Frequently Asked Questions

SpeedFusion is Peplink's proprietary tunnel technology that combines multiple internet connections into a single, reliable data path. It runs between two Peplink endpoints: typically a router at your site and a FusionHub server (or another Peplink router) in a data centre or cloud environment. The technology works at Layer 2, creating encrypted tunnels across each WAN connection and reassembling traffic at the far end.

There are three main SpeedFusion profiles, and choosing the right one depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve:

• Hot Failover sends traffic down your primary connection and switches to a backup within milliseconds if the primary drops. There is no bandwidth aggregation, but failover is fast enough that most TCP sessions survive without dropping. This is the simplest and most cost-effective option for sites where uptime matters more than raw throughput.
• Bonding splits traffic across all available connections simultaneously, giving you the aggregate bandwidth of every link. If you have a 50 Mbps broadband line and two 30 Mbps cellular connections, bonding gives you close to 110 Mbps of usable throughput. If one connection drops, the remaining links absorb the load with no user-visible interruption.
• WAN Smoothing sends duplicate packets across multiple connections to eliminate packet loss. This is critical for real-time traffic like video feeds, VoIP and live streaming where even small amounts of packet loss cause visible artefacts. You trade bandwidth for reliability: the same data crosses multiple paths, and the first clean copy to arrive is the one that gets used.

SpeedFusion matters because it solves the fundamental problem with cellular and broadband connections: they are unreliable individually, but collectively they can match or exceed the reliability of dedicated circuits at a fraction of the cost. A single 4G connection might drop several times a day. Bond three of them with SpeedFusion and you have a connection that effectively never goes down. We configure SpeedFusion profiles for every deployment we build. Read our detailed comparison of bonding vs failover for a deeper technical breakdown, or visit our SpeedFusion configuration service page to see how we set this up for clients.

The Balance and MAX product lines serve different deployment scenarios, and picking the wrong one is one of the most common mistakes we see.

Balance routers are designed for fixed installations: offices, server rooms, branch sites, retail locations. They sit in a rack or on a shelf and do not move. They have multiple WAN ports for connecting broadband, leased lines and Ethernet-fed services, and most models include one or two embedded cellular modems as backup. The Balance range starts with the B One (ideal for small offices and remote workers, with dual Gigabit WAN and Wi-Fi 6) and scales through the Balance 310X, 380X and 580X up to the Balance 2500 and 5000 EC, which handle thousands of users across large enterprise sites. Balance routers prioritise Ethernet WAN throughput, port density and routing features.

MAX routers are built for mobility and cellular-first deployments. They are designed to be the primary connection, not just a backup. MAX routers prioritise cellular performance: more embedded modems, higher-category chipsets, external antenna connectors, GPS tracking and ruggedised enclosures rated for vibration, temperature extremes and vehicle mounting. The MAX Transit is the workhorse for vehicles and temporary sites. The MAX HD4 MBX is the top of the range, with four 5G modems and FlexModule bays for future upgrades.

The decision comes down to three questions. First, is this a fixed or mobile deployment? If it moves, you want a MAX. Second, is cellular your primary connection or your backup? If primary, MAX. If backup behind broadband or fibre, Balance. Third, how many cellular connections do you need? MAX routers support more simultaneous cellular links.

There are edge cases. Some fixed sites in rural locations with no viable broadband use MAX routers as their primary connection, bonding multiple 4G/5G carriers. That works well. Conversely, some vehicle installations with Ethernet feeds from onboard systems use Balance routers. We help clients design the right architecture before ordering hardware, because the wrong router choice creates problems that are expensive to fix later. Browse the full range of Peplink routers in our shop to compare specifications.

These two terms get used interchangeably in marketing, but they describe fundamentally different technologies. Understanding the difference is important because choosing the wrong one can leave you with connectivity that looks good on paper but fails when you need it most.

Load balancing distributes sessions across multiple connections. When a device on your network opens a new connection (loading a web page, starting a download, opening an app), the router decides which WAN link to send that session down. Each individual session uses only one connection. If that connection drops mid-session, the session breaks. The user sees a timeout, a failed download or a dropped call. Load balancing is simple, requires no remote endpoint and works with any router. But it does not give you aggregate bandwidth for any single session, and it does not protect individual sessions from link failure.

Bonding (SpeedFusion bonding, specifically) works at the packet level. The router splits individual data streams across all available connections simultaneously. A single file download uses bits of bandwidth from every link at once. This gives you genuine aggregate throughput: three 30 Mbps connections bonded together deliver close to 90 Mbps for a single transfer. More importantly, if one connection drops, the remaining links absorb its traffic instantly. The user sees a slight reduction in speed but no interruption. Ongoing TCP sessions, video calls, file transfers and VPN tunnels all survive the link failure without dropping.

