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My parents live just 40 miles outside Minneapolis and use a very unreliable T-Mobile hotspot because the DSL available to them still tops out at a couple megabi

by donatj 1y ago

My parents live just 40 miles outside Minneapolis and use a very unreliable T-Mobile hotspot because the DSL available to them still tops out at a couple megabit. Their internet drops constantly and for completely unknown reasons. I've been trying to convince them to try Starlink, but they're unwilling to pay for the $500+ equipment costs.

dghlsakjg 1y ago
I don't know if this is true on your side of the border, but the equipment is free right now in Canada. Might be worth checking again.
edflsafoiewq 1y ago
I have one of those too. The connection dropping out is the real crux of the matter I think. If it's merely slow you can just wait longer, but an intermittent connection requires qualitatively different design. Many people have already said designing for iffy internet helps everyone: this is true for slimming your payload, but not necessarily designing around dropped connections. On a plane or train, you might alternate between no internet and good internet, so you can just retry anything that failed when the connection is back, but a rural connection can be always spotty. And I think the calculus for devs isn't clearly positive when you have to design qualitatively new error handling pathways that many people will never use. For example, cloning a git repo is non-resumable. Cloning a larger repo can be almost impossible since the probability the connection doesn't drop in the middle falls to zero. The sparse checkout feature has helped a lot here. Cargo also used to be very hard to use on rural internet until sparse registries.
HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
I also live about 40 miles outside Minneapolis (SW). They should check if fiber is available. A few years ago the state apportioned a chunk of money to roll fiber out to rural communities and it's well underway at this time. I finally got hooked up a few months ago. We're in an unincorporated township, but it looks like the towns & villages got connected first. One of my neighbors is apparently using Starlink since I see a Starlink router show up in my Wi-Fi scan.
amendegree 1y ago
Tbf, it’s $500 in equipment + $50-100 in recurring costs, which I’m sure is much higher than what they’re paying now. If they don’t feel they need internet they probably don’t want to pay significantly more for it.

by donatj 1y ago

dghlsakjg 1y ago

I don't know if this is true on your side of the border, but the equipment is free right now in Canada. Might be worth checking again.

edflsafoiewq 1y ago

I have one of those too. The connection dropping out is the real crux of the matter I think. If it's merely slow you can just wait longer, but an intermittent connection requires qualitatively different design. Many people have already said designing for iffy internet helps everyone: this is true for slimming your payload, but not necessarily designing around dropped connections. On a plane or train, you might alternate between no internet and good internet, so you can just retry anything that failed when the connection is back, but a rural connection can be always spotty. And I think the calculus for devs isn't clearly positive when you have to design qualitatively new error handling pathways that many people will never use. For example, cloning a git repo is non-resumable. Cloning a larger repo can be almost impossible since the probability the connection doesn't drop in the middle falls to zero. The sparse checkout feature has helped a lot here. Cargo also used to be very hard to use on rural internet until sparse registries.

HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago

I also live about 40 miles outside Minneapolis (SW). They should check if fiber is available. A few years ago the state apportioned a chunk of money to roll fiber out to rural communities and it's well underway at this time. I finally got hooked up a few months ago. We're in an unincorporated township, but it looks like the towns & villages got connected first. One of my neighbors is apparently using Starlink since I see a Starlink router show up in my Wi-Fi scan.

amendegree 1y ago

Tbf, it’s $500 in equipment + $50-100 in recurring costs, which I’m sure is much higher than what they’re paying now. If they don’t feel they need internet they probably don’t want to pay significantly more for it.