Slow Bonding Speeds with Speedify? See Causes and Solutions

When you're using Speedify bonding VPN on your computer or mobile device, you should be getting fast, stable and secure Internet connectivity. Channel bonding technology allows you to combine multiple connections at once directly on your device.

However, sometimes the combined speed you're getting when using Speedify is slower than the one you're getting with Speedify off. Why does that happen? And how can you fix and avoid such situations? This article will go through some common things you can check to make sure you are getting the best speeds with Speedify. Learn how to fix and avoid slow bonding speeds.

Before troubleshooting, make sure you've done the following:

• update Speedify on your device to the latest version. Use the app stores or go to our download page.
• all the available connections you want to combine with Speedify should be active.
  • mobile devices: make sure you enable and connect to both WiFi and cellular data
  • computers: all network adapters / tethered phones / USB dongles you plan to bond with Speedify should be connected to the Internet.

Getting some slow bonding speeds - exactly how slow? In terms of speeds, users can expect to get up to around 200 - 300 Mbps through Speedify for most of its public server locations. The exact maximum speed can vary by location.

If you have a 300 Mbps+ connection that you want to use consistently with Speedify, you should consider getting a Speedify dedicated server, which can support up to 1 Gbps of throughput in most locations. With a public server, you might reach higher speeds but you will be competing with other users on the server for the bandwidth.

Speedify is a VPN, which means your Internet traffic goes through a VPN server before accessing the Internet. Your location relative to the Speedify VPN server can have a big impact on the speeds you get.

Problem: Connecting to a server that is geographically far away from you will add increased latency and can reduce performance.

Solution: You should try to choose the Speedify server closest to you. If you are not seeing good performance with the closest location, you can also try other nearby locations.

Speedify uses a variety of server hosting providers, sometimes multiple providers, in one location. Choosing between multiple nearby server locations, or even between the server instances within the same location, may yield different results.

If you are in a country that does not have a Speedify server, then you should try the servers from several nearby countries to see what works the best for you. Because of how Internet cables are connected, the country that is geographically closest might not always be the best performing option.

Speedify can connect between your device and the Speedify servers in the cloud with several different transport modes: TCP, UDP, and HTTPS. By default, Speedify's automatic mode will try to pick the best transport options for you, but it might not always make the right choice. Giving Speedify a hint about which transport mode to use can help in some cases.

UDP

TCP is often the most efficient and best performing protocol for Speedify. But there are some cases where you might want to try using UDP instead.

Problem:

1. Your Internet connection has high latency or packet loss;
2. You are located far away from the Speedify server;
3. You are using applications that are sensitive to latency increases. For example, gaming, stock trading, Twitch streaming, etc.

Solution: If you fall into any of the cases above and you are not seeing good performance, try changing to UDP transport mode from Speedify settings.

HTTPS

Problem: Are you in a location with a restrictive network, such as a library, hospital, or even a country with censored Internet? Sometimes these connections will block Speedify from connecting over the normal TCP and UDP connections.

Solution: In this case, Speedify will automatically fall back to using HTTPS. However, sometimes these types of connections will let the TCP and UDP connections through, but throttle them to really slow speeds. In that case, switch Speedify to HTTPS manually.

If you're using Speedify to bond multiple Internet connections, it can do this in three modes: Streaming, Speed, and Redundant. The bonding mode you select can drastically affect the performance you get with Speedify.

Streaming

Problem: slow streams, buffering a lot, low video quality, slow Internet.

Solution: In Streaming mode, Speedify dynamically optimizes streaming traffic from real-time streams, such as Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, Twitch, etc. Simply put, it actually switches between Speed and Redundant modes (see below), depending on the network conditions. Learn more about how Speedify improves live streams and provides quality of service for this type of activities.

Speed

Problem: slow Internet.

Solution: Speedify will bond multiple Internet connections to give you more speed, regardless of the traffic going through. If you are not getting good combined speeds from Speedify, check the Troubleshooting sections below in this article.

Redundant

Problem: Internet disconnects

Solution: Redundant mode is focused on minimizing latency and improving the stability of your connection. It will send the same data across multiple connections at the same time, and deliver what arrives first. In Redundant mode, Speedify operates at the speed of your fastest single connection and does not bond connection speeds like in Speed mode. Redundant mode should be used when you have important traffic that you want to make sure gets through - e.g. when reporting from the field.

If you know you need combined speeds from your connections, then you should not use Redundant mode. If you are trying to do gaming over multiple unreliable and variable connections, then Redundant mode can be a good choice.

Here are 3 additional steps and tips that will help you identify issues with slow bonding speeds with Speedify:

Step 1: Verify that all individual connections perform correctly, with and without Speedify. Start testing the speed while running Speedify with one Internet connection at a time. Check that the speeds you are getting with the single connection are what you expect. Sometimes, one particular connection does not perform well over Speedify and that ends up causing an issue with combined speeds.

Step 2: After testing each individual connection, test the combined speed with Speedify. If you identified a slow performing individual connection, try taking it out and running a test without it. Speedify has a built-in test speed function that makes it easy to test each individual connection and then the combined speed.
You can also use other speed testing services - just make sure that the testing server is located close to the Speedify server you're connected to.

Step 3: Check Speedify connection priority settings. Setting all connections to Primary means Speedify will always try to bond them.
If a connection is set to Secondary (default for cellular connections), Speedify will avoid trying to use it unless the Primary connection is fully used or not working. If the Primary connection is above 30 Mbps, a Secondary connection will not be used at all.
Backup connections will never be used for bonding.

... and here are 4 tips you should take into account to optimize the performance of your bonding speeds:

Tip 1: Bonding works best when the speeds and latencies of the combined connections is similar. If the speed or latency of two connections is very different, they often won't combine well. For example, trying to combine a 100 Mbps connection with a 1 Mbps connection won't give any benefit, because of the big difference in speed. Similarly, combining a low latency cable connection with a high latency satellite connection usually doesn't offer any advantages.

Tip 2: Check that each Internet connection is coming from a separate source / upstream network / ISP. In most cases, using your only Internet connection over both Wi-Fi and Ethernet will not increase you speeds.

Tip 3: Switch the Wi-Fi connections to use non-conflicting channels to help reduce wireless interference. Using multiple Wi-Fi connections can be subject to wireless interference. This usually shows up as each Wi-Fi connection performing normally individually, but the combined speed of the two connections is the same as (or even less than) one connection. Because the two connections are competing for the same wireless bandwidth in the air, the two connections are physically not able to transmit more data.

Tip 4: For best results both in terms of speed and reliability, use cellular connections from different providers. Similar to Wi-Fi, using multiple cellular connections from the same provider (or on the same frequency) can cause conflicts as well due to wireless interference. For example, if you are in a poor signal area, both cellular connections can end up competing for the same bandwidth. In some cases, it is possible to use multiple connections from the same provider, if there is sufficient bandwidth.