The catch is that bonding requires a remote endpoint. Your Peplink router needs to build SpeedFusion tunnels to a FusionHub server or another Peplink router at a data centre. This is where the packets get reassembled into the correct order before being sent on to their destination. Without that far-end device, bonding is not possible.

For most of our clients in broadcast, live events and maritime, bonding is the right choice because they need both the aggregate throughput and the session resilience. For a small office with broadband as primary and cellular as backup, hot failover (which is faster to set up and does not require a FusionHub) is often sufficient. We cover this in detail in our SpeedFusion bonding vs failover guide.

It depends on what you want SpeedFusion to do for you. A FusionHub is a virtual Peplink appliance that runs on a cloud server (AWS, Azure, Vultr, or any provider that supports KVM virtualisation). It acts as the remote endpoint for SpeedFusion tunnels, receiving bonded traffic from your Peplink routers in the field and reassembling it before forwarding it to the internet or your private network.

You need a FusionHub if you want to use SpeedFusion Bonding or WAN Smoothing. These features require a remote endpoint to reconstruct the split or duplicated packets. Without a FusionHub (or another Peplink router acting as the hub), you are limited to Hot Failover between your WAN connections, which does not aggregate bandwidth or smooth packet loss.

You do not need a FusionHub if Hot Failover meets your requirements. If your use case is simply "keep the internet working if the broadband drops, using 4G as backup," then Hot Failover on its own handles that without any remote infrastructure. The router monitors each WAN link and switches traffic within milliseconds when a link fails. No cloud server required.

You also do not need a FusionHub if you are building a site-to-site SpeedFusion tunnel between two physical Peplink routers. For example, if your head office has a Balance 710 and your branch office has a Balance 310, they can form SpeedFusion tunnels directly between each other. One acts as the hub and the other as the spoke. This works well for organisations with a central site that already has good connectivity.

For clients who do need a FusionHub, we handle the full setup: provisioning the cloud instance, installing the FusionHub image, configuring SpeedFusion profiles, setting up monitoring and managing ongoing maintenance. We typically deploy FusionHub instances in London, Frankfurt and New York, but can place them wherever your traffic needs to terminate. FusionHub licensing is separate from your router licensing and is based on the number of concurrent SpeedFusion peers (connected routers). Learn more about our SpeedFusion configuration service, which includes FusionHub deployment, or get in touch to discuss your requirements.

PrimeCare is Peplink's bundled support and warranty subscription. It is included with most new Peplink routers for the first year (sometimes two years, depending on the model and any active promotions). After the included period expires, you can renew PrimeCare annually to maintain coverage.

PrimeCare includes several things that are often sold separately by other vendors:

• Extended hardware warranty. Your router is covered for hardware defects for the duration of your PrimeCare subscription. If a unit fails, Peplink replaces it. Without PrimeCare, the standard warranty is typically one year.
• InControl2 cloud management. PrimeCare includes a full InControl2 licence for your device. InControl2 is Peplink's cloud-based management platform that lets you monitor, configure and update your routers remotely from a single dashboard. Without PrimeCare, you need to purchase an InControl2 licence separately.
• Firmware updates. Active PrimeCare entitles you to all firmware updates for your device, including new feature releases. Without PrimeCare, you may only receive critical security patches.
• SpeedFusion licence. On many models, the SpeedFusion bonding licence is tied to PrimeCare. If PrimeCare lapses, you may lose access to SpeedFusion bonding and WAN Smoothing, retaining only basic Hot Failover capability. This varies by model, so check your specific hardware.
• Peplink technical support. Priority access to Peplink's engineering support team for configuration assistance and troubleshooting.

For most organisations, keeping PrimeCare active is a straightforward decision. The cost of a PrimeCare renewal is significantly less than the cost of buying a replacement router, and the InControl2 licence alone would cost more than the PrimeCare fee on many models. We manage PrimeCare renewals for all of our managed service clients and can advise on whether renewal makes financial sense for your specific deployment. We also stock PrimeCare renewal licences in our shop.

InControl2 is Peplink's cloud management platform. It gives you a single web-based dashboard to monitor, configure and update all of your Peplink devices regardless of where they are physically located. It is particularly valuable for organisations with multiple sites, mobile deployments or devices in locations that are difficult to reach physically.

InControl2 licensing is per-device. Each Peplink router or access point that you want to manage through InControl2 requires its own licence. There are two ways you get an InControl2 licence:

• Bundled with PrimeCare. If your device has an active PrimeCare subscription, InControl2 access is included at no extra cost. This is the most common scenario for newer devices, since most ship with one or two years of PrimeCare.
• Standalone InControl2 licence. If your PrimeCare has expired and you do not wish to renew it, you can purchase an InControl2 licence separately. These are available in one-year, two-year and five-year terms. This option makes sense if you want cloud management but do not need the extended warranty or SpeedFusion licence that PrimeCare provides.

