Internet and zoom

Annie1960

IvanOpinion said:

It sounds to me like you have a second microphone that is live.  Maybe on your laptop vs headset or separate microphone.

How would I know this? I select only one mic on the settings, and it affects all my devices even if the USB mic is not plugged in.

Neil_Jones

If you're using external headphones with mic you need to check/ensure that the speakers that are part of the laptop are being disabled when the headphone is in use, as it is possible to have both sources working, ie play sound through the headphones and the speakers without realising it.  If this is the case the built-in microphone (in the case of a laptop) may not disable either.  So if you're jacking up the volume and its coming through the speakers on the laptop, there comes a point where you're generating feedback but you may not be aware of it.  Again its perfectly possible to generate feedback that you can't hear it on your end but will appear to other people. 

Feedback in this regard is relatively unique, it can only be caused by a specific set of circumstances, its a bit like the Fire Triangle principle.  If you remove one element of what causes feedback, it stops.    In a professional environment like concerts and stadiums and whatever else they take measures to prevent it, things like circuits and directional microphones.  You won't have any of that at home but what you can do is consider the environment and the placement of speakers and microphones and maximise the space between them where possible, as well as limiting the maximum volume.  That's the feedback equivalent of a fire triangle.

Also note the "volume" of a microphone isn't the same as boost.  The boost is intended to amplify the incoming source, at the potential risk of increasing the natural background hum that's ever present.  Reduce that and it may be of more benefit to you.

Annie1960

The headphones do not have a mic.

I'm really stuck about what to try next, as it's happening on all of my devices, even when I don't plug anything in (such as an external mic or headphones).

Neil_Jones

Well as I say if you're getting feedback on your internet calls something somewhere is causing it.  Feedback doesn't happen for fun or randomly, it only happens under a specific set of circumstances and 9 times out of ten it is because a microphone is too close to a speaker.  The only thing that can cause your feedback issue is an open microphone that can hear another speaker.

It is not a broadband issue.  At best its a local configuration issue.  I would suggest disabling all microphones, speakers and so on on all devices and then go and do some testing on a per device basis.  That's all you can do, something you've configured somewhere is causing your issue.

You might want to check your sound settings and ensure they're only listening to a microphone, not a "stereo mix" or similar, as that can cause feedback as well, if the system is listening and relaying everything back sooner or later it will match the requirement for feedback.

Exemplar

Neil_Jones said:

Well as I say if you're getting feedback on your internet calls something somewhere is causing it.  Feedback doesn't happen for fun or randomly, it only happens under a specific set of circumstances and 9 times out of ten it is because a microphone is too close to a speaker.  The only thing that can cause your feedback issue is an open microphone that can hear another speaker.

It is not a broadband issue.  At best its a local configuration issue.  I would suggest disabling all microphones, speakers and so on on all devices and then go and do some testing on a per device basis.  That's all you can do, something you've configured somewhere is causing your issue.

You might want to check your sound settings and ensure they're only listening to a microphone, not a "stereo mix" or similar, as that can cause feedback as well, if the system is listening and relaying everything back sooner or later it will match the requirement for feedback.

This 100%

I see this day after day in my job.

It is not, repeat not, the internet.

It will be another microphone somewhere plugged in and causing feedback. As the poster states make sure that the microphone on the laptop is disabled etc. 

If you really need assistance I can happily jump on your PC via Teams etc. to look at it for you if needed.

Annie1960

Could the problem be another laptop nearby, connected to the same wifi, but not to google meet? Ir similarly my android phone nearby? Are their mics open even if not being used?

Neil_Jones

Annie1960 said:

Could the problem be another laptop nearby, connected to the same wifi, but not to google meet? Ir similarly my android phone nearby? Are their mics open even if not being used?

Can I respectfully say you've been given a few things to try already, I would suggest trying those first rather than introducing "could it be" tangents, and also with all due respect you don't appear particularly receptive to anything that's been offered to you so far in terms of solutions.

Annie1960

Neil, I have tried everything that's been suggested, apart from the ethernet cable (which someone else had suggested to me originally). 

I've just been going through each device turning off the mics. I can't really test this out properly until tomorrow when I have my next group Google meet.

As I was doing this, I just wondered whether the 4 devices I have could be part of the problem, even if only one of them is in the google meet at one time. This seemed like a reasonable question to me. I can see from your response that you don't think it's a reasonable question.

Neil_Jones

I never said it wasn't a reasonable question, the point I was making with my post was that you hadn't acknowledged what you have tried and what you haven't out of what has already been suggested, and the thing was if you appear (by accident or otherwise) to completely ignore everything that has been suggested, then there didn't seem to be any point suggesting anything else.

Coming back to the follow-up post, for Android the microphone is usually only in use if an app uses it by its design (ie voice/audio recorder for example) or if you're using it for a phone call, so unless you have the phone as part of your Zoom meeting as well as other devices its quite unlikely to cause this, most mobile phones have no choice about speaker/mic placement so the only thing that can realistically cause feedback like you've reported is if you had it on speakerphone in the first place.  Same for the second laptop, if its not in use it can't interfere.  You can prove these by physically switching them off.

Anyway if it makes you feel better you can set up the network cable but wifi does not cause feedback.  It may give you a more stable connection and stop a screen freeze that occasionally happens with this technology but beyond that and a more stable speed between router and computer, it won't do much else for you.

Annie1960

Well, I turned off all devices except my Dell laptop. I checked the internal mic was set on the device and also on google meet. There was no feedback, but people kept telling me that my sound faded in and out.  I think there is something wrong with the internal mic, but I'm not sure.

I then plugged in the usb mic, checked the settings (in both the device and google meet), and all was well.

Next I'm going to try the same thing on my chromebook, as I would prefer to use this for video calls. Howerver, there are not so many settings to deal with on this device, so hopefully I can adjust it to work.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.