Working From Home Wi-Fi: Why Teams and Zoom Calls Keep Dropping

A video call that freezes or cuts out is rarely about the download number on your broadband bill. A call cannot buffer ahead the way Netflix does, so it is the first thing to suffer when the Wi-Fi or the line gets busy.

The short answer: Teams and Zoom need only a few megabits per second each way, but steadily, with little delay. Calls drop when the upload is shared with the rest of the house, when the laptop is on a weak Wi-Fi signal, or when the connection slows as someone else streams. The fixes: a cable to the desk, the 5 GHz band, a better router position, priority for your laptop, and mesh linked by cable. If a cabled test at the router is poor too, it is the line, and your provider's to fix.

Why do calls drop when the speed test looks fine?

A speed test gives three numbers: download, how fast data reaches you; upload, how fast it leaves; and ping, or latency, how long a round trip takes. A call uses all three at once, sending your camera and microphone out live.

On many packages the upload is a fraction of the download. And a connection that answers quickly when idle can slow badly while something else downloads, which a call notices at once. Microsoft links calls that cut out, and voices that sound like robots, to jitter and packet loss: data arriving unevenly, or not at all.

What do Teams and Zoom actually need?

What Microsoft and Zoom publish for each person on a call, beside what else a house does at the same time:

Teams figures are Microsoft's recommended level, Zoom's its recommended bandwidth, and gaming is ComReg's estimate. *Microsoft's connectivity test passes a Teams connection with latency under 100 ms, jitter under 30 ms and packet loss under 1 per cent.

None of this is large: ComReg puts the minimum for video calling at 1 Mbps each way. The problem is rarely the size of the connection, but what else is using it and how well the Wi-Fi carries it to the desk.

Why does a busy house break calls up?

The house shares one broadband line and one Wi-Fi network. ComReg makes the point too: the more devices active at once, the more the line struggles, especially with video. Add up an ordinary weekday afternoon:

• You, in a Teams meeting: 2.5 Mbps up and 4 Mbps down.
• Two 1080p Ring cameras: 2 Mbps of upload each, which Ring says to add together.
• Netflix in 4K in the next room: 15 Mbps down.
• A phone backing up photos to the cloud, and a console downloading an update.

That is 6.5 Mbps of upload before the backup starts. Once the upload is full, everything queues, the delay climbs, and the call notices first. Virgin Media's advice is to leave large downloads until late at night.

How do I fix the Wi-Fi at my desk?

Can you run a cable to the desk?

A network cable from the router to the laptop takes the Wi-Fi out of the call. ComReg says a wired connection will always be more reliable, and Virgin Media recommends a cable for any device that can take one. Laptops without a network socket take a USB adapter.

Is the laptop on the 5 GHz band?

Virgin Media describes 2.4 GHz as reaching further but slower, and 5 GHz as faster but working well only closer to the router. Microsoft says 5 GHz is better suited to real-time media, and that 2.4 GHz is often affected by other household devices. If the bands show as separate network names, join 5 GHz at the desk; if it will not reach, the desk is too far from the router.

Where is the router?

Routers sit wherever the line came in: the hall, behind the TV, a press under the stairs. Virgin Media advises against tucking one behind a TV or in a cabinet, and says walls weaken the signal while baby monitors interfere with it. ComReg suggests a central spot: in the open, and closer to where you work if you can.

Can the router put your laptop first?

QoS (Quality of Service) lets a router put some traffic first. TP-Link describes it as prioritising specific devices when you need them most, and Microsoft recommends it, or its Wi-Fi form WMM, for call traffic. Not every router has it: look in the settings for QoS or device priority, and pick your work laptop.

Would mesh with a wired link help?

For a desk upstairs, at the back of an extension or in a garden office, a mesh unit nearby helps, but only as much as its link to the router allows. TP-Link says a cable between units gives lower latency and loses no bandwidth to a wireless hop. Where a cable cannot be run, powerline can carry that link. See our guides to mesh Wi-Fi and to extenders, mesh and powerline.

What if the problem is the broadband line?

Before buying anything, plug a laptop into the router by cable and run a speed test when your calls usually break up; ComReg notes speeds can be noticeably slower at peak times. Then test at the desk. Our guides to telling the line from the Wi-Fi and to testing room by room go through both. The free Wi-Fi check also measures how quickly the connection answers while busy, which is what calls feel.

ComReg says your contract must state the minimum, normally available, maximum and advertised speeds, upload included. If the cabled result is well below the minimum, ring your provider with the figures.

When is it worth changing your broadband plan?

When the line delivers what the contract says and it is still not enough. Add up the upload your house uses at once; if it comes close to your contract's upload, a plan with more upload will help and better Wi-Fi will not. ComReg's Broadband Checker shows what is available at your address, and at the end of a contract you are entitled to Best Tariff Advice from your provider.

What should I check before an important call?

1. Plug in by cable, or sit where the laptop holds the 5 GHz network.
2. Pause cloud backups and big downloads. OneDrive, for one, can cap its upload rate in its settings.
3. Ask the house to hold off on 4K streaming for the hour.
4. Make a test call: zoom.us/test for Zoom, or Settings, Devices, Make a test call in the Teams desktop app.
5. If the Wi-Fi has been patchy, restart the router well beforehand. Virgin Media says a restart lets its Hub pick the best channel.
6. If the picture breaks up, turn your camera off. Voice needs a fraction of the upload.

When is it worth getting the home office measured?

When the cabled test at the router is fine, the desk is not, and a cable is not practical. That is what our €395 home network assessment is for: a two-hour visit that tests the broadband at the router by cable and measures every room, then a working trial system left for three days on the floor that struggles, with your own Wi-Fi on beside it to compare. You get the figures in a written report, and the €395 is credited in full against any work. Dublin and the rest of Leinster.

What else do people ask?