InControl2 itself has two tiers. The standard tier covers remote monitoring, configuration management, firmware deployment and basic reporting. The advanced tier adds features like SSID management for access points, captive portal configuration and more granular reporting. Most router deployments work well on the standard tier. The advanced tier is primarily relevant if you are managing large numbers of Peplink access points.

One point that catches people out: InControl2 is a management overlay, not a requirement. Your Peplink routers function fully without it. You can configure everything through the local web admin interface on each device. InControl2 simply lets you do it remotely, at scale, from one place. For a single-site deployment with one router, InControl2 is convenient but not essential. For a fleet of 50 routers across multiple countries, it is practically mandatory.

We use InControl2 extensively across all of our managed service deployments and can add your devices to our management organisation if you want us to monitor them on your behalf. For organisations that prefer to manage their own kit, our training sessions cover InControl2 administration in detail.

In most cases, yes. We have migrated organisations from Cisco Meraki, Fortinet, VMware VeloCloud, Silver Peak, Cradlepoint and several other SD-WAN platforms to Peplink. The migration is usually driven by one of three factors: cost, cellular performance or operational simplicity.

On cost, many SD-WAN vendors charge per-device licensing fees that escalate significantly at renewal. Peplink's licensing model (PrimeCare plus InControl2) is typically 40 to 60 per cent less expensive than equivalent licensing from Meraki or VeloCloud, particularly at scale. The hardware itself is also competitively priced, and there are no hidden per-feature charges for things like VPN tunnels, firewall rules or VLAN segmentation.

On cellular performance, Peplink was built from the ground up around cellular connectivity. Many competing SD-WAN products treat cellular as an afterthought: a USB dongle or a bolt-on LTE modem. Peplink embeds high-category cellular modems directly into the router with dedicated antenna ports, SIM card slots and carrier-specific firmware optimisations. For any deployment where cellular is the primary or a critical backup connection, Peplink's RF performance is measurably better than products that were designed primarily for Ethernet WANs.

On simplicity, Peplink's administrative interface is notably straightforward compared to platforms like Cisco Viptela or Fortinet. Configuration tasks that require CLI access and hundreds of lines of syntax on other platforms can be accomplished through Peplink's web interface in minutes. This is not a trivial point: simpler configuration means fewer errors, faster deployments and lower ongoing support costs.

The migration process itself depends on your current setup. For simple branch-office deployments with site-to-site VPN and internet breakout, we can typically migrate a site in under an hour with minimal downtime. For complex deployments with application-aware routing policies, QoS rules and deep integration with other security infrastructure, we plan the migration in phases to avoid disruption. We have written about common migration pitfalls in our article on why SD-WAN projects fail. If you are considering a switch, talk to us and we will assess your current setup and give you a straight answer on whether Peplink is the right replacement.

Peplink routers accept standard SIM cards from any mobile network operator worldwide. They are not locked to any specific carrier. You can use SIMs from consumer mobile plans, business mobile contracts, IoT/M2M data plans or multi-network aggregation SIMs. The physical SIM size depends on the router model: most current models use Mini-SIM (2FF) or Micro-SIM (3FF) form factors, and many ship with adapters.

For UK deployments, we commonly see clients using SIMs from EE, Three, Vodafone and O2 (VMO2). The choice of carrier depends on coverage at your specific location. We always recommend testing coverage before committing to a particular carrier, and for critical deployments we advise using SIMs from at least two different carriers in separate modem slots. This gives you network diversity: if one carrier has an outage or congestion issue in your area, the other picks up the load automatically.

For international deployments, roaming SIMs or global IoT SIMs are the practical choice. A SIM that works on a single UK carrier will roam internationally, but the data costs are often prohibitive for anything beyond light usage. Global IoT SIMs from providers like Eseye, Wireless Logic or Pangea negotiate local carrier rates in each country and avoid the premium roaming charges.

We also supply our own Alchemy SIM, which is a multi-network data SIM designed specifically for use in Peplink routers. Alchemy SIM connects to multiple carrier networks in each country, with real-time network selection based on signal strength and congestion. It works in over 190 countries, supports private APNs, and comes with pooled data plans and no per-device contracts. For clients with Peplink deployments across multiple sites or countries, Alchemy SIM simplifies the entire SIM management problem down to a single provider and a single billing relationship.

One thing to be aware of: some carriers restrict certain plan types from being used in routers (as opposed to phones). This is less common with business and IoT plans, but consumer "unlimited" plans sometimes have fair-use clauses that throttle or block traffic from non-phone devices. We advise clients on carrier selection and plan suitability as part of our deployment service to avoid these issues before they cause problems in production.