Starlink Chimney Install.

Thank you. Fingers crossed here too, but so far it’s light years better than everything else we have ever had.

Yes we are in an area of poor service for any other options. There’s no fibre, or old school copper options even suitable. Eir did attempt a copper install but the engineer refused to complete the work because he was unable to complete the work due to bad signal. We are in an intervention area, but that could be years waiting to see fibre pass our door.

Other options we have used over the years, 4G Networks and Imagine Broadband which we just left.

The white pod shaped device on the right is a 4G Antenna. Got quite a few years out of that one on the Three network. Speeds were “ok-ish” to manage during the day time, in the evenings it was a struggle but it worked. The biggest problem was the monthly bandwidth limits at the time were impossible to deal with. Our Kids caused us to go over our monthly limit a few times and we got badly stung a few times for nasty bills. The per MB charge on three jumps so much that it’s like being mugged by someone you know. Something as simple as the child's game console downloading a game update at the wrong time of the month could cost you a few hundred Euro in bandwidth fees.

In around this time Imagine Broadband became available so we jumped over to that. (white box on the left). To be fair that worked great right up until the first Covid lockdown hit. Imagine posted signs everywhere here and I can only assume, over subscribed people to the network. The quality of service plummeted to the point where come 9 pm, your speeds dropped below 1meg every single evening without fail. It was so bad nobody in the house would use it and we would start using our mobile’s, even tethered. Truly a horrible service in the end.

Working from home, this simply couldn’t continue so I paid the deposit for Starlink the moment they started taking deposits from Ireland. Think it was back in very early February. And... months later, we got the email saying we could order a dish.

With nothing to loose given Imagine Broadband had gotten to horrendous levels of poor quality, I paid for the Starlink Kit and a few days later it arrives. My very first speed test standing in my garden, 327 down, 69 up...lol... We have had it 6 weeks now and it’s been flawless. The best service we have ever had here by miles.

For the first time ever it feels like we have a real professional premium broadband service

Speeds are consistently very high. Hard to give an average, but I’d guess in around 250 down / 40 up. That being said, it quite often way faster than that in the 300+ down 70 up range. Fastest I’ve ever got was 417 up / 79 down. Haven’t seen many of those though.

Rare slow speeds, the worst 120 down 10 up, but you could try again 10 seconds later and you would be back up way into the 200+ down range. It’s almost like the satellite has almost fully passed over, and starlink is about to jump to the next one coming in.

I zoom call a lot for work and stability has been flawless. It's funny really as the people I’m talking to often apologies about their broadband connection being so bad. ..lol...

Technically you can install it anywhere you like so long as there’s clear line of sight across the exact path the satellites take across the sky. The starlink app allows you to see this path with your phone.

I’ve no problem going up a ladder, so for the best uninterrupted internet connection, the side of the chimney simply works best for me. The dish has a 100% clear view across it’s entire path.

Also, being able to run the cable into the house under the lead flashing of the chimney without having to drill anything is a massive bonus. If you do have to run the cable through a wall, you could be looking at trying to drill a 20 mm hole as the connection on the integrated cable is pretty big.

Trying to remember exactly but, I think the two sections of the screwfix pole were different. One section has a crimp on both ends, and the other has a crimp only on one end. That's the section I used. The Starlink dish pole fits perfectly down into the screwfix pole (the end with no crimp) and the hole I drilled is to just secure the connection. I did tighten it just enough that it ever so slightly bends the screwfix pole for a very secure solid fit.

You can also cut the crimped section off if you like. The key point is that the inside diameter of the screwfix pole is a perfect match for the external diameter of the starlink dish pole.

Hope that helps.

James.