There’s a particular optimism attached to the arrival of a new piece of technology. Here, in this box, might be the answer. A small investment of time setting it up, and one less thing to worry about. Sometimes, that optimism survives the unpacking. And sometimes, it doesn’t.

Our Starlink adventure began with a perfectly sensible intention. Working from home in southern Spain, we depend on our internet connection. Designing websites, sending artwork, communicating with clients—much of our working day requires it. Our fibre connection is generally excellent, but winter storms had already demonstrated how inconvenient several days without it could be.

A backup seemed sensible. Something independent of the fibre connection, ready to step in when needed. And so, Starlink entered the conversation. Shortly afterwards, a Starlink Mini entered the house. What followed involved rather more experimentation than we’d envisaged.

There were positions to try, connections to test and trips between the roof terrace, balcony and various parts of the house. We spent time looking at obstruction maps and checking speeds, trying to establish whether we could make it work satisfactorily where we actually needed to use it.

The satellites were only part of the equation. Getting a connection into the property and getting useful Wi-Fi around the house were separate challenges. Our house was making its own contribution to proceedings. Eventually, we decided the Mini wasn’t right for us.

For a while, we considered the larger version. Perhaps that would give us what we needed. But it also meant committing more money and more time to something we’d hoped would make our working lives a little simpler. By then, we felt we’d done enough investigating. It’s easy to keep going with these things. You’ve already invested time, learnt the terminology and become surprisingly interested in where a router might live. Another piece of equipment can start to feel like the obvious next step.

We decided to stop.

Starlink may be a very useful solution in the right circumstances. In ours, we couldn’t justify taking the experiment further. The Mini went back into its box, acquired a rather less elegant wrapping of parcel tape, and made the journey to Sotogrande to be returned. There was, we’ll admit, a little relief at ending our brief association with Mr Musk, too.

So here it is: packed up and ready to go. Our backup plan hadn’t worked out, but at least we’d reached a decision.

And we knew exactly where to put the box. The DHL drop off point in Sotogrande.