Problems with outgoing audio during video conference calls with Nest WiFi Pro

[codejanitor]

I switched from an Edgerouter Lite and a mishmash of WiFi APs and extenders to Nest WiFi Pro about a week ago. Immediately afterward, my coworkers told me my audio was "stuttering" during Zoom calls. We also tried a Slack huddle and had the same issue.

I'm on Xfinity internet. I have 1 device acting as the router and two as mesh points. My download speeds are better with the Nest Wifi Pro, upload speeds are the same as before, around 10 Mbps.

My laptop is connected to one of the mesh points via Ethernet. I also tried over Wifi, no difference.

I've tried factory resetting the entire mesh system. I reset my cable modem. No difference. I tried putting my old Edgerouter back in front of the Nest system. That made things worse.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

I also posted this on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/NestWiFi/comments/yudhta/problems_with_outgoing_audio_during_video

[Canebrake15]

Have you tried enabling Video Conferencing as a Preferred Activity under WiFi > Settings cog > Preferred activities?

Otherwise, I'd try to have the laptop connect to a different mesh point to test. WiFi or LAN port. Or preferably the main Nest Pro that's acting as router (that gets WAN connection from the modem).

[MichaelP]

As @Canebrake15 mentioned, the video conferencing Preferred Activity is worth looking at. However, it should be enabled by default, and if it is, I would actually try disabling it in case it's doing more harm than good.

[codejanitor]

I did try that setting. It made things worse.

[codejanitor]

I'm at the end of my return period, so I'm returning my hardware at this point. I can't wait for a firmware update to fix the problems.

[Jeff]

Hi codejanitor,

I'm sorry we weren't able to get this sorted out for you, but I understand your hesitancy to hang onto the product beyond your return window. Hopefully down the road you can give the Nest WiFi Pro another try and have a better experience. I did want to check in and see if there was anything else I could do for you. If so, just let me know.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Darth_Vader]

I have the same problem. I never had problem before with a single ASUS router. Now with Nest Pro, My wife has to turn off her camera most of the time to avoid the stutter. The Preferred video setting makes things way worse. When it's on, even watching Disney+ is not useable. I am running the latest firmware now, and the problem is still there

[Darth_Vader]

For what it's worth, I don't have Gb internet so I am not a good reference. However, my wife often gets poor video calls quality on TEAM, people complain that her sound's cutting off. She has to turn off the camera to lower to keep the sound going.

After the update, it did seem to happen less, but it still happens.

I contacted Google support, here are the few things that we did:

• change DNS from Auto or ISP to Custom, use only Google DNS 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
• turn off Nest Wifi Cloud service
• restart Network to make sure these 2 things applies
• turn back on Nest wifi Cloud service
• I also have Preferred activities OFF since it made things way worse before

My internet speed test is consistence but again I only have 100Mb/10Mb down. (I am cheap 🙂 )

if anyone can try these, perhaps it could help.

I am also ok to return the Pro outside of return windows since Google knows that it is an issue according to support.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay. I just wanted to jump in again and let you know that a new firmware release is out now to Nest Wifi Pro devices. You won't need to do anything to receive the update and it will install automatically once it's available for your hardware. There are a variety of performance updates and bug fixes in the release, so I'm hoping this clears up the issues you're seeing here. Let me know if you have any questions about the update.

Also, we'll keep this thread open so everyone can chime in.

Thanks,
Mel

[Darth_Vader]

Hi Mel,

Good to hear! Would you know the new software version? We have currently 1.63.324946

Thanks

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Darth_Vader.

You have the latest firmware.

Best,

Mel

[Darth_Vader]

thanks for confirming, just want to let you know that although this firmware helps but doesn't completely solve the problem. It definitely helps, the problem is less frequent now but still there.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Darth_Vader,

Thanks for the update. I'm glad that your network improved after the update. I suggest you continue monitoring your network. Let us know if it happens again as I would be more than happy to help.

Best,

Mel

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey there,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread.

Best,
Mel

[Darth_Vader]

Hi Mel,

Thanks for checking in. There are still issues with the current firmware.

• the actual speed still has issue occasionally, NOT just the Home app. e.g. my iOS devices were getting only 10% of the full bandwidth, however laptops were fine. Home app was also showing full speed. I had to RESTART NETWORK in Home app then everything comes back to normal.
• Video conference jitter, occasionally have to turn off the camera or the sound would get cut off for far end. If preferred activities is ON, it makes it worse and affect watching streaming services such as D+
• local file transfer between computer and NAS would be extremely slow sometimes, not sure what's causing that. Sometime on one computer would be ok, another is not. I can't consistently reproduce it.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Darth_Vader,

Thanks for your patience and sorry for the delay. Just to confirm, are you still having video conference drops while connected to your Nest Wifi Pro? If so, could you factory reset your device and set it up again?

Keep us posted.

Best,

Mel

[Darth_Vader]

Hi, I did, also file transfer between devices are quite a lot slower as well in comparison to my old router. I changed the mesh finally to Deco and it's ok so far.

[codejanitor]

I ended up buying a TP-Link Deco mesh system as well and it works great. No issues, just faster than my previous system of various wifi extenders.

[AbigailF]

Hey folks,

We're sad to see you go. If ever you change your mind, we're here to help.

Regards,
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hi everyone,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Best, 
Abi

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi there everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update after 24 hours. If you have any new questions, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Thanks,
Mel