Connection Drops on Audio-Only Zoom Calls

[#1]

Hello,

We have had Plusnet Fibre for several years. On the whole it is fine. One odd issue that I now have is that on audio only Zoom calls, the connection drops every 3-4 mins for about 3 seconds, and then comes back. This only happens on audio only calls - on Zoom calls with video  or video streaming, it's absolutely fine ; we can stream Netflix for hours with no issues.

I'm using a wired connection over powerline adapters, so I had thought that might be the issue. However I recently bought a long cat 6 cable and now have a direct connection the to router, and the problem is the same.

I did a bit of googling and saw similar issues (for another provider) that were solved by disabling hardware NAT and enabling STP. However (a) I don't know what that means, and (b) I couldn't see those settings in the Plusnet router config.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks! 

[#2]

Thanks for your post @aquatabby

I'm sorry to see you're having connection issues while on Zoom.

I've tested your line today and the tests aren't showing any issues with the broadband signal going into your router, which backs up what you've said about everything else being fine. Do you have this issue across multiple devices?

[#3]

Hi @Gandalf thanks for your reply.

TBH that's quite hard to tell! The issue certainly happens on my work laptop. I don't make many zoom calls on my personal machine so it's hard to compare. Since switching to the wired connection, I haven't had any drop-outs on my personal machine, that I'm aware of.

Are there any tests that I can run (or ask IT to run) on my work machine to see if that's the issue?

Many thanks!

[#4]

Hi @aquatabby, thanks for getting back to me.

As a potentially easy fix I'd personally take though you may have already considered it, would be to display video on all calls. but if that's not possible, you could ask your IT department to look at the logs when your connection drops on your work laptop to see if they can identify what's causing the drop. 

[#5]

Hi @Gandalf I have been doing that for the last two days, and the crazy thing is - it works. I've had no problems with drop-outs. It's really very strange. The only downside is that I need to dress a bit smarter now 🙂 

I think we can go ahead and close this case for now. If I do start to experience similar issues on my home machine I'll get in touch again. Is there an easy way to refer to this thread in the future if needed?

Many thanks for your help!

[#6]

Hi @aquatabby

No problem, aye it is very odd. 

Haha I almost always have video turned on when I'm in meetings.

If you do have further issues, feel free to just reply to this thread as it'll stay open for quite a while (I think, a year or so) before automatically locking, but if it does lock, you can always start a new topic and reference the website address/URL of this one in your post to refer back to it. 

Let me know how it goes.

[#7]

@aquatabby The difference between Zoom calls with and without video is that video transmits more data and so possibly a lost (or corrupted) packet on an audio only call causes a drop out on audio of a noticable length whereas with viseo it is a very quick glitch in video and sound. 

At the very least, if you can, try an audio only call on a cable and see if the same thing happens.