Zoom lags out and stalls on my girlfriend's laptop / WiFi issues

r/techsupport • u/AsuranFish • Jan 20 '22

Zoom lags out and stalls on my girlfriend's laptop / WiFi issues Open | Networking

My girlfriend is an online therapist (think along the lines of Better Help). She's stated that she has issues with the WiFi at my house when trying to do online sessions, that Zoom repeatedly locks up and gets choppy audio/video when trying to work with her clients. She doesn't have this issue at her place.

I think I have pretty decent WiFi here - it's Comcast, speed is 400mbs. Trying to figure out why she's having this issue, as it's very frustrating for her. If I got her a USB-to-ethernet adapter, so she can plug directly into the modem, is that likely to help her?

Recently upgraded my internet service with Comcast, so I'm kind of mad that it's been so lousy for her. Any help is greatly appreciated!

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

u/CryptographerTall968 Jan 20 '22

first try to run a speedtest by ookla via google and see if your internet is good enof

otherwise yall need to reinstall zoom

1

u/AsuranFish Jan 20 '22

Ran a speed test on my laptop, and I got DL speeds of 250 Mbps, and UL speeds of 11.96 Mbps... Zoom's website says we should need much, much less.

Would reinstalling actually make a lick of difference? She does have another laptop she's going to try on tonight...

u/glucoseboy Jan 20 '22

what's the wifi like in the space she uses at your house? Wifi coverage is not uniform. Have her run speedtest on her laptop the next time she is there. USB to ethernet adapter should solve the problem if it is a wifi issue. ARe there other data intensive activities going on when she is doing her calls?

1

u/AsuranFish Jan 20 '22

The Wi-Fi is pretty centrally located, so really no more than 30-40 feet from the router at most.

I make sure not to stream when she’s in a session.

Interestingly, my laptop gets DL speeds of 250 Mbps, while her laptop gets only 30-40… should still be plenty though.

1

u/glucoseboy Jan 20 '22

Dramatic differences between laptop download speeds. is she connecting to the same network as you?

u/FoFoJoe Jan 20 '22

I would try updating the network driver on her laptop. The manufacturers site should have the right driver.

Next I would try connecting both her laptop and your laptop to a phone hotspot.

The goal here is to see if both laptops have about the same speed via the hotspot.

An ethernet to USB adapter would be a good option as well. If she has an ethernet cord accessible, I would do that personally because her network connection is pretty critical. At worst, an ethernet connection is more consistent.