Internet connectivity issues can make viewing videos a frustrating experience. Here are some ways to mitigate those issues:
Step 1: Run a Speed Test
Running a speed test can give you a sense of the total bandwidth available to your computer.
Visit www.fast.com to test your internet connection
When you visit this site, the speed test will automatically begin
We recommend at least a 15Mbps for a good experience.
When the test is finished, make sure to click Show More Info, as there is other important information there.
The other information we are looking for is your Latency, which is a measurement of how long it takes for information to travel from websites to your computer in milliseconds. It looks like this:
If your latency looks like the above example, you may have issues viewing videos. We recommend a Latency of no more than 150ms for an optimal viewing experience.
If your bandwidth or latency is not in the recommended range, try switching to another network, resetting your router, or using a mobile phone as a hotspot.
If your connection looks good, proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Look for bandwidth hogs
Internet connections have a finite amount of bandwidth to use, and other apps/tabs can reduce the speeds useable for viewing videos. Here are some things to look for:
Check if you have tabs open with any sort of media streaming service
YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, and others can proactively download media for later use. Close any tabs or windows where these apps are running.
Check if you have any cloud backup programs running in the background.
Programs Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive can use a large amount of bandwidth while saving or updating files. Use Task Manager on Windows or Activity Monitor on macOS to look for and close any of those programs.
Check for any gaming applications that may be downloading updates in the background
Steam, Origin, and Epic Games, among others, will use as much bandwidth as they can when updating your games. Close any programs like this.
Step 3: Check for high CPU usage
Your central processing unit (or CPU) is used heavily when transmitting data to and from the internet, especially when using video. Every piece of data coming in and out is compressed, meaning packed tightly to utilize less bandwidth. Your CPU has to decompress the data, then transcode that data into a video you can watch, as well as taking your camera feed and compressing that to send out to others in the video conference.
Take a look at the processes running on your computer to see if applications other than your browser are using your CPU resources.
Note: It is generally best to reboot your computer before doing this, as certain processes that have abnormally high CPU usage will reset and return to their normal usage.
Windows
Open your Task Manager by right-clicking your taskbar and selecting "Task Manager" from the list. If you don't see any numbers, click "More Details" to expand the window.
You will see a list of Apps and Background Processes, as well as their associated resource usage.
Sort your processes by CPU by clicking the top of the CPU column.
Look for processes near the top of the list that are not related to your browser
If there are any using a large percentage of your CPU, try to close the program. If you cannot find a way to close it, right-click on the process in Task Manager and click "End Task".
Note: Some processes listed may be necessary for Windows to run. If you do not recognize the process, Google it to see what program it is related to. If it is a Windows process, ending the task may cause your computer to freeze and need to be restarted. Instead, try rebooting the computer and observe whether the high CPU usage persists. If it does, continue searching for solutions related to that process.
macOS
Open Activity Monitor by searching with Spotlight or navigating to /Applications/Utilities and double-clicking it.
You will see a list of Apps and Background Processes, as well as their associated resource usage.
Sort your processes by CPU by clicking the top of the CPU column
Look for processes near the top of the list that are not related to your browser
If there are any using a large percentage of your CPU, click the Stop button in the upper-left corner of the Activity Monitor window
Choose one of the following options:
Quit: This is the same as choosing File > Quit within an app. The process quits when it’s safe to do so. If quitting the process could cause data loss or interfere with another app, the process doesn’t quit.
Force Quit: The process quits immediately. If the process has files open, you may lose data. If the process is used by other apps or processes, those apps or processes could experience problems.
Step 4: DNS Settings
What is DNS?
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the phone book of the Internet. Humans access information online through domain names, like revnt.io or espn.com. Web browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources.
By default, most computers use the DNS provided by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the administrator of your network, but they can be slow or poorly maintained. Changing your DNS provider can significantly increase the speed of loading content from the internet.
Instructions
At revnt, we recommend using Cloudflare's DNS service. Not only is it faster than any alternative, they do not sell records of your queries like your ISP probably does. Cloudflare does a great job of describing the steps to use their DNS, so here are two buttons to open their instructions. It doesn't take long.
Conclusion
If you have gotten this far and are still having problems, it is likely that a fix is out of your control. Contact a network administrator if you have one, or try using a newer or more powerful device. As always, you can connect with the revnt support team at support@revnt.io at any time.