Starlink Kit

[cheetor]

Hey everyone,

I've been hearing a lot about Starlink lately and I'm really interested in trying it out. Unfortunately, I've checked the official routes and it seems like it's not available in South Africa yet.

I was wondering if anyone here knows someone who might be selling Starlink kits unofficially? I've seen some people managing to get their hands on it through alternative channels and I'm curious if there's anyone in our community who might have a lead.

Would appreciate any help or pointers!

 

[eyesuc]

Big price cut for Starlink kits in South Africa

South Africans ordering Starlink kits from one major importer could soon be paying substantially less.

mybroadband.co.za

So according to the article, you can contact these guys for a kit. Apart from that, I just googled.

 

[Apple]

Hey everyone,

I've been hearing a lot about Starlink lately and I'm really interested in trying it out. Unfortunately, I've checked the official routes and it seems like it's not available in South Africa yet.

I was wondering if anyone here knows someone who might be selling Starlink kits unofficially? I've seen some people managing to get their hands on it through alternative channels and I'm curious if there's anyone in our community who might have a lead.

Would appreciate any help or pointers!

I've been looking into starlink for quite some time (over two years). I've come across a few ways of obtaining a dish etc. Either import it from overseas or get it imported by a company. There used to be one that imported & managed the account on your behalf that went by the name of IT-LEC But they got shut down by the Gov. They handed all of their customers over too Starsat . I'm on the verge of going with them but been rather busy as of late so yet to organise it all.

 

[TheJudge]

Didn't they just kill a whole bunch of SA Starlink accounts?

 

[TheJudge]

Starlink cuts off hundreds of customers in South Africa

SpaceX has locked hundreds of accounts belonging to Starlink users who have a managed service with StarSat Africa.

mybroadband.co.za

 

[Apple]

Starlink cuts off hundreds of customers in South Africa

SpaceX has locked hundreds of accounts belonging to Starlink users who have a managed service with StarSat Africa.

mybroadband.co.za

Never saw this thanks for sharing it.

 

[Andrew_Smith]

@mikewazar

 

[mikewazar]

Hey everyone,

I've been hearing a lot about Starlink lately and I'm really interested in trying it out. Unfortunately, I've checked the official routes and it seems like it's not available in South Africa yet.

I was wondering if anyone here knows someone who might be selling Starlink kits unofficially? I've seen some people managing to get their hands on it through alternative channels and I'm curious if there's anyone in our community who might have a lead.

Would appreciate any help or pointers!

Hola

Author of the definitive guide to Starlink: Review - Starlink_Part1_draft_final_final2.doc | Community Tech Reviews

I won’t publicly disclose how I got mine but I can share suggestions based on what I know others are actively doing.

Icasasepush: Sparkling* Standard Kit | ICASAsePUSH

They are, in my opinion, the better option between self importing and the few cheaper proxy resellers such as Starsat.

Get the owned hardware, google “McDonalds <region with the cheapest continental roam at the time of sign-up>, use that address for your Starlink account and hook it to your card. No reason to have a third party break ToS by making them manage your subscription unless you’re extremely techphobic.

Support will then be between yourself and Starlink directly. Starlink is well aware of people in South Africa using the service despite it not being approved and they could not be happpier.

TIP: do not use if you’re exposed to public areas where an ICASA insect might flying by… any cheapie rf scanner will see you a mile away

Sorted. I highly recommend the RJ45 port/cable combo on the v2 model. Mounting can be done with any good craftsman and some pipe on the cheap, the thing is a tank.

 

[StangV2_0]

Hey everyone,

I've been hearing a lot about Starlink lately and I'm really interested in trying it out. Unfortunately, I've checked the official routes and it seems like it's not available in South Africa yet.

I was wondering if anyone here knows someone who might be selling Starlink kits unofficially? I've seen some people managing to get their hands on it through alternative channels and I'm curious if there's anyone in our community who might have a lead.

Would appreciate any help or pointers!

Why would you want to consider this over FTTH? Re you in an area which can't get Fiber?

 

[mikewazar]

Never saw this thanks for sharing it.

See my post above. Simple way to get around this TOS issue, also gives you better privacy and control over what and who youre paying & why.

protip: discovery bank… #feesmustfall

 

[mikewazar]

Why would you want to consider this over FTTH? Re you in an area which can't get Fiber?

If you don’t have better alternatives, or want absolute redundancy.

In my case, I have fibre, 5G and Starlink. I need all to ensure I am -never- offline.

