unrelated to main topic) Why is number of dead comments so high here? Do bots search for keywords that may increase views like "starlink" or something?
euLh7SM5HDFY · 30m ago
I choose to believe HN flame wars are still 100% organic. It is "just" immigration from Reddit. Ars Technica also has more trolls in comments under any Musk related topics.
croisillon · 15m ago
it's just 2 users, no?
sidcool · 1h ago
They don't have a status page?
152334H · 3h ago
what's supposed to be inferred from the link? I only see the homepage.
The funny thing with the community status page is that stations can't report they're down when they're down :P There's big holes in individual stations' history and it looks normal.
Perhaps due to geomagnetic storms, though stronger ones have not caused outages. Possibly just because.
thallium205 · 3h ago
Looks like they restored service.
Joel_Mckay · 1h ago
The solar flares in the 11-year cycle are at their peak activity.
There will be random outages for any space based equipment for awhile. =3
WJW · 52m ago
Solar flares are not anywhere near their peak. The NOAA indicates the peak activity was actually in August 2024 with a total of ~245 "flux units". Activity for this month is predicted to be only around 167 units, so almost a full third down from the peak. Total numbers of sunspots is also down dramatically from their peak in August 2024.
Indeed, we can't know the maxima for sure until passing through the entire peak prediction model period. The expectation of sun spot frequency and intensity only alluded to the average behavior rather than what we have partially observed in cycle 25 so far. Have fun =3
Everything I heard about Starlink indicates that it's very fickle and unreliable.
mrweasel · 1h ago
Really, everyone I've talked to has loved it. Granted they've all either live or work in remote areas where it has completely changed their lives. Those who live in remote areas can now actually work from home reliably and those who work on ships or in remote parts of world can now call home daily.
It's probably down to your expectations. Starlink won't replace a fiber connection, but if you only have a satellite connection or dial up, I can't see it being anything other than an improvement.
One concern I do have is if Starlink is down, there aren't really any backup. On the other hand I also only have one fiber connection at home. It's just that I could get a COAX hookup by tomorrow.
madaxe_again · 58m ago
I use starlink and find it fast and reliable - far more reliable than any cabled connection I ever had elsewhere, and faster than the fibre that’s available around me, which is contended to hell and back. Yes, it’s gigabit in theory, but in practice you get 20Mb/s, and any time there’s a power outage, which is often, it’s down.
cubix · 46m ago
And if you live a rural, mostly wooded area like I do, fallen trees are constantly taking out the fiber services for days at a time.
SirHumphrey · 14m ago
They aren’t buried? Or do the roots tear the fibre?
GJim · 54m ago
The technology, or the business owner?
Because the fickleness and unreliability of the latter is a serious concern. Once other LEO constellations come online, who is going to stick with Starlink, knowing they may pull the plug at anytime on a whim of "Space Karen"?
Gustomaximus · 43m ago
Not my experience or people around me (rural area so it's common). WFH with no fibre and patchy mobile so starlink is a godsend.
The most common outage is a regular 3am reboot. Otherwise outages are infrequent and typically a few seconds.
Also the latency is surprisingly good, it's not fibre but can game FPS on it.
notorandit · 3h ago
Done
auggierose · 3h ago
I like the Bladerunner reference in your about.
Joel_Mckay · 1h ago
Yeah, but the Blade Runner Replicants lived longer than most FANG coders churn positions.
This message beamed to space from an undisclosed location and distributed globally within a split second. (Now that service is restored.)
Its not a miracle or a marvel, its basic physics.
LEO satellites will provide better internet experience than traditional satellites because they are closer to the earth.
Now, whether you want to blow smoke up Mr Musk's backside because he was the first to market with Starlink is a different subject. But it also not a subject worthy of the "miracle" or "marvel" title.
Personally I look forward to the day where there's a competitor product available, its merely a case of when not if.
Most Western countries are also busy improving fibre coverage to rural areas as old copper networks get decommissioned.
Just as undisclosed as the location I posted this message from, also distributed globally. For Starlink, and therefore for the authorities, your position is well known.
If this would not happen, I would agree that Starlink is the future. But as it is right now, I don't see the point, unless you are living in or travelling to remote places.
(most of Starlink for the Ukrainian army is being paid for by Poland)
What part of the solution is a technological miracle?
If you put yourself in a position “one foot from success”, then you will be able to devalue any achievement this way.
If you see from the point of “empty universe”, you will see magic everywhere. This is the real magic.
Great for Ham Radio bounce contacts, but a lot of space equipment won't do well. =3
People are still unsure why the sun hasn't accidentally cooked us thus far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r5ZCESOpP0
This community Starlink Status page doesn't seem to show any outage: https://starlinkstatus.space/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/ paints a different picture
Perhaps due to geomagnetic storms, though stronger ones have not caused outages. Possibly just because.
There will be random outages for any space based equipment for awhile. =3
See the graphs of https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression for more info.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle_25
It's probably down to your expectations. Starlink won't replace a fiber connection, but if you only have a satellite connection or dial up, I can't see it being anything other than an improvement.
One concern I do have is if Starlink is down, there aren't really any backup. On the other hand I also only have one fiber connection at home. It's just that I could get a COAX hookup by tomorrow.
Because the fickleness and unreliability of the latter is a serious concern. Once other LEO constellations come online, who is going to stick with Starlink, knowing they may pull the plug at anytime on a whim of "Space Karen"?
The most common outage is a regular 3am reboot. Otherwise outages are infrequent and typically a few seconds.
Also the latency is surprisingly good, it's not fibre but can game FPS on it.
One of the best Sci-Fi movies of all time. =3