WiFi drops video calls every 15 minutes

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Morning. 

I recently moved to Sky Broadband and am generally happy with the speed and the WiFi coverage in my house. I also have a sky mini box upstairs which is helping boost the signal. On all of my devices, the WiFi signal strength is good. 

However, I work from home a lot and spend a lot of time on Zoom or Teams calls. When I am in these calls,  either audio only, video or audio with content sharing, the call will freeze for 5 seconds every 15 minutes. Literally every time, without fail. I am then reconnected and everything carries on for the next 15 minutes. I have had a Sky engineer out who gave me a booster and changed my phone socket, but it's still the same. 

I have been told that I have too many devices connected, but how many is too many? I have about 20, but most of these are simple devices such as Tapo plugs or smart speakers. 

Has anyone heard of some routine that runs every 15 minutes on the sky router?  

Right now I am looking to leave, as I need this to work, as it did with my last 3 broadband providers.

Thank you

Nick

[jamesn123]

@Nicky+Boy+68 

Likely due to another device on your WiFi network causing an interrupt or your router/Q box hopping WiFi channel maybe. Ideally you need to use an ethernet cable for work sensitive applications like voip 

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Thanks for the reply. Sky engineer has just been around again and replaced the router and changed the WiFi channel, so will test again on Monday. 

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Thanks @jamesn123 

I am still having problems and the new router / wifi channel change hasn't fixed it. I am seeing major packet loss, causing audio / video to drop every 15 mins. So annoying. 

[jamesn123]

@Nicky+Boy+68 

As I mentioned, Its likely a WiFi problem which cant always be resolved if the conditions around you are bad, e.g. Lots of neighbouring WiFi routers or bad appliances. You need to try with an ethernet cable to see if the problem stays.

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Thanks @jamesn123 . It worked before, with my previous broadband provider, so I was being stubborn and trying to fix it. I have now brought home 2 x 10m Ethernet cables, with a joiner, to try that! Wish me luck....

[Nicky+Boy+68]

So @jamesn123 , guess what.... it happened on Ethernet as well!  It doesn't happen at work, only at home. So it can't be the PC, it's not the WiFi, i am on a new router. I have tried different cameras, same result. And it happens if i only use audio, although the outage doesn't last as long. Oh yes, and Zoom is fine. I also wiped out Teams, cleared the cache, still got it !!

[jamesn123]

@Nicky+Boy+68 

Can you please post your router stats

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Here you go @jamesn123 

[jamesn123]

@Nicky+Boy+68 

When is the last time it happened? I notice there was a WAN drop around 3hrs ago.

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Thanks @jamesn123 . It happened at 8.15 this morning, half way through my daily meeting, when i was on a Teams call, with video. It happened again at 8.45, Teams again, no video this time. 

Next call in 15 mins, so expecting it will happen again at 11.45, if the call lasts that long. 

[Nicky+Boy+68]

Yeah, it happened again at 11.45 - Every 15 inutes, to the second. 

[jamesn123]

@Nicky+Boy+68 

Are you on ethernet still? If not can you connect to ethernet again and then the next time it happens take a screenshot of your router stats straight away?

[Nicky+Boy+68]

@jamesn123  I am connected via Ethernet, but to the booster box the engineer gave me on his first visit. I removed the long Ethernet cable running from upstairs to downstairs, as the wife wasn't best pleased! But i can put it back temporarily, if you think it's worth looking at ?

[jamesn123]

@Nicky+Boy+68 

Yea connecting to the booster in some cases would help but if the problem is your line disconnecting or the WiFi radios on the hub dying then it would still cause you to drop off. If you can put the long cable back just temporarily until the next drop and then grab an image of your router stats that would be useful