I've got a issue with what I believe is instability with my internet connection. In phone and video calls on various platforms (facebook messenger, discord, and zoom) my ability to hear others/be heard by others will stop for about 5-10 seconds (note that I never have mutliple calls occuring at the same time). Not sure exactly how often it happens but it's at least several times within an hour. I've tried various troubleshooters and driver updates with no success. I got a new modem and router relatively recently which did not resolve the issue. I've also experienced issues with bluetooth connection stability so I wonder whether it's a hardware issue with my network adapter. But I recognize that it could be an issue with my ISP or something else. Do you have any ideas what tests I should try to figure out how to isolate the issue? Thanks in advance for your help!
System info:
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.9
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home, 64 bit, Build 19042, Installed 20210310225028.000000-300
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5700HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 71 Stepping 1, CPU Count: 8
Total Physical RAM: 8 GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
Hard Drives: C: 558 GB (294 GB Free); D: 352 GB (352 GB Free);
Motherboard: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1793, ver REV:0.B, s/n BSS-0123456789
System: American Megatrends Inc., ver MSI_NB - 1072009, s/n 9S7179323044ZF8000211
Antivirus: Bitdefender Antivirus Free Antimalware, Enabled and Updated
First thing to blame is lack of bandwidth. You need a six lane highway, not two lane, when you have multiple video chats going. Talk to your internet service provider.
Thanks for your advice! I guess my concern is that I'll spend more money to get more bandwidth but it will actually be an issue with my drivers or something. I'm hoping to be able to confirm that it isn't another problem before spending money if I actually don't need it.
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear in my original post. My facebook messenger, discord, and zoom calls never occur at the same time. I use different platforms to talk to different people at different times, and I wanted to clarify that the problem doesn't occur in just one software platform. I generally only have one call and Google Chrome open and running at the same time. I'll edit my original post to make that clearer.
I saw that you are not running multiple streams / video conferences simultaneously. You don't mention if you are sharing your Internet service with other members of the house/apartment at the same time? And what is your current Internet service supposed to be?
The sharing of the connection could be a cause of the lag, but you say the issue happens when no one else is using the service. Do any of the other people leave their systems on when not there, perhaps doing some download or upload, or backing up data to a cloud service? It might be something to check into. And 30 Mbps down / 5 Mbps up is not a lot of bandwidth to share among several people.
As for the speed tests showing varying results, it could be from different clients. I would say choose one client, and run several tests. Do a few tests at different times of the day, and perhaps a set of tests when no one else is believed to be using the network. If your results continue to be all over the place, then you might want to have the ISP check the connection. The results shouldn't vary widely from test to test. A little yes, but not large differences.
If you are paying for 30Mbps, you would have been capped at that... so the last two doesn't make sense. and the first two would indicate that you are not getting the full speeds either due to the ISP or something on your network is using the data. I assume you are using cable?
Does your internet provider have any tools to see the state of your line (i.e. signal strength, SNR, etc) or the current usage on the line? If so, see if they can spot anything like that to see if there is already data being used, like @KhunDoug mentioned there may be another device that may be running something in the background.
What modem and router (if applicable) do you have?
Please post brand and model of modem and router.
My ISP is Comcast and my speed is up to 100Mbps down and 5Mbps up.
I don't get near that because I am happily using a very old router. I get around 36 Mbps.
I just tested download and it is 43. I can't ever get the upload to work, on any of the tests I try. It shoots up an error.
My husband and I are 2 senior citizens and that speed is fine for us. We don't do online gaming, don't stream videos (I had Acorn tv for awhile but I used an android tablet which works faster than my Windows computer) and we each have Zoom meetings. Again we use a 10" tablet for the Zoom meetings and neither of us had a problem with the 3 different groups we have had to Zoom.
I just confirmed that the issue continues to occur when no one else is using their computers. I do not believe anyone is downloading or backing up their data while they are away.
