Connect Troubleshooting Guidance
When making phone calls over the internet, your internet and WIFI connection speed and reliability are of extreme importance. You should also understand that home broadband is not the same as the high speed internet that businesses use. The traffic that flows over each is prioritized in different ways. Buffering and packet loss at home might not be noticeable when watching Netflix because your streaming devices probably compensate for most of it. However, when you are talking to someone on the phone, you notice these network disruptions because they cause latency, garbled sound and dropped calls.
First thing to consider, are you having long-term, sustained bad call quality or are the issues only intermittent? If you are having a sustained issue, please report these to your supervisor or team leader.
If you are experiencing bad call quality or dropped calls, there are some things you can try to improve your calling experience. Any of the things in the list below can be the cause of your problems. This is not a list of “optimum conditions.” So, you do not need to do these things every time you use Connect to make phone calls, these are just ideas to try to help solve your immediate internet connection problems.
- Try the desk-phone option in Connect.
- Disconnect from VPN (if you’re connected)
- Close down as many other applications you may have running on your computer as you can
- Reboot your computer
- Reboot your router
- Use one of the latest web browsers (Edge, Chrome). Internet Explorer is being phased out.
- Clear your browser’s web cache if you’re having trouble with the Connect site. Go to the Settings area under Privacy & Security, and choose “Clear browsing data”
Connectivity testing:
Use the below link to see if you’re having issues connecting to the internet. Paste in the link you use to log into Connect to start the test. If [US-West-2] pops up as FAIL (MEDIA) or red (EC2), your home network is having issues getting enough bandwidth.https://d3ugyzdarmq5tb.cloudfront.net/
Home Network tips:
- If your internet service goes down, power up your network equipment in this order when it comes back: cable modem, router, range extender (if you have one).
- Internet bandwidth should be at or above 1.5 Mbps for a consistent Connect experience.
- To test your throughput, click the Bandwidth tester on the Connect site, or go to https://www.speedtest.net/
- Try connecting your computer to your router with a network cable instead of WIFI
- Are your modem and WIFI router old? You might need to upgrade if you haven’t for a long time. If you rent these from your Internet Service Provider, you might want to call and discuss your issues to see if they can help you improve performance.
- If you’re having intermittent issues with call quality, notice what else is going on in your network. Are other people on your network doing bandwidth-intensive things? Examples are: streaming t.v.; online gaming; connecting through VPN to a workplace and transferring large amounts of data; online school that includes lots of video and a connection to a learning management system; many phones, tablets, laptops connected to WIFI.
- Many routers can prioritize connections and transfers of data. You might want to check your router settings to prioritize your work computer connection over something like an Xbox or Playstation connection, if your router allows this.
Further Assistance:
If you still encounter problems with Connect after trying the troubleshooting tips, we will need you to document your issue and send us your documentation. This is important to know what is going on with both your computer and network.