Average home user probably doesn’t need it if alternatives are available. Fibre is king, 5G is extremely good, if you’re on a farm and don’t have either, give Starlink a shout.

 

[Honorable Memba]

@mikewazar Can you play CS GO and Dota 2 or any other type of online game with your kit ? Or is it very dependent, im currently using my cellphone as a mobile hotspot, i get around 100ping in game. I even went as far as purchasing the Wilson Pro cellphone signal booster which has done fuck all for my gaming experience.

If you use the starlink kit do you need to buy a router or does the starlink kit come with a built in router ?

 

[mikewazar]

@mikewazar Can you play CS GO and Dota 2 or any other type of online game with your kit ? Or is it very dependent, im currently using my cellphone as a mobile hotspot, i get around 100ping in game. I even went as far as purchasing the Wilson Pro cellphone signal booster which has done fuck all for my gaming experience.

If you use the starlink kit do you need to buy a router or does the starlink kit come with a built in router ?

I spoke about this in the review. Since all your traffic is currently routed via Nigerian ground stations, latency is very poor, in future (weeks away) we will see Mozambique come online to provide us quicker router-> station comms significantly reducing long haul latency.

The unit comes with everything you need, including the dish, basic mounting, cables, and yes an included router you can manage via the app (good app, i like it)

or, as suggested you can also buy the RJ45 adaptor to give you limitless expansion to run your own router (putting the provided one in bypass as a modem only, similar to what we used to do with DSL to use our own high spec routers with cheapo modems) or simply to just connect over LAN to ensure your experience is as best as it can be

when it comes to accessing local services, starlink will never compete with terrestrial fibre/cellular. and thats fine because it was never supposed to. it definitely has the potential to provide access to the underserved but understanding the reasons for its limitations will help you assess whether its right for you.

also side note adding a booster to your cellular setup is probably a waste of money… but that gets into territory im paid to talk about

 

[Oops!!!]

Icasasepush: Sparkling* Standard Kit | ICASAsePUSH

They are, in my opinion, the better option between self importing and the few cheaper proxy resellers such as Starsat.

What does *Sparkling do different to the rest such as Starsat?

From what i can see its just the same rebranded Starlink kit and the payment scheme is just as vague.

 

[Oops!!!]

I even went as far as purchasing the Wilson Pro cellphone signal booster which has done fuck all for my gaming experience.

Wilson A100?

 

[mikewazar]

What does *Sparkling do different to the rest such as Starsat?

From what i can see its just the same rebranded Starlink kit and the payment scheme is just as vague.

Well yeah did you think they were selling anything more? You just need the box from Starlink with everything in it, its not exactly a unique or novel business. Experiences I’ve heard are good on both sides, I just tend to hear a lot more good about Icasasepush than Starsat which makes me want to recommend them over Starsat. Neither are exactly angels, they both sell contraband lol

 

[Honorable Memba]

Wilson A100?

A500 with a Long Ranger antenna 28km+ aparently 🤷‍♂️

 

[Honorable Memba]

@Oops!!! The staff that work at bolton technical (they sell the wilson product's) are complete bots they dont even know what ping/ms is and if you ask them complicated questions on upload and download speed diffrences on the product, they say they dont know anything about download and upload speed diffrences.

 

[Jack_Bauer_ZA]

I can help if you are interested...

 

[mikewazar]

A500 with a Long Ranger antenna 28km+ aparently 🤷‍♂️

sound like you were sold snakeoil for GSM calling because nobody out here selling such for GSM data lol

at best you can buy a kit on Takealot for R1000 as a directional booster for your modems existing external antenna connectors

 

[Honorable Memba]

sound like you were sold snakeoil for GSM calling because nobody out here selling such for GSM data lol

at best you can buy a kit on Takealot for R1000 as a directional booster for your modems existing external antenna connectors

Yea funny thing is the hole setup cost me R10500 for Little to no difference in game performance.

 

[Honorable Memba]

I can help if you are interested...

Im interested, anything that gets my ping down to at least 45ms and stable !

 

[mikewazar]

Im interested, anything that gets my ping down to at least 45ms and stable !

Starlink absolutely wont so do be careful about charlatans

What area are you in?

 

[Honorable Memba]

Starlink absolutely wont so do be careful about charlatans

What area are you in?

Durban, Shongweni. I live in the sticks

 

[Oops!!!]

Yea funny thing is the hole setup cost me R10500 for Little to no difference in game performance.

Go to cellmaper.net, find the tower your carriers connecting to. Check what bands its utilising, especially the 4G/5G. Phone Poynting Poynting Direct with that info and address, they will recommend the proper LTE gain antenna.

