Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Welcome to the Power Users community on Codidact!

Power Users is a Q&A site for questions about the usage of computer software and hardware. We are still a small site and would like to grow, so please consider joining our community. We are looking forward to your questions and answers; they are the building blocks of a repository of knowledge we are building together.

Post History

71%
+3 −0
Q&A Best practices for small, internet-critical company's ISP for maximal uptime

Generally speaking the best thing is two different internet providers. Different means not just who you send the bill to but different physical networks. In most areas, your options are: One cab...

posted 3mo ago by manassehkatz‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar manassehkatz‭ · 2024-02-16T01:09:14Z (3 months ago)
Generally speaking the best thing is two *different* internet providers. Different means not just who you send the bill to but different physical networks. In most areas, your options are:

* One cable provider (Comcast/Xfinity, Cox, etc.)
* One telephone company provider (Verizon, AT&T)

That's pretty much it for hardwired connections. Most other companies are piggybacking on a cable or telephone system for at least the "last mile", so the redundancy between that "independent" provider and the cable or telephone company is minimal.

There is however a third alternative that is rapidly becoming available: satellite. But specifically [Starlink](https://www.starlink.com/). The first few rounds of satellite internet were high latency (e.g., based on geosynchronous satellites), high cost, low speed or all of the above. Starlink is still being developed, and it is not perfect, but it *generally* has low latency, relatively low cost and fairly high speed (not as fast as the best cable or fiber, but fast enough for most typical uses).

If I had a need for a backup internet connection (primary being cable or telco) I would definitely go with Starlink.

Beyond simply having the connection available, there are some issues with routers and other details depending on whether you need automatic switchover or not and other factors. But those are the little details.