You have been kicked from class 5 times today, while your cubemate in in class and just humming along with no problems.  Why does this always happen, and why does it only seem to happen to you?  The most likely reason will be internet connectivity. More, specifically, the quality of the connection between the computer that you are using and the internet.  If you have ever called tech before, you will know that we always tell you that you should be on a wired (ethernet) connection instead of using Wifi.  Also, if you are using a laptop, it should always be plugged into the power outlet instead of using the battery, but that is a tale for a different time.  


In many every day circumstances,  Wifi is every bit as good as ethernet, and with the convenience it offers, sometimes even better.  However, for live classroom applications that use real-time audio and video streaming as one of the core components of the live classroom experience, ethernet will always trump wifi. End of story.


There are a few main reasons why;

  1. Ethernet is a guaranteed dedicated connection to your computer.  That means that whatever bandwidth (the amount of internet available per second) that the particular ethernet connection can maintain is being used by only your computer and no one else's. Which leads up to..
  2. Wifi uses shared connection.  What that means is that whatever total bandwidth is available is shared and divided among all of the devices that connected to a particular Wifi end point.  Let's just say that any Wifi Access Point (where wifi connects to, referred to as an AP) has a total of 200mbps. That seems like a lot, and it really is, it is more than enough to support live streaming audio and video.  However, that bandwidth is shared and divided among any computers that are using the wifi, and among all of the mobile phones that are using the Wifi (and streaming their Pandora, and Netflix, and Youtube, and iHeartRadio, and Spotify, and FaceTime,etc), which is most likely nearly every mobile phone in the building, and any ipads, and printers, and chromebooks, and countless other devices. That 200mbps now becomes a mere trickle of internet.  How could you possibly live stream audio and video with all of those devices competing for the same bandwidth?
  3. Latency. This one may be the most important for live streaming audio and video. Latency is basically the amount of time between when your computer asks for something from the internet and the time when it begins to happen.  This is different from bandwidth, in that bandwidth is a measure of the rate at which traffic comes in (or goes out), which takes places after any latency effects.  Live video requires very very low latency for obvious reasons.  If you were talking on your phone, you would not want a small delay (much less a larger delay) after everything that you, or the party on the other of the line, said something.  It would seem quite awkward.  This is what happens with video when greater latencies are introduced. The protocol that tends to the video conversation  gets a bit muddled and will eventually just give up.  This is when you will get kicked from your classroom. Again. For the sixth time today.


Now, I will say here that, connectivity is not the only thing that can and will interfere with a classroom running smoothly. There can always be other issues at play, and many of those we clearly have yet to figure out.  But, connectivity is not only one of the main culprits, it is one of the easiest to fix.


So in closing, I will say to you, plug in your ethernet cable and turn off your Wifi during classtime, it might just be the thing that you are looking for.


also here is a slightly more in depth article that i found that may offer more clarity than i have been able to -> Ethernet vs. Wifi