First, a word on who we are: Yuxinan is a multi-site networking product made by Siwenlide, so we have a stake in this article. This is the question business owners ask most often before deploying multi-site networking: “Once it’s installed, will the internet in my store slow down? Will checkout lag?” The answer is no. Multi-site networking only builds a path for traffic between the store and headquarters; day-to-day internet use and customer Wi-Fi still go out over the local broadband connection, each on its own route, neither getting in the other’s way. And the traffic from checkout is so small it’s negligible.
1. Clearing Up the Biggest Misconception: Multi-Site Networking Doesn’t Route All Traffic Through Headquarters
Many people assume that once multi-site networking is in place, even a bit of short-video scrolling in the store has to travel to headquarters and back — which would obviously be slow. That confuses multi-site networking with a “full-tunnel VPN.”
The correct model is traffic splitting: the networking device only handles traffic destined for another store or for headquarters; all other traffic still goes straight out over the local broadband connection:
| Traffic Type | Which Route It Takes | Impact on Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Customers streaming video, staff browsing, food-delivery orders | Straight out via local broadband | No impact; the tunnel isn’t involved |
| Checkout connecting to headquarters, member lookups, inventory lookups | Networking tunnel → headquarters | Small-packet traffic, a few KB per transaction — any link is more than enough |
| Headquarters pulling up branch camera previews | Networking tunnel (sub-stream) | A few hundred Kbps — very light |
| Branches sending large files to headquarters | Networking tunnel | The only scenario that may feel “slow” — see Section 4 below |
So the worry that “installing multi-site networking means slower internet” rests on a false premise. In the store, the networking device is a parallel business channel alongside the broadband line, not a gate wired in series at the door.
2. Will Checkout Lag? A Quick Bit of Math Settles It
A single checkout transaction carries only a few KB of data — ten thousand transactions combined use less bandwidth than a staff member watching one short video. Such small-packet traffic has almost no bandwidth requirement; what matters is whether it gets through and whether it stays stable, not how fast it is.
And “whether it gets through and whether it stays stable” is exactly where multi-site networking excels: on a P2P direct connection, jitter triggers automatic reconnection; when a direct path can’t be established, traffic automatically falls back to a cloud relay (the free plan offers a 2 Mbps relay, more than enough for small-packet traffic); and if the broadband goes down, a 4G/5G emergency link takes over. For the full breakdown, see Is Multi-Site Networking Stable? — here we’ll just say one thing: checkout won’t just avoid slowing down; recovery from outages is actually faster than before.
3. Three Situations That Genuinely Affect Speed
- Transferring large files between stores: This is the only scenario where you might feel “slowness.” On a P2P direct connection, speed equals the ceiling of the broadband at both ends, with no extra loss; when hole punching fails and traffic goes through the relay, it is capped by the plan’s bandwidth (2 Mbps on the free plan) — fine for reports and documents, but slow for video recordings of several hundred MB. So the right approach is to keep recordings local; don’t treat the tunnel as a file-transfer channel;
- Cross-carrier and cross-province: Here the root cause of slowness is packet loss and latency on the public internet itself. What the carriers themselves can’t connect, multi-site networking can’t rescue — and no other solution would fare any better;
- The store’s own broadband isn’t up to the job: Congestion in residential broadband during evening peak hours, or a cheap no-name router with a low device limit — these are foundation-level problems, so don’t put them on multi-site networking’s account (how to diagnose: when things lag, ping the store router; if that step is unstable, the problem is inside the store).
4. Two Bonus Measures for Faster, More Stable Checkout
- Dual-WAN isolation: A properly set-up store will bring in two broadband lines (or broadband plus 4G), one for customer Wi-Fi and everyday internet use, and one dedicated to checkout and networking traffic. They are physically separated, so the lunch-rush peak on one has no effect on the other;
- Don’t cut corners on a no-name router: If the router next to the networking device crashes every day, no solution will help. A proper brand for around RMB 100 is worth more than any amount of tinkering.
5. Don’t Take Our Word for It — Test It Yourself in Ten Minutes
Whether things will slow down isn’t something you need anyone’s analysis for — install it and run one test to find out: the Yuxinan free trial edition is permanently RMB 0, activated on registration, and includes 2 device licenses (licenses include hardware). Once installed, run three tests: check the internet speed on a phone in the store while streaming video (should be the same as before installation), ring up a sale on a branch checkout (should work normally), and transfer a file from a branch to the headquarters NAS (check the direct-connection speed). If all three satisfy you, then talk about expanding to more stores. The boundaries of the free edition are covered in this article, and the cost math for multiple stores is in the Cost Breakdown for Chain Store Networking. If stability is your concern, see the stability article; if security is your concern, see the NAS/ERP security article.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will the networking device slow down the whole store’s network?
A: No. It sits in parallel with the broadband line and only handles traffic destined for other stores in the network; local traffic doesn’t pass through it. It’s essentially an extra “dedicated channel in the store that carries only cross-store traffic.”
Q: The free plan’s relay is 2 Mbps — is that enough for checkout?
A: Yes. A checkout transaction is a few KB, and 2 Mbps is theoretically enough for several hundred transactions per second. Even if dozens of stores use the relay at the same time, there’s still headroom. What 2 Mbps isn’t enough for is long transfers of large files — and that scenario warrants an upgrade anyway.
Q: Will camera backhaul slow checkout down?
A: Camera previews use the sub-stream at a few hundred Kbps, and checkout’s small packets take priority. Even running at the same time, they won’t use up even a fraction of a 100M broadband line. Stores with many cameras should set “sub-stream for preview, main stream for playback” — see the surveillance article.
Q: If we want to remove the networking setup later, do we need to change the store’s network back?
A: No. Multi-site networking doesn’t alter the store’s existing network structure. Unplug the device and the store’s internet is exactly as if it had never been installed.
Pricing and bandwidth for the Yuxinan free and paid plans are subject to the public pages on its official website as of October 2026.
