Speedify Packet Loss Handling

This article explains what packet loss (or "loss") is, how it affects your internet connections, and the ways Speedify works to reduce or eliminate its impact.

What Is Packet Loss?

Packet loss occurs when data packets fail to reach their destination after being transmitted across a network. It can be caused by network congestion, hardware issues, a weak wireless signal, interference, among other factors. Packet loss is usually expressed as a percentage of packets lost out of the total number sent.

For a normally functioning internet connection, you should expect packet loss to be at or very close to 0%. High packet loss can make a connection slow or completely unusable. Even small amounts, around 1–3%, can noticeably hurt performance.

How Speedify Helps With Packet Loss

Automatic Packet Recovery

Speedify attempts to detect and recover lost packets automatically, often before the application using the connection even notices the loss. This can lead to faster upload and download speeds on a lossy network, even when you're using Speedify with just a single internet connection. Users on connections with consistent packet loss can see significant improvements.

Multiple VPN Transport Protocols

Speedify supports multiple VPN transport protocols and automatically tries to use the one that performs best for your connection. On connections with packet loss, the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) Multiple and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) transports typically perform best.

Combining Multiple Internet Connections

Speedify lets you use multiple internet connections at the same time. If one connection is experiencing packet loss, Speedify can route your internet traffic through a second connection to compensate, giving you better overall performance without any manual switching.

Redundant Mode

For situations where multiple connections are experiencing loss, or when reliability is critical, Speedify offers a Redundant mode. In this mode, Speedify sends your packets over multiple connections simultaneously and delivers whichever copy arrives first. This means that even if one connection drops a particular packet, it can still be delivered through another connection.