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Q&A

Welcome to the Power Users community on Codidact!

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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 9mo ago by manassehkatz‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar manassehkatz‭ · 2024-02-16T01:09:14Z (9 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.