Microsoft Teams Kills all Network Connectivity During Calls

Anonymous
2019-10-28T14:37:04+00:00

Despite having a good WiFi or Ethernet connection, regardless of which network I'm on, if I join a Microsoft Teams call, all network connectivity stops working and teams simultaneously reports poor call quality and no network connectivity. All this while on an active call which I can see and hear. Here's a full description of symptoms.

Every time I connect to a Teams call:

  • Incoming call quality is ok. I can hear and see others.
  • Outgoing call quality is very poor. Others say my voice is breaking up.
  • If I unmute and speak for more than a few seconds, I am booted from the call.
  • If I stay muted I can stay on the call indefinitely.
  • I can share my screen just fine, I don't get kicked from the call.
  • Teams periodically puts up a warning symbol in the call controls reporting poor connectivity.
  • Teams puts up a blue banner stating that I have been disconnected from the internet.
  • (Intermittent) Teams puts up a big overlay on top of the whole app saying I have been disconnected
  • The call continues though all of this, including voice and video.
  • All other network connectivity is broken (e.g.: Browsers cannot load pages, network drives stop working)
  • Text chat features work fine (but not during calls, where they fail to work like all other network activity)

The instant the call ends, all the symptoms stop. I can access network resources again. My wifi connection is fine. I've tested using wired networking and encounter the exact same issue. I've also tried various audio devices and disconnecting all peripherals as longshot solutions. No dice. I don't have anything weird on my system as far as I am aware. Teams works fine on other machines but not on my primary laptop. 

This issue not only makes Microsoft Teams itself nearly unusable, it knocks my whole system offline for the duration of the call, which is incredibly frustrating.

I'm booting into Windows 10 on a 2015 MacBook Pro 13". I have all the latest patches for everything. I've seen two other people here who have what I think is the same issue as mine, but their question threads didn't have any solutions either, and now they're locked.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/microsoft-teams-always-appears-poor-network/1a9ef89c-e495-4e2c-b108-d5b8702a54a8

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/teams-kills-all-connections/6b9dd383-df31-4bec-957a-41ee478eab3e

Does anyone have any idea what could be going wrong? Any solutions? Any more info needed from me about my setup?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-09-25T16:32:46+00:00

    OK so after sufficient amount of testing (will update in case of any change), i can safely say the issue for VPN disconnection while being on a Teams call is resolved by forcing my work laptop to connect to the 2.4GHZ network of my home.

    I guess that again, the combination of being connected to a VPN tunnel, when Teams works outside of that tunnel, running a 500/50 Fiber line, my NIC of the laptop and the official router i got from my ISP, and while being connected to a 5GHZ network - most probably causes the router not to be able to process the traffic at such speed and causes the VPN to disconnect, suspiciously keeping the Teams call alive.

    There is an obvious bandwidth loss i guess as 2.4GHZ can achieve 300mb at max though that should be enough for working from home.

    Alternatively, a wired connection solves the problem but not an aesthetic option for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-09-14T12:34:04+00:00

    OK so i'm still in testing, though i did notice that once i have a wired connection instead of WIFI, i do not get any network disconnection where Teams just keeps on rolling fine.

    However, it is not possible for me to work wired all of the time, so my next try (will update) is forcing my work laptop to connect to the 2.4GHZ network of my router instead of the 5GHZ one (via ACL configured within the router, as i think its a domestic router issue and i dont want to force it for every WIFI network outside of home).

    My assumption is that with my bandwidth size (500/50), my Fiber router which i guess is not the state of the art, 5GHZ network connection and Teams - that combination is causing the router to stop serving my machine with the VPN connection anymore, and only keeping Teams in connection.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-08-30T13:05:12+00:00

    I agree with you that it's a strange cause, doesn't make a ton of sense to me, and probably isn't affecting very many others, but I wanted to post it just in case. I always appreciate when people post the "solution" to their problem, even if it's an esoteric one.

    I was *occasionally* having internet issues outside of Teams calls, though it was primarily Teams that instigated my problems.

    I see, the thing here (in this post), is that only Teams is causing a connectivity failure for the machine, while in most cases Teams continue to work..

    I believe it is some kind of security issue between the VPN tunneling of Teams which is probably running on a VPN-less tunnel, to all other applications that go through the actual VPN tunnel.

    Additionally, it might be related to the home network / router but again, due to security reasons, drops the connection.

    I'm still testing some things from my end and will update if anything comes through.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-08-30T12:57:14+00:00

    I agree with you that it's a strange cause, doesn't make a ton of sense to me, and probably isn't affecting very many others, but I wanted to post it just in case. I always appreciate when people post the "solution" to their problem, even if it's an esoteric one.

    I was *occasionally* having internet issues outside of Teams calls, though it was primarily Teams that instigated my problems.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-08-30T12:48:34+00:00

    Just in case it helps anyone else- I was having this issue with Teams killing other network activity, which then escalated to Teams killing my internet connection entirely and requiring a modem reboot. In my case, the issue ended up being a damaged (buried) coax cable from my ISP's service box to my house. It wasn't broken, but damaged enough to cause intermittent and random problems like this.

    This sounds unrelated i have to admit.. how will just one application be affected by damaged equipment?

    I use other forms of heavy trafficing like gaming and i never witnessed any issue.

    I dont see anyone being able to actually pin point the issue to a cable replacement..

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