Wifi drops during Google Meet calls

[Skowt]

Has anyone ever experienced an issue specifically when on a Google Meet call where the call drops for a second or two almost every time you're on a call?

I've got a MTR test running permanently on my screen so I can see when my connection drops out and like clockwork, if I'm on a Google Meet call for long enough, the call will drop out at some point for about a second or two and the MTR test shows no replies from the router for those two seconds. Once reconnected it's fine for a while again.

Seems to be fairly consistent with being on calls and I can see the MTR test never fails in general while browsing the internet.

I know this is a long shot but has anyone else ever seen this specific behaviour?

 

[ATLga]

Has anyone ever experienced an issue specifically when on a Google Meet call where the call drops for a second or two almost every time you're on a call?

I've got a MTR test running permanently on my screen so I can see when my connection drops out and like clockwork, if I'm on a Google Meet call for long enough, the call will drop out at some point for about a second or two and the MTR test shows no replies from the router for those two seconds. Once reconnected it's fine for a while again.

Seems to be fairly consistent with being on calls and I can see the MTR test never fails in general while browsing the internet.

I know this is a long shot but has anyone else ever seen this specific behaviour?

Sounds like a google issue

 

[Skowt]

Sounds like a google issue

also thought that until seeing the MTR test showing no packets back from my router. So the connection between my router and laptop dropped.

 

[ATLga]

also thought that until seeing the MTR test showing no packets back from my router. So the connection between my router and laptop dropped.

Based on what you said about general internet browsing never failing and only the meets dropping, it sounds like google issue. Are you dropping audio, video, both? Total drop and you have to reconnect or just a few seconds of stutter? Is the computer WiFi or Ethernet and does it lose connection?

 

[ColinTaylor]

also thought that until seeing the MTR test showing no packets back from my router. So the connection between my router and laptop dropped.

In which case you should see the disconnection and re-connection in the router's syslog.

 

[Skowt]

Based on what you said about general internet browsing never failing and only the meets dropping, it sounds like google issue. Are you dropping audio, video, both? Total drop and you have to reconnect or just a few seconds of stutter? Is the computer WiFi or Ethernet and does it lose connection?

Both and it's short enough that Google doesn't drop entirely but long enough that I can see packet loss for a few seconds on the MTR test on all hops. It's a laptop on Wifi which makes me suspect that there's some QoS rule, firewall setting or something that's seeing the jump in traffic as maybe being malicious and dropping it? I'm not really sure but I'm trying to dig into it further.

 

[ATLga]

Both and it's short enough that Google doesn't drop entirely but long enough that I can see packet loss for a few seconds on the MTR test on all hops. It's a laptop on Wifi which makes me suspect that there's some QoS rule, firewall setting or something that's seeing the jump in traffic as maybe being malicious and dropping it? I'm not really sure but I'm trying to dig into it further.

Do you have AI Protect on? If so, maybe turn it off and see if it helps.

 

[lindros2]

I had a very similar issue - with Zoom meeting - and specific to one of my EXTENDERS.
Apparently video chat/calls/meetings floods the logs. Dunno why.
And this was made worse by writing logs to NVRAM instead of RAM (duh).
So I moved to RAM, set flush regularly to on, and it's better.
ALTERNATIVELY, you might want to look into turning QoS on or off.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I had a very similar issue - with Zoom meeting - and specific to one of my EXTENDERS.
Apparently video chat/calls/meetings floods the logs. Dunno why.
And this was made worse by writing logs to NVRAM instead of RAM (duh).
So I moved to RAM, set flush regularly to on, and it's better.
ALTERNATIVELY, you might want to look into turning QoS on or off.

Log files aren't ever written to NVRAM. You're probably thinking of Traffic history which is something completely unrelated.

 

[lindros2]

Log files aren't ever written to NVRAM. You're probably thinking of Traffic history which is something completely unrelated.

sorry I mis-typed. Yes, traffic history.

 

[K-2SO]

We know nothing about the setup. What router, what firmware, what settings, what else is running on it?

 

[Skowt]

Do you have AI Protect on? If so, maybe turn it off and see if it helps.

Yebo, I've turned it off now and will see how it performs. Fingers crossed.

