Below are recommendations to follow when hosting or being a participant in a Teams meeting while at home.
- Use wired Ethernet when available. For important meetings, presentations, interviews, or all-day Teams use, Ethernet removes Wi-Fi interference from the equation. If your computer lacks an Ethernet port, an approved USB-C/Ethernet adapter/dock can be used. Try to make sure make sure the adapter/dock's firmware/drivers are up to date.
- If using Wi-Fi, try to connect with 5 GHz (or 6 GHz where available) when near the router. Microsoft recommends 5 GHz for real-time media because it generally has more capacity and less congestion than 2.4 GHz. However, 2.4 GHz travels farther and penetrates walls better, so it can sometimes outperform a weak 5-GHz signal at longer distances.
- Work reasonably close to the Wi-Fi router/access point. Avoid several walls, floors, metal structures, or appliances between the computer and router. Microsoft specifically calls out interference from devices such as microwaves, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, and neighboring Wi-Fi networks.
- Try to avoid high-bandwidth household activities during meetings. Other household members may be streaming 4K video, gaming, uploading photos/videos, performing cloud backups, or downloading large files. Upload contention can be particularly troublesome because your computers microphone, camera, and screen share all depend on upstream connectivity.
- Don't judge the connection solely by a speed test. Microsoft recommends bandwidth speeds around 2.5 Mbps down / 4 Mbps up for video meetings (when tested from your computer), although Teams can dynamically adjust its usage as necessary. However, even with adequate download/upload speeds, connections can suffer and perform poorly due to packet loss, jitter, congestion, or latency.
For additional general working from home tips and recommendations, please visit Working Remotely at Iowa.