I just ran some speed tests using speedtest.net. If I set the connections to "multi" I get speeds above 100 Mbps similar to the last two photos I posted. If I set connections to "single" I get speeds between 20-30 Mbps like the first two photos I posted. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two modes.
My modem is a Hitron CODA-4582U.
My router is a Asus RT-AC66U B1.
How would I go about seeing the state or current usage? I found a page showing the wireless clients, is there something I should be looking for on that page to tell me whether it's causing the problem?
I'm sure this was already checked or looked at, but the Hitron CODA-4582U has its own WI-Fi. If the plan is to use the Asus RT-AC66U for the wireless, are you sure there is no Wi-Fi usage going direct to the Hitron modem, and bypassing the Asus?
How would I go about seeing the state or current usage? I found a page showing the wireless clients, is there something I should be looking for on that page to tell me whether it's causing the problem?
That would be something the internet provider may have. I used to work for a provider that had such a tool so we can troubleshoot the network.
Is the computer near the modem, and if so, can it be connected directly to the modem for troubleshooting?
I can connect directly to the modem. However, I think I asked my ISP to set the modem to bridge mode. Would that mean plugging directly into the modem wouldn't work, and I'd actually want to plug directly into the router instead?
What that did was bypassing the modems router and going direct to yours. You should be able to connect to the modem yourself. I would suggest turning off the modem for about 10 minutes then connect your laptop to it and then turn on the modem. That should give your computer an IP address from the internet provider and give you access. If you find this connection is stable then we would want to look at your asus router and other devices.
Working on doing this test. I just attempted a set up with my tablet and laptop in a zoom call to try to reproduce the error and then testing to see if a direct ethernet connection resolves the issue on at least my laptop's side but I couldn't reproduce the problem definitively. I'm hoping to ask a friend to help me out tomorrow and see if I can figure out if the ethernet connection is stable or not.
Just spent a few hours in a video call using an ethernet cable directly connected to my modem. I experienced no issues with audio cutting out. I believe this means my internet connection from my ISP is stable. What is the next step I should take?
OK, so if this is the same computer that had the issues previously, then it looks like the router may be causing the issue.
I would recommend resetting the router to defaults and then try again when connected to the router. You will need to reconfigure if you are not using the defaults from the router.
I would reconnect the router but try changing the wireless security code. If possible, bring the people in the house back onto the wireless, one at a time. Be alert for problems and you might find that one particular PC is causing the problem. Alternatively, learn how to use the tools in the router to look at traffic and active connections. If the problem returns you may have something that is chewing up bandwidth and the person doesn't even know it.
Earlier today 3 people total (2 others plus me) were in a video call at the same time. The other two people used the wifi, I used an ethernet cable. None of us experienced issues with call quality or drop outs. I think that means it's safe to say this isn't a bandwidth issue. I also think that likely means the issue is not with the router since other people connected to the same router did not experience issues.
Even so, I hard factory reset the router (after the video calls) and changed no settings other than the network name and password. I'll let you know if I continue experiencing issues.
I have 2 bands set up and going at the same time, a 2.4 Ghz and a 5 Ghz. My computer is connected to the 5 Ghz band and has been since I got the router last year.
If I read your description clearly, your laptop/PC is the only one experiencing the lags and audio drops, and only when using the wireless. Is that correct?
I believe the thing to do is look at the network stack on the laptop. The first things I would try requires a CMD window with administrator privilege. Use these commands:
netsh int ipv4 reset
netsh int tcp reset
I would also use the Settings, Network & Internet, Wi-Fi, Manage known networks to list the known wireless networks, and use the Forget option to remove the wireless SSID's you are having trouble with. This requires them to be added again.
From the length of the thread it is not easy to learn if MSI has any type of network accelerator or packet prioritizing software installed. Usually these things are supposed to improve network access when gaming. But in my experience, they can easily hose up things that would otherwise operate fine. If you have something like that installed, disable or uninstall it.
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