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Packet Loss on FiOS Gigabit = "Unstable Internet Connection" on Zoom calls

Hi,

My family has FiOS Gigabit Internet-only service, with a Quantum Gateway. My wife and I are both working from home. She's on a recent Macbook Pro, and I'm on a recent Thinkpad, both connected wirelessly. Our kids have a couple Amazon Kindles and a Chromebook for school and games, all of which also connect wirelessly (but don't use much bandwidth at any particular time). Finally, we have a Roku that's used for a couple hours a day.

My wife has to attend Zoom calls frequently for work, and she gets a LOT of "Unstable Internet Connection" errors, followed by frozen or dropped calls. All while maintaining a connection of between 30 and 90 Mbps. She has the latest Zoom version. We've done a lot of troubleshooting, and incredibly, the problem seems to occur almost exclusively when I'm doing something on my computer. Gmail and Slack are the biggest trouble-makers. If I start to write an email or a Slack message, and it's during one of my wife's Zoom calls, she nearly ALWAYS gets "Unstable Internet Connection" etc. Any ideas? It's not like I'm eating up a lot of bandwidth with an email.

Comments

jonjones1

This is just a thought.

put your devices on separate channels. Such as 5 Ghz or 2.4 Ghz although everyone wants faster 5 Ghz the wifes device may fair better on a 2.4 Ghz connection.

additionally if the router is setup using self organizing network *(SON) Turn it off.

it really is more harm than good.

let me know how it turns out.

Malulo

Thanks for the suggestions, Jon. We'll try using separate channels today and see if it makes a difference. SON was already turned off.

I'll post results.

Malulo

No dice, I'm afraid. The problem persists, even if we're on separate channels. It also seems that any kind of internet activity on my part causes the issue, not just gmail and Slack. Again, I would think that suggests a bandwidth issue, but our bandwidth seems to be perfectly sufficient.

appDev

have you done any speed tests from both your devices? independently and at the same time?

Do you have an extender or another Access point? how far are you from teh router? 30-90 does sound slow if you are on gigabit?

Is it possible for you to be on a 'wired' connection? or her? for at least once - to validate?

Malulo

It does seem to be tied to the wireless connection, in some way. I am currently working on an ethernet connection to the router, and my wife's Macbook is the only device connected to the 5.0 wireless connection, in the room directly above. If I switch over to 5.0 or 2.4, it will disrupt her connection, at least when she's on a Zoom call. (We've confirmed this a number of times.) It does not matter what distance she is from the router.

cgervais

I don’t have a solution, but am experiencing the exact same, and extremely frustrating issue. My company is heavily invested in Zoom, so switching isn’t an option. I’ve experienced this issue on both my MacBook Pro and my iPad Pro using Zoom. I’ve tried various router settings, switching to different DNS providers (I typically use CloudFlare’s DNS resolver) and other finicky settings (it’s 2020 and even thinking about changing MTU isn’t acceptable). This feels like a routing issue beyond the edge of our local networks, so hopefully Verizon can address.

DiegoSegui

In my case it is not a WiFi problem. My Windows (10) PC is connected via hard wired ethernet. The only activity I have problems with is Zoom. But when I'm on a Zoom call EVERYTHING bogs down. The zoom video freezes up, audio becomes choppy, and if I go into settings to temporarily disable MsMpEng (the Windows Defender real time protection) it takes forever.

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