My internet connection drops as soon as I open OBS

[efrongia]

For some reason I cannot explain, as soon as I open OBS, I notice that my internet connection is lost. It doesn't matter wether I have a single scene with my web cam or a more complex scene. I started noticing this when starting to broadcast. For you to know, I have a 500 mbps connection and as my laptop is not so close to the router, I usually download at around 100 mbps and upload at 130 mbps with a latency around 25-30 ms. But when I open OBS, I just lost connection or it starts chopping.

I had used OBS to stream with no problems some time ago. I just installed the latest version (30.1) and a few common plugins (move transitions is the one I use the most).

Is it possible to know the ports OBS is opening to see if something is blocking them? By the way, my Windows FW is configured to allow OBS.

I deleted every scene (I backed up them first) to leave it as clean as possible, but it still happening.

Any idea?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Are you using WiFi? if yes, What do you have for real-time monitoring of WiFi bandwidth and channel utilization, to have assurance that you aren't running into a bandwidth contention issue?
also, operating system updates may have changed network drivers, which is impacting performance
also, some (poorly written 3rd party) OBS Studio plugins are known to be associated with network issues

Have you tested with a wired ethernet connection straight into router? Is your Internet connection wired (fiber or cable) or cellular?

 

[efrongia]

Are you using WiFi? if yes, What do you have for real-time monitoring of WiFi bandwidth and channel utilization, to have assurance that you aren't running into a bandwidth contention issue?
also, operating system updates may have changed network drivers, which is impacting performance
also, some (poorly written 3rd party) OBS Studio plugins are known to be associated with network issues

Have you tested with a wired ethernet connection straight into router? Is your Internet connection wired (fiber or cable) or cellular?

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to answer.
So, the thing is that, after reading some other posts in which someone had a similar issue, I finally found a solution, although it's not so clear what is the problem underneath.

Long story short:
I have an internet connection of 500 Mbps symmetrical.
I'm connected by WiFi. I have 2.4 ghz (cinfigured at 20 Mhz) and 5 ghz (router configured originally at 160 Mhz bandwith) bands.
My laptop is about 6 meters away from the router, but behind some walls. The signal is medium high.

When I open OBS and ONLY if I was connected to the 5ghz band, the SSID disappeared and reappeared, but it was impossible to stream. Being connected to the 2.4ghz band, I had no issue at all.

I made some researches, and after a few attempts, I finally configured the 5ghz band on the router to work at 40 Mhz instead of 160 Mhz. Although the speed now is not as high as it was (around 200 Mbps at my room), at least now it's consistent and working at around 100 Mbps, which is more than enough, as I stream at 10-20 Mbps at the most.

So, to summarize:
If connected via WiFi to a 5ghz band, first try to connect to the 2.4ghz one, or lower the bandwith configured in the router (if possible) to the one that best matches your needs, between 40 and 80 Mhz. It doesn't make so much sense to set it at 20 Mhz, as it will give you the same speed as the 2.4ghz band.

I hope it helps others that have the same issue.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Thanks for reporting your findings. What you are describing typically indicates either
- defective hardware (in client PC or on router, or both),
or
- bad software (router firmware, WiFi NIC driver on client PC)

Have you checked if your router has newer, stable firmware?
Have you confirmed on other device (computer or mobile device) that SSID disappears, and not just on streaming computer? if disappears ONLY on streaming computer, then I'd be looking at NIC driver and settings

For many people, streaming is the ONLY traffic they generate with significant Upload (outbound to Internet) traffic.
I suspect if you tried streaming with other software, you'd see the same issue. Unless there is a specific hardware interaction (defect, or bad computer design) between real-time encoding (ex NVENC) and WiFi NIC, any significant upload traffic is likely to cause similar issue. I'd test by uploading a large multi GB video using 160Mhz wide channel (to site that can sustain over a 20mb/s upload) and monitor in real-time to see what happens.

Also, older routers offered 160Mhz channels, but if you research the 'fine print', that really only works in the lab or other restrictive scenarios (with other clients impacting throughput on router).

Personally, I ran ethernet cables throughout my 2-story home (upstairs, with attic access was easy, downstairs, not so much as on a slab).

 

[R1CH]

This sounds like RF interference from your GPU or cables. I've had HDR completely kill my 5 GHz Wi-Fi until I bought higher quality shielded DP cables. Changing the frequency on your router might work around it, 5 GHz has quite a lot of bands but wide channels will use a lot of the same frequencies (hence why 160 MHz isn't great).