I had a very similar issue - with Zoom meeting - and specific to one of my EXTENDERS.
Apparently video chat/calls/meetings floods the logs. Dunno why.
And this was made worse by writing logs to NVRAM instead of RAM (duh).
So I moved to RAM, set flush regularly to on, and it's better.
ALTERNATIVELY, you might want to look into turning QoS on or off.

Interesting... I'll see if disabling Traffic History completely helps.

We know nothing about the setup. What router, what firmware, what settings, what else is running on it?

ASUS RT-AC86U
v3.0.0.4.384_81369

Stock firmware, no merlin or any other fancy changes.

 

[K-2SO]

It's a laptop on Wifi

Check for available driver update for laptop's adapter. Make sure your router is not using DFS channel.

 

[Skowt]

Check for available driver update for laptop's adapter. Make sure your router is not using DFS channel.

It’s a Mac so I’m not sure if it does driver updates? I might regret saying that. Also does using a DFS channel matter if I’m outside the US? I’m not completely familiar but it seems to be mostly a US thing.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Have you checked the router's syslog yet for the time period when the problem occurs?

 

[K-2SO]

I’m not completely familiar but it seems to be mostly a US thing.

Not mostly US thing. See here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
If the router detects DFS event it will bump you off frequency causing temp disconnection.

 

[randy8080]

Are you still having this issue. I have similar issues (Windows 1064bit) wireless desktop. The Google Meet would get kicked out, and my WIFI would drop. I would not be able to resolve anything unless I repaired the internet connection or restarted the PC. It is as if my WIFI was turned off, or the WIFI AP is blocking me.

 

[lindros2]

Are you still having this issue. I have similar issues (Windows 1064bit) wireless desktop. The Google Meet would get kicked out, and my WIFI would drop. I would not be able to resolve anything unless I repaired the internet connection or restarted the PC. It is as if my WIFI was turned off, or the WIFI AP is blocking me.

Which model of router?
Is this your MAIN or an EXTENDER?
(all Asus if so?)

 

[sfx2000]

Has anyone ever experienced an issue specifically when on a Google Meet call where the call drops for a second or two almost every time you're on a call?

Friends don't let friends use google meet - seriously...

With the Corona, I'm spending a lot more time on Web bridges....

1) Zoom - after initial challenges, and security concerns, paid accounts actually work well, free accounts, maybe not so good
2) GoToMeeting - similar to Zoom
3) Cisco WebEx - generally works well actually...
4) Microsoft Teams - formally known as Skype for Business, which is rebranded MS Lync - it's a bit of a mess
5) Google Meet - when I have telecon's with Google, it's not on Google Meet, that's all I can say, there, it's generally GTM or Zoom.

All of these - it's largely not the router, but the local situation on the PC/Mac - what OS, Browser, etc means much for keeping things together.

FWIW - I usually dial in on my phone, rather than using the VoIP connection with the PC - voice quality is better, latency is lower (e.g. talking over other people)

 

[coxhaus]

Friends don't let friends use google meet - seriously...

With the Corona, I'm spending a lot more time on Web bridges....

1) Zoom - after initial challenges, and security concerns, paid accounts actually work well, free accounts, maybe not so good
2) GoToMeeting - similar to Zoom
3) Cisco WebEx - generally works well actually...
4) Microsoft Teams - formally known as Skype for Business, which is rebranded MS Lync - it's a bit of a mess
5) Google Meet - when I have telecon's with Google, it's not on Google Meet, that's all I can say, there, it's generally GTM or Zoom.

All of these - it's largely not the router, but the local situation on the PC/Mac - what OS, Browser, etc means much for keeping things together.

FWIW - I usually dial in on my phone, rather than using the VoIP connection with the PC - voice quality is better, latency is lower (e.g. talking over other people)

Thanks for the info.

I can tell you my wife has made hundreds of Zoom Wi-Fi calls with her iPad with zero problems. My granddaughter is staying with us now for a couple of months and she Zooms all day for school using Wi-Fi calling from her iPad. And for the last couple of months they both have been Zooming at the same time with me on my laptop using my iPhone Wi-Fi calling also. We have not had a single issue. I play a Tank game in the afternoon lots of times not any issues other than my ping time is about 80ms or a little higher. We have to use Wi-Fi calling as LTE does not work well in my home. My granddaughter uses her iPhone during class to talk with her friends but it is mainly text which is no load.

sfx2000 I thought we were running the same Cisco WAP581 wireless APs. Have you changed?