Laptops Hearing my own voice / echo with skype calls over Laptop

raksrules

raksrules

Elite
My family here and back home do skype calls every weekend or so. The problem is that when they use the laptop, I can hear my own voice here through their laptop, as in echo comes. Also my own voice that I hear is highly distorted. These all things don't happen if my brother is using his nexus 5 on wifi and using skype app to call us.
Only happens with laptop. So any idea how to fix this ?

Not related to laptop:
Also today my brother was says he was unable to see our video properly and it was highly pixalated.
Now they have MTNL with 2 Mbps down and 0.8 Mbps up and I have 1 Mbps Up. The same skype call yesterday was very good but today it was pixalated for him.
I could see him properly though but not vice versa. Is it one time issue or anything required to fix ?
 
^its usually a feature of sound card. look out for "Acoustic echo cancellation" feature in the