It seems we have similar issues with internet issues. It was frustrating. And I said ‘was‘ because it isn’t anymore. For whatever reason, my internet connection said it was unstable or lagged in a Zoom meeting. Then I started to turn things off, and I no longer have any issues. In my household (condo), we would sometimes have three tablets, two phones, cable, the PVR, and two computers running using wi-fi. It doesn’t seem such a big deal until you add in Zoom meetings, which consumes our bandwidth, and that’s when the lagging begins. Zoom uses roughly 540MB-1.62GB of data per hour for a one-on-one call and 810MB-2.4GB per hour for group meetings. Imagine when both my partner and I are in separate Zoom meetings? That’s double the bandwidth smacking us in the face!
Suggestions to fix your internet issues?
- Close everything on your computer, and turn on only the applications that you need for the meeting.
- Turn off applications such as Citrix, D2L, Moodle, Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Cloud, Google Drive, any streaming websites, such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime. If you have many applications open, this will slow your computer down.
- Do you have many web browser windows open, close those down, it’s working in the background, taking some bandwidth.
- If you share the internet with someone in your condo, ask if they can not use wi-fi—the more people using wi-fi, the slower the connections.
- What about your phone? Is it is using wi-fi too? Turn that off too.
- Believe it or not, the cable to the TV is actively working or anyone watching the PVR is making the internet run as slow.
- Don’t hide your router or place your modem behind or near large electronic devices such as a printer (that’s where mine was), monitor, a concrete wall, microwave, anything that will interfere with the electromagnetic energy. Place the routers as high as possible to maximize the coverage as it tends to spread the signal downward. And place it in a central location too.
Your Computer, a MAC or PC
- If you are on a PC, get a LAN cable at least 5e (it’s written on the thread), plugged into the modem or network (hardwire). A PC should recognize the Ethernet connection and automatically turn off the wi-fi and connect to the Ethernet. But, if in doubt, look at the network connection for that.
- If you are on a MAC and have a Thunderbolt port on your MAC, I suggest you go to the Apple Store and buy a Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter. Go to the dollar store, and buy a LAN cable that is at least 5e (it’s written on the thread) gets plugged into the modem or network (hardwire). Or ask someone in the family if they have a spare cable. I had one from an old printer of mine.Plug this into the Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter, and then plug the adapter into the MacBook. It does cost $39. You will need to go to your System Preferences > Network > Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is active when it turns green. Unfortunately, not like a PC, you need to turn off the wi-fi manually.
The internet issues that you are having should go away once you take things away as per the above. I found out the hard way like you when I was in a meeting with 25 people. I didn’t have any lag issues once I did all this. Granted, it took me three sessions to finally sort it all out. I wished somebody had told me this.