Fake network problem / disconnect

[Odessa_math]

Good morning!

I'm math teacher at one of the universities in Odessa, Ukraine.

Currently I have Zoom lectures only on Wednesdays in the morning. Today I was unpleasantly surprised when I was not able to run my lecture.

After about 1-2 minutes from the conference start (now) or much longer time period (an hour ago) the organizer (me) is kicked out with a message box like attached ("Network connection error. Check network connection and try again"). I switched from WiFi to cable, I have about 0% packet loss and enough stable ping now. I know Zoom worked fine in much worse conditions (poor internet connection, packet loss about 20% and unstable ping).

Additional sympthoms:
Chat works 100%.
Users list works, when user turns on/off video or micro the status is updated for all users.
Screen sharing worked at the beginning, but failed later: others see only "User ... shared his screen" (sorry, the translation into English may not be 100% correct) but no image. And absolutely no sound both ways.

Zoom Status shows all systems are online and no issues detected, so I should report it. Also I pressed report button few times inside Zoom client but I'm not sure how these reports are processed.

This problem persists at 2 physically different computers connected to 2 different internet connections (cable and mobile, unfortunately the same company, one of the biggest in our country) simultaneously.

The last successfull Zoom usage was last Wednesday, Aug 10th.

Could somebody please check and fix this problem? I need to be able to use Zoom actively all following week.

Best regards from Ukraine

[Odessa_math]

Recently I was able to start other conference and connect to it from the second PC inside the same LAN. I saw the screen share and there were no disconnects. But later I started the same one as this morning (with local recording). Recording contains both screen and voice,  but I was disconnected and again I'm not able to share the screen. This issue does not depend on the conference ID as I expected.

[Odessa_math]

I'm sorry for my poor English, it's not about the recording. Local recording works incl. video and voice, this means the problems I've described are related to some Zoom bug or connection issues (connection between my PC and Zoom servers) but not some local problems like micro not properly configured.

1) unwanted disconnects 2) students do not hear me 3) I do not hear them 4) sometimes nobody see my shared screen

P.S. yahete836, your external link is not related to the question

[bryanpet]

Hi there, I have exactly the same issue first observed on the 21st August. I have checked there are no actual network problems and the issue only seems to be affecting machines running Win XP on my network. I have two Win XP machines and both display the error box you posted saying 'Networkconnection failure' after about 2 or 3 minutes after starting a meeting. I have a Win 11 laptop on the same local network which works fine. It appears some change occured last week which now prevents Zoom working with earlier operating systems such as XP

[bryanpet]

Should have said fault first observed August 14th  I cannot see into the future !

[Odessa_math]

I'm 1000% sure everything worked on Aug 10th, I had lectures. I've not launched Zoom for a week. Now I need to use it on Friday and all next week.

It is some global bug, that affects large amount of machines. Is there any real technical support for free version users?

Somebody should report that there were something wrong done between Aug 10 and Aug 14th and it must be checked and fixed (reversed).

Even if only Windows XP are affected (how could it be?) its a serious problem. Only our department has 2 machines with XP, our institute has, I believe, each 3rd or each 4th PC running this OS. I will ask my colleagues who had the same problem and which OS did was it.

[DmDmytro]

Good evening

I have exactly same message box from tuesday as I remember. My colleagues and me  were not able to use zoom for classes, The problem now still exist. We have all computers with XP SP3. Network is better then 100 megabits/s  but message shows it is connection problem.

We need technical support

P.S. Слава Україні!

[Odessa_math]

Update:

Today I participated in the Zoom meeting, created by our colleague from the smartphone. I was disconnected soon after I was allowed to jon by the organizer. The time interval is less then 2 minutes. The bug was the same: no sound, no videos, once I saw avatars / photos of the participants.

I've connected to this meeting from Linux and there were no problems.

After the meeting, I've started my own meeting from Linux and connected to it from Windows. NO PROBLEM.

For already 21 minute I see the shared screen and sound/video works both directions.

Thus I may conclude the bug is related to who is the host or which device does the host use.

Is there any way to call developers to this topic? Any bug report system here like it used to be on GitHub?

[Odessa_math]

Good evening!

This bug still exists (1 week since the report).

Updating the information from my previous post, if the host is my account under Linux and the visitor is using Windows, nobody is kicked. But if the hosts starts to record the meeting, the visitor receives the trivial message box if he allows it, but this visitor is kicked very soon after the message box appears. So technically the possible usage of Zoom is very limited now: host is only from Linux, no recording etc.

[DmDmytro]

I see Zoom do not provide technical support for his programs.

[Odessa_math]

Good evening everybody,

Today I've checked the presence of this issue at 2 different PCs and it's positive (the university network, different from the previously reported). One more report was sent via Zoom for Windows client.

[bryanpet]

I have had no feedback regarding the issue.  My machines are both running desktop client 5.0.5 (26213.0602) from June 2020 the last available for use on Win XP I believe,  so the problem has come about with an update applied at the Zoom end of things not the desktop client. It may be a deliberate move to force the disconnection of Win XP machines as Win XP has not been supported or listed in the minimum requirements for use with Zoom for a long time. I expect they will quote security issues.

[DoctorQuality]

Yes, officially Windows XP has been stated as not supported for quite some time. Note however if you attempt to join a meeting using an XP device, Zoom will offer to download a client installer for v. 5.0.5 as a file named 'ZoomInstallerXP.' And if you download it, it will install. And you can use it to enter a test meeting (at https://www.zoom.us/test). That is all true as of the date of this reply. One might well wonder why this would be all be the case if Zoom had entirely abandoned XP way-back-when.

