It’s often not possible to Zoom from a quiet place or on a flawless Internet connections.

Internet Bandwidth and Data Limit Issues

Things individuals can do:

• If you are on a wifi connection, try moving closer to the wifi router. Plug directly into your router if possible.
• Turn off other applications and devices that are using your Internet connection.
• If you share an Internet connection with others or have better bandwidth at certain times a day try to schedule video-intensive calls so to maximize bandwidth.
• Turn off your video.
• Make sure HD video is disabled. In the desktop client go to Settings > Video and make sure Enable HD video is unchecked.
• Mute your audio when you’re not talking.

Things hosts and participants can do collectively:

• Ask everyone (or even all non-speakers) to turn off video. Reducing video usage is the easiest way to reduce the amount of data transmitted to participants computers.
• Keep screen sharing to a minimum and ask others not to share their screens. For a lower-bandwidth alternatives:
  • Send participants the PowerPoints or documents so they can open and view them on their own computers while listening.
  • Use collaborative document-editing tools like Word Online or Google Docs. These use less bandwidth.
• Record meetings and share in a way that participants can download to watch without streaming.

Background Noise

• Use headphones so you can hear better.
• Use a headset with a noise-canceling microphone or a smartphone (which tends to have a noise-canceling microphone).
• Go to Audio Settings > Advanced and try turning on Suppress Persistent Background Noise and/or Suppress Intermittent Audio Noise.
• Mute your audio when you aren’t talking.

Video Issues

• To improve how your video feed looks, sit so that light is coming from in front of you rather than behind you.
• Be mindful of what is happening behind you. If your space is cluttered or you want additional privacy
  • Set a virtual background. You can upload your own images for a personal touch (Unsplash has free ones).
  • Turn off your video. Virtual backgrounds are hardware-intensive. and video requires robust Internet bandwidth!