Maximizing Zoom Performance from Home / when Bandwidth is Constrained
Mark Katsouros
April 2021
This
piece was written specifically for Zoom users at Duquesne University, but most
of the tips and best practices identified here are applicable to most any cloud
video collaboration platform—BlueJeans, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, etc.—and
to most every enterprise leveraging a work-from-home paradigm.
If you’re joining/leading Zoom sessions from home, and/or
have constrained broadband connectivity (particularly in terms of upstream
bandwidth, which is quite common), here are some things you can do to mitigate performance
issues:
- Turn off the competition:
o
Close other applications on your device that
may be utilizing precious bandwidth (not to mention CPU cycles) during your
Zoom session, particularly upstream bandwidth.
o
Same goes for other equipment in your
home. You may have to ask your son to do
his gaming, or watch Netflix, at another time!
- Within Zoom:
1.
Turn off HD video – Providing video in HD
resolution requires significantly more bandwidth, so consider turning it off
when the quality of the image you're sending isn't critical. To turn off HD in your Zoom client:
a.
In your desktop Zoom client, click Settings (the
gear icon).
b.
Click Video in the left-hand menu.
c.
In the My Video section, uncheck the box beside
Enable HD if it is checked.
2.
Turn off your video entirely – Virtual background
or otherwise, video consumes a lot of bandwidth, and typically isn’t as
critical as audio.
3.
Consider using a phone (landline or
cellular) for audio. You can still join
the meeting visually by computer (at least as a receiver, per bullet
immediately above), but don’t join with audio from that device. (Just close the “audio conferencing” options
window when it appears, or you risk feedback and disrupting your class/meeting.)
4.
Co-host/Helper – If you have content to
share, consider asking a better-connected, or on-campus, helper (co-host) to do
that sharing, or consider using online collaborative documents rather than
screen sharing. Certain services, like
Microsoft Office Online Documents and Teams, Box Notes, and Google Apps, let
multiple people open and edit files in a shared paradigm. These services can use less data than
streaming video, while still allowing everyone to see changes in real time, or
close to it.
5.
Don’t use a VPN during your Zoom session,
unless you absolutely need it (for instance, if you’re trying to share content
from an asset only accessible from within the University’s enterprise network). The Duquesne GlobalProtect VPN routes all
traffic, including Zoom (and Teams) traffic, through the enterprise network and
border vs. directly to Zoom (and Microsoft).
(Consider #3 above.)
6.
Test your bandwidth via “http://speedtest.net”, including if you are
using a VPN. You should have at least
between 1 and 3 Mbps of upload speed (depending on video format) for a reliable
Zoom videoconferencing experience. See
Zoom’s bandwidth
requirements for details.
7.
Cellular vs. Internet – If your available
cellular bandwidth is better than your Internet/Wi-Fi bandwidth (sometimes the
case, especially with today’s 4G and 5G cellular networks), consider joining
your Zoom session from your cellular device’s Zoom client. (You may need to turn Wi-Fi off.) While this is not optimal for content sharing,
it may provide an overall better video experience. (Cellular data rates may apply.)
8.
Go into the office – If all else fails,
if you have a need to share content from your device, and/or if the meeting is
critical, consider going into the office / on campus. The University’s enterprise network provides
robust connectivity in both directions, and being on campus obviously negates
the need to use a VPN.
9.
Zoom clients – We strongly recommend
running the Zoom desktop client (vs. the Zoom web client) to
improve overall performance.
Additionally, because you may often be running Zoom from somewhere on
campus (and the University’s enterprise network), we strongly encourage users
to install the Microsoft
Installer (MSI) version of the desktop client on their Microsoft Windows
machines. The MSI version of the client
contains information—files, registry data, shortcuts, and so on—that may
improve performance on campus machines/networks, such as traffic
prioritization.
See Computing and Technology Services’ Working Remotely FAQ for additional work-from-home tips.
Mark Katsouros is the Director of IT Support Services at Duquesne University. Mark is responsible for the directly-customer-facing/high-touch services provided by Duquesne's Computing and Technology Services (CTS): CTS Learning Labs (digital classrooms) and Collaboration Commons, the Duquesne Computer Store, Endpoint Engineering (enterprise configuration and mobility management), Endpoint Operations (endpoint deployment and deskside support), the IT Service Desk, and CTS Communications (MarCom).
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