Speedify Gives Your Business Network a Backup for Starlink, So One Outage Doesn’t Stop Work

Why One Starlink Dish Is a Single Point of Failure for Your Business

Starlink has changed what’s possible for remote and mobile businesses. But one Starlink dish, however well it works, is still one path to the internet, and some drops come with how satellite internet works:

• Your Starlink dish switches satellites about every 15 seconds. The short drops are enough to interrupt calls and video meetings.
• Heavy rain, snow build-up or thick cloud can weaken the Starlink signal or drop it completely.
• Trees, buildings or equipment that has moved can block the dish’s view of the sky and cause drops, now and then or all the time.
• When many people nearby use Starlink at once, speeds fall, even on Priority plans.
• If the Starlink dish or Starlink router fails, your whole internet connection is down until replacement equipment arrives.

If your business can’t work without the internet, a single Starlink dish means one of these will eventually take you offline. Redundancy means a second, independent internet connection that takes over automatically when Starlink can’t.

How to Choose a Backup Internet Connection That Doesn’t Fail for the Same Reason as Starlink

A backup only helps if it doesn’t go down at the same moment as Starlink. Pick it by what it covers:

• 4G/5G cellular. The most practical choice for most businesses. Cellular doesn’t depend on the sky, so it usually keeps working through satellite switches, obstructions and a failed Starlink dish. When both are working, Speedify uses both for faster uploads and downloads. When Starlink is down, Speedify relies on cellular alone. This works on single devices with the Speedify app, or for the whole network on a router that runs Speedify.
• A second Starlink dish. Covers a failed Starlink dish, and an obstruction that only one of the dishes sees if you mount them apart. Heavy weather can still hit both at once. Both Starlink dishes work at the same time normally, so your team gets close to the combined speed of both. The right choice where there’s no 4G/5G cellular coverage.
• Fiber or cable. If you have a ground-based line and Starlink, Speedify uses each as the backup for the other. A fiber outage moves your traffic to Starlink, and a Starlink drop moves it to the wired line. Both are used at the same time when both are working.
• Three or more internet connections. For operations that can’t have any downtime, Speedify uses Starlink, a wired line and 4G/5G cellular together, so any one of them can fail without taking you offline. Offshore platforms, emergency response, live broadcast and financial operations use this setup.

Speedify needs at least one of these alongside Starlink. With one Starlink dish and nothing else, Speedify can’t add speed or stop drops.

How Speedify Moves Your Traffic When Starlink Drops

Speedify’s technology for combining internet connections keeps all your internet connections on at the same time (Starlink, 4G/5G cellular, Wi-Fi and Ethernet), uses them together, and keeps checking how well each one is working.

When Starlink weakens or drops, Speedify doesn’t wait for your apps to time out. All your traffic goes through Speedify’s encrypted connection, so Speedify moves it to the working internet connections straight away and your apps don’t see the change:

• Internet phone calls keep going.
• Video meetings stay connected.
• Remote desktop and company VPN connections stay up.
• File transfers and cloud syncing carry on without restarting.

A typical router that switches to a backup line restarts all of these every time it switches.

How to Set Up Starlink Redundancy with Speedify

Option 1: Use the Speedify App on Each Device

• Connect your Windows PC, Mac, Linux computer, iPhone or Android phone to your Starlink internet connection and to at least one more internet connection: a 4G/5G cellular hotspot, a second Wi-Fi network or a wired Ethernet line.
• Install the Speedify app. Speedify runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android.
• Speedify finds all your internet connections on its own and starts using them. There’s nothing else to set up.
• Use Speedify Teams to set connection priorities and data limits for every team device from one dashboard.

Option 2: Run Speedify on a Router

• Connect your Starlink dish and your backup internet connections to a router that runs Speedify on OpenWrt. The Miri X510 is a router made to run Speedify, with ports for several internet connections.
• Speedify uses every internet connection plugged into the router, so every device on the network is protected with nothing to install on each one.
• In the Speedify for Routers dashboard, set connection priorities, check status and set data limits.

Which Businesses Need Speedify Starlink Redundancy

• Remote offices with no wired internet. An office that runs only on Starlink has no backup at all. Adding 4G/5G cellular with Speedify gives it an independent backup that takes over automatically when Starlink drops.
• Ships and offshore platforms. Out of cellular range, satellite is the only way online. A second Starlink dish or a second satellite service with Speedify gives them a backup.
• Managed service providers. IT companies that run internet access for client sites can add Speedify as software, across any mix of internet connections, without buying switching hardware for every site. See how internet failover for MSP clients works.
• Businesses with uptime promises to keep. If you owe clients or regulators a certain uptime, a single path to the internet isn’t enough. Speedify gives you the second path, so one provider’s outage doesn’t have to break your promise.
• Live production and broadcast. Streaming, broadcast and live events need a backup that doesn’t need someone to flip a switch. Speedify keeps the stream running when any one internet connection fails.

Speedify Plans for Starlink Redundancy

Speedify Teams gives your IT team one dashboard for every internet connection across the business: status, priorities, data limits and usage. Speedify Teams costs $89.99 per user per year, with a 5-user minimum.

If you need a fixed IP address, port forwarding or a server nobody else shares, Speedify Dedicated Servers are available as a managed option. If your data has to stay on your own equipment for compliance, Speedify Self-Hosted Servers run Speedify’s server side on your own servers.

The Speedify app runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and supported OpenWrt routers. For Starlink redundancy across a whole network, the Miri X510 router powered by Speedify is the ready-made hardware option.

Speedify Business Solutions

Speedify Teams

Get faster uploads and downloads and a more reliable internet connection for all the people and devices in your business.

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Speedify for Routers

Power your OpenWRT, GL.iNET, or Miri router with Speedify and combine Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 4G, 5G, Starlink and other satellite internet connections together.

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Speedify Embedded Solutions and Integrations

Embed Speedify software into your app or hardware products and leverage the core channel bonding technology of Speedify in new and interesting ways.

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