How to Deal with Zoom Streaming Emergency Problems

One of the most popular video conferencing software, Zoom, brings people together from remote work to remote learning and just virtual happy hours. It is a light and easy way to set up video calls over the Internet. But unfortunately Zoom issues like streaming emergencies are just waiting to happen...

The quality of the Internet connection is what makes and breaks a Zoom meeting. If that’s good, you will be able to enjoy fluent, fully detailed Zoom calls. If you have bad connectivity, you'll definitely experience a Zoom streaming emergency (Zoom streamergency). It includes stuff like choppy video, buffering and Zoom disconnects will happen.

This article explains how Zoom streaming emergencies occur and how to deal with them. Avoid Zoom streaming issues altogether with this simple solution.

Ah, Zoom streamergencies - they just keep happening. What are you going to do to deal with latency, frozen screens or even the Zoom meeting getting disconnected?

First of all - check if Zoom is down / service outage. Their service status page will confirm this. Spoiler alert: this is usually not the problem for the Zoom streaming issue.

Here are the most popular causes for any Zoom streaming emergency:

• Your ISP may be doing infrastructure maintenance work.
• A recent storm disrupted a backbone connection that needs to be fixed.
• Your network equipment is out of date, both hardware and software.
• You're sitting too far away from the Wi-Fi hotspot
• You're into a poor cellular reception area.

Zoom uses significant bandwidth, especially for video calls. Your device is sending a complex set of data packets to the device of the person you are trying to talk to. And their device is sending packet of data to you.

The flow of these packets gets interrupted if your Wi-Fi connection has a momentary blip or your cellular connection fluctuates. It can take a few moments for the data to catch up.

This results in Zoom issues: calls where the audio cuts in and out, where the video lags, and where the audio and video don’t sync properly. 

You can fix your Zoom streaming emergency by troubleshooting your Zoom streaming issues. These are the main steps:

1. Make sure Zoom is up and running (see above).
2. Test your Internet connection. Is it fast enough for Zoom video conferencing? You’ll need at least 2 Mbps upload and 2 Mbps download.
3. Restart your router / modem and the device you're streaming video on.

Here is a more detailed article on how to troubleshoot your Internet connection. The downside of this: it takes time - at least a couple of minutes - and you cannot not afford this when on a Zoom call.

The real solution for any Zoom streaming emergency is prevention! - it's like every other real world emergency. The best prevention method to avoid Zoom streamergencies is streaming over a fast, stable and secure Internet connection. A channel bonding VPN app like Speedify allows you to use all of your Internet connections at once for fast, stable and secure connectivity.

We recently tested Zoom on a laptop and on a smartphone while running Speedify, simulating bad Internet conditions, which determine streaming issues. The results showed that Speedify was able to keep the average Zoom video call bandwidth on both devices in good range around the target bandwidth. And this happened both in situations where the connections were good and when one of them went bad.

Speedify achieves that by using a technology called channel bonding that allows you to use multiple Internet connections at once. On your smartphone – it’s the Wi-Fi and cellular data that can be bonded. On a computer, there’s more flexibility about the number and type of connections.

Speedify also routes data when something happens to one of your connections. When you stumble upon a bad Wi-Fi hotspot, or your connection suddenly goes out, you will stay connected. Speedify intelligently and automatically reroutes your data through the other available connection(s) until you are connected again to both networks. Best of all, you don’t notice anything because Speedify works seamlessly.

The beauty of it is that Speedify does more than just manage your Internet connections. It is also a fast bonding VPN. It encrypts all of the data you send and receive from your device. This helps keep your private information and conversations secure from digital eavesdroppers and cyber thieves.