Starlink

[grsthegreat]

i just wonder, does the extended ping times make for a delay while using computers? during searches or opening new sites. my wireless system has ping time of about 10-15 ms, and sometimes that slows things down. my download speed is about 13 now, and upload about 4. with upgraded dish i no longer get clocking.

 

[LittleBill21]

14ms ping is amazing, and is not the cause of slow page loading

 

[grsthegreat]

Latency​

Latency -- the amount of time it takes for data to travel from the server to your browser -- can slow down a website's load time even over a high speed connection. HTTP, the protocol used for websites, sends short bursts of data, which is why the round trip time affects the page load time. Latency is influenced by location; no high-bandwidth connection can make data travel faster from a server in Hong Kong to a computer in London. If you're still shopping for a Web host, consider finding one with servers local to where most of your customers search, to cut down on distance between the visitor and the data.

 

[grsthegreat]

this is why im asking......

 

[ponytug]

Yes, to answer your question, latency (ping times) can affect how fast searches/web pages load at your end; so does a slow with a slow disk, a bloated browser, and a full cache versus a fast computer with a flushed cache and a fast disk. There is always going to be a bottleneck somewhere.

We have a slow DSL, which can have ping times to a nearby point on the net from 9-200ms. 9ms is great, and I rarely notice the low bandwidth. 100ms and up, I only use it if I am in dire need of something. 100ms is just too painful.

I am not sure what you mean by "clocking".

Upgrading your computer disk drive to a M.2 type drive will change your computer experience, if your computer can take one. (It has a huge impact on Windows machines, due to Windows accessing little files all the time.)

The Best M.2 SSDs (Solid State Drives) for 2024

Thanks to the "gumstick" M.2 format, SSDs have been shrinking—and getting a lot faster, too. Here's how to buy the right M.2 SSD, along with deep-dive reviews of today's top models.

www.pcmag.com

All the best,

Peter

 

[LittleBill21]

you can't control latency, don't even try.

 

[ponytug]

you can't control latency, don't even try.

Well, not to disagree, but I think may be yes, may be not.

The network outside of your house is likely most of the latency that you experience, but not necessarily all of it. Definitely, a YMMV. E.g. If you are on a ViaSat system, anything you do locally would be a flea on the flea on the flea on the ViaSat dog.

On the other hand, just for an example, moving the WiFi off of our integrated WiFi DSL modem /router and on to a higher speed router and WiFi cut our ping times from 40(+/-)ms to 20(+/-)ms. Our network access still goes through the old modem/router, just not through its rather slow WiFi system. Worth it for us, but perhaps not for others. (We did it because the WiFi portion modem would overheat and crash the whole system. No crashes since ditching the old WiFi.)

All the best,

Peter

 

[Outinstickssnafu]

Slow page loads can come down to a number of factors.

Browser being one reason, I use older browsers but have a couple of portable browsers for sites that are written with the assumption people upgrade every five minutes and will have the latest that is fully html5 compliant.

In past years I found it more often it is the side scripts that many sites use, some of those scripts often hosted on other separate sites are useful, but not required to use the site. Some scripts are just poorly coded I gather. There's plenty that just pretty the site up and are just tracking and offer small functions the lazy web designer has opted to use other api services on offer, for example, from google. Some sites are written such that browsers also won't load whatever comes first but will hold out until the script has done its thing, so pretty much, a sneaky snoopy script can hijack the page load until it's run or got the information "it" wants ... I generally don't mind adding the hosting site to such apis to my host file and problem fixed for some sites taking an age to load.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Unlike the last failed launch, Starlink managed to get 50 new birds successfully in orbit yesterday:

https://www.space.com/spacex-50-starlink-satellites-launch-february-2022

 

[Massey convert]

I got my shipping notice; it should arrive the 2nd.

 

[PuffyC]

14ms ping is amazing, and is not the cause of slow page loading

This is what drives me crazy. Satellite Internet like old school HughsNet say they’re “high speed” which sometimes they are, but it’s the latency that kills you. Try having a Skype meeting when you have a half second or more latency. The politicians and people like them in charge of fixing the rural Internet problem have so little understanding of the things they’re being paid to regulate and the entrenched monopolies use that to their advantage.

 

[plowhog]

HughsNet say they’re “high speed”

I have HughesNet. Seems to average about 4mb down. Many online "speed tests" won't even work due to speed and latency.

btw Hughes seems to have responded to Starlink taking some market share. They recently raised my price $5/mo (about 5%) but increased my data allowance from 20g to 30g.

Maybe enough folks gave Hughes the "heave-ho" to increase the allowances for the rest of us ....

 

[LittleBill21]

This is what drives me crazy. Satellite Internet like old school HughsNet say they’re “high speed” which sometimes they are, but it’s the latency that kills you. Try having a Skype meeting when you have a half second or more latency. The politicians and people like them in charge of fixing the rural Internet problem have so little understanding of the things they’re being paid to regulate and the entrenched monopolies use that to their advantage.

not to side with them, but high speed and low latency are not the same thing, skype video is pretty low speed, you just need good latency.

downloading a 6gb file can fly with 400ms latency. it all depends on the application

 

[Fallon]

not to side with them, but high speed and low latency are not the same thing, skype video is pretty low speed, you just need good latency.

downloading a 6gb file can fly with 400ms latency. it all depends on the application

Very true. A fighter jet has very low latency but also low bandwidth. A cargo ship has huge bandwidth but extremely high latency. The 2 are somewhat related as most protocols need low latency to get higher bandwidth, but thats because of optimizing for common conditions & not a technical limitation.

Gaming & voice/video applications are the most sensitive to latency. 100ms of latency is noticeable, 300ms is the limit for playability on first person shooter games.

Geosynchronous satellites like Hughes have a best case scenario of about 600ms due to their distance & the speed of light. Starlink is 40-60ms or so. For reference it's 60-70ms to get from the east coast to the west coast over fiber.

 

[PuffyC]

not to side with them, but high speed and low latency are not the same thing, skype video is pretty low speed, you just need good latency.

downloading a 6gb file can fly with 400ms latency. it all depends on the application

That’s exactly my point - most people don’t know the difference between speed and latency. Everybody wants to talk about speed but they never mention latency.

 

[LittleBill21]

That’s exactly my point - most people don’t know the difference between speed and latency. Everybody wants to talk about speed but they never mention latency.

lol most people don't know the difference between "wifi" and "internet"...

 

[PuffyC]

Very true. A fighter jet has very low latency but also low bandwidth. A cargo ship has huge bandwidth but extremely high latency. The 2 are somewhat related as most protocols need low latency to get higher bandwidth, but thats because of optimizing for common conditions & not a technical limitation.

Gaming & voice/video applications are the most sensitive to latency. 100ms of latency is noticeable, 300ms is the limit for playability on first person shooter games.

Geosynchronous satellites like Hughes have a best case scenario of about 600ms due to their distance & the speed of light. Starlink is 40-60ms or so. For reference it's 60-70ms to get from the east coast to the west coast over fiber.

Most gamers would even consider 100ms unacceptable.

 

[LittleBill21]

Most gamers would even consider 100ms unacceptable.

most gamers are a royal pain in the ass to support.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Elon Musk says Starlink satellite internet service deployed to Ukraine

* * *

www.timesofisrael.com

I didn't realize Starlink service area potential had grown so outside of the USA. Our fiber optic to the house works ok. I was never keen on have dishes.

 

[Wakey]

I just installed my dish and I've got to say, I was super duper totally excited to drill two 1 inch holes through the brick to fit the molded connector. I've installed things like this my entire life and that they consider this a self-install kit is surprising.