Mid July, 2022 I used an XP SP3 device + 5.0.5 to successfully join a Zoom meeting. However in joining a meeting earlier today (early October, 2022) using XP + 5.0.5 I had no audio (despite the menu option 'Test speaker and microphone' incorrectly confirming that audio was functioning correctly). Also, after about 2 minutes, I was thrown out of the meeting and received the message 'Network connection failure. Please check your network and try again' (even though my wired network connection was rock-solid). These two issues replicated & persisted.

My interpretation of all these events is that (1) Zoom had been continuing to allow for use by XP devices 'on the down-low,' while skirting any official support to XP users and (2) these two issues (that apparently emerged mid-August 2022) are XP-specific and Zoom, given its current market situation, has decided not to devote any more resources to coding server-side XP workarounds. So, practically speaking, no more Zoom under XP.  They ought to at least take the time to delete the ZoomInstallerXP offer … and have Zoom return messages like 'Zoom will not run under your OS" instead of letting you actually enter meetings.

You CAN enter a Zoom meeting under XP using the 360 Extreme Explorer browser, v. 13. First you have to cancel-out of pop-up offers to download ZoomInstallerXP (that would simply reinstall 5.0.5) and also to launch the Zoom client. Then there will be a link stating "Having issues with Zoom Client? Join from Your Browser." Click that link and, after a slight delay, you will be able to access the meeting with audio & video. But it will consume nearly 100% of system resources and will bog XP down so much as to make it – and your presence in the meeting -- non-functional.

[RN]

Hi @Odessa_math and everyone else on this discussion! Please be aware that Windows XP is not a support OS according to our KB article on Zoom system requirements: Windows, macOS, Linux

You can also look more into @Bort's reply in this discussion Zoom meeting client for windows xp on reverting to an older version of Zoom. However, please be aware that the suggestion is a 1-year old version of Zoom, so it is missing many security enhancements, bug fixes, and new features, so install and use at your own caution. 

[bryanpet]

Thanks for your interest, This does not seem to be an issue with the desktop client as that has not been updated since June 2020. The issue occurred when a change was made beween August 7th and August 14th 2022. Until this date Windows XP with client 5.0.5 (26213.0602) had worked ok. I suspect the change has been implented to prevent XP users from using Zoom as I fully understand it is not included in the minimum system requirements. I had read the thread you mention regarding rolling back the client unfortunately the link provided is flagged as a non 32 bit programme.

[RN]

@bryanpet Zoom version 5.0.5 was a version that was released ~2yrs ago (June 2, 2020), looking into the release notes I didn't catch any verbiage as to discontinuing Windows XP support. As stated in our KB article, Windows XP is not a supported OS.

I would suggest using the web client as it has most but not all of the features as the desktop client via a Zoom meeting, when at the time Zoom was version 5.0.5. If you go the web client route, you can look into this KB on Desktop client vs web client comparison

[Odessa_math]

By the way, I thought I'm using the latest version. I've got 5.0.5 in Download center, same as I have now

[Odessa_math]

Good evening,

Today I tested the web client

I started a meeting from the browser. Unfortunately, it was already a complicated task as I see this link to start in a browser behind the link to download Zoom for desktop and only once.
When I try to join with audio it says "your browser does not support using the computer's audio" and also I can not see a screen share button anywhere.
I've connected from Zoom for Windows as a guest and tried to share a screen (one window) but the other participant (me in the browser) saw only black rectangle.

Resuming, I repeated these actions for all three browsers that I have (Firefox, Mypal (newer Firefox fork) and Google Chrome). Nobody is kicked but nobody can speak / hear / share screen. I've never used web browser for Zoom meetings, but participated in many webinars and live meetings using diffetent platforms some years before.

Fortunately no errors in the web browser developers console, but at least it would be good to listen the speech even if the microphone is not supported (exactly, it is supported, I used voice chat at some websites and they (the browser) requested me to enable microphone access).

I would prefer continue using Zoom for desktop

[Odessa_math]

Hello,
Thank you for reply

Maybe XP is not supported by Zoom officially but Zoom works under XP for at least 2.5 years that I use it and there were no problems until August 14th (as @bryanpet already mentioned). I think it must be supported since many universities (especially in our country) have dozens of PCs running XP. At least at the level like it was before (no official support but it works).

The situation is more complicated then you may think there in western countries. Here the university staff is not allowed to re-install Windows on any of the computers. The reason is very stupid: in case controlling organizations will come, the university will be fined for non-licensed software. Of course, there is low probability of such control visits now, during the war, but these checks will immediately resume after the war ends.
The other reason - many PCs have less then 1.5 GB RAM (768 Mb, 1 Gb etc) and it would be not rational to install Windows 10 there cause it will consume all available memory itself for its numerous useless services, and nothing will left for useful software. Windows 7 is also not the best soultion because tomorrow you may exclude it from the supported OS list like you did with XP for no reason before and we will experience same problems again.

Windows XP support is very important for education in "third world" countries, especially when the education is mostly online due to quarantine the previous years or the war during current year. We do not need any new features, honestly. It is the solution we used to use in the form we use it now. If this support could not be announced officially, the only thing necessary is just to cancel (or review for compatibility) the changes that were done server-side between August 10th and 14th (Wednesday Aug 10th verything worked for me, Aug 14th was first report by @bryanpet).

I will try @Bort's solution mentioned by you and reply if it works or not

As for web client, I'm not sure how it works. When I get Zoom link via mail (e.g. the link to connect to the meeting) the browser asks me to start Zoom for Desktop to join this meeting. The System Requirements  link you've provided states Firefox 27+ and Chrome 30+ are supported that must be enough for XP but I should check.

As I understood, the link to start the meeting is https://zoom.us/wc/[MEETING ID NUMBER]/start

(unfortunately, I saw it only once, now I can't see it anywhere but bookmarks are OK)

Thank you.