Those Wilson passive kits A100, A1000, A500 etc. are more designed to boost voice and lower bandwidth bands like 2G/3G frequencies. They never going to improve gaming but will allow a farmer to send an email once in a while.

Are you near the farmers market or along the ridge? If you deeper in the valley then you wasting your time trying to get decent gaming ping. Unless you willing to drop a 100k plus on a Comba super high power selective repeater!

 

[Honorable Memba]

Go to cellmaper.net, find the tower your carriers connecting to. Check what bands its utilising, specially the 4G/5G. Phone Poynting Poynting Direct with that info and address, they will recommend the proper LTE gain antenna.

Those Wilson passive kits A100, A1000, A500 etc. are more designed to boost voice and lower bandwidth bands like 2G/3G frequencies. They never going to improve gaming but will allow a farmer to send an email once in a while.

Are you near the farmers market or along the ridge? If you deeper in the valley then you wasting your time trying to get decent gaming ping. Unless you willing to drop a 100k plus on a Comba super high power selective repeater!

My cellphone tower is exactly 10km away from me i can physically see my tower from my house, i got a expert to install the new antenna (long ranger) becuase the stock antenna just want doing anything for my gaming experience. Youtube and google wise i did notice a faster connection.

But like you say its just to boost the cell calls and maybe sms. The person that installed my antenna even said that the Wilson units say LTE but they do not provide LTE signal... Only other thing i can think of doing is importing a unit from Aliexpress which would be a 75w unit but those are NOT ICASA approved. Which is a big problem...

I will never get good ping/singal in my area no matter which brand i go for so not going to waist my time and money, i would like to use starlink but i dont think i want to take the chance using it illegally, dont even knkw if it would make a huge diffrence.

It might be nice to have starlink becuase i have solar and when loadshedding hita the towers go off for 2-4 hours per time. With starlink i can atleast stream my favorites hentais.

 

[mikewazar]

I will never get good ping/singal in my area no matter which brand i go for so not going to waist my time and money, i would like to use starlink but i dont think i want to take the chance using it illegally, dont even knkw if it would make a huge diffrence.

For connecting to anything local it won't. Perhaps via sat-sat links you might get better reliability to EU (in the region of 120-100ms)

 

[Honorable Memba]

For connecting to anything local it won't. Perhaps via sat-sat links you might get better reliability to EU (in the region of 120-100ms)

That would be tops for Pubg, i usually get 260ms on my phone with that game, but do you like your kit or did you expect it to be better ?

 

[mikewazar]

That would be tops for Pubg, i usually get 260ms on my phone with that game, but do you like your kit or did you expect it to be better ?

I bought it just to play with and do objective testing, I'm so happy with mine I decided to just throw it into my network full time for failover. I don't really ever use it since my fibre hasn't gone down.

 

[Oops!!!]

My cellphone tower is exactly 10km away from me i can physically see my tower from my house, i got a expert to install the new antenna (long ranger) becuase the stock antenna just want doing anything for my gaming experience. Youtube and google wise i did notice a faster connection.

But like you say its just to boost the cell calls and maybe sms. The person that installed my antenna even said that the Wilson units say LTE but they do not provide LTE signal... Only other thing i can think of doing is importing a unit from Aliexpress which would be a 75w unit but those are NOT ICASA approved. Which is a big problem...

I will never get good ping/singal in my area no matter which brand i go for so not going to waist my time and money, i would like to use starlink but i dont think i want to take the chance using it illegally, dont even knkw if it would make a huge diffrence.

It might be nice to have starlink becuase i have solar and when loadshedding hita the towers go off for 2-4 hours per time. With starlink i can atleast stream my favorites hentais.

Each carrier uses different bands for their 4G/5G data in different areas. These passive devices cant be tuned to the optimal data frequency you require for MIMO signals. Generally thats why they only improve the old legacy frequencies that was standard all carriers abided to by back then. Those high power selective frequency repeaters are not as simple as sit n speel though. Each time i've deployed one, the supplier will send a proper qualified radio engineer to come configure it.

To be honest, playing Dota on any sort of wireless connection (GSM, VSAT, PTP) is always going to be frustrating. Wireless technology can provide consistent bandwidth but it cant provide consistent jitter/latency which is a competitive game killer.

Try speak to YourCommunications. They do a lot of PTP connections in the area, feeding back to the DFA fibre backhaul at the Alverstone Tower. They are pricey but do use Radwin kit, so best PTP experience you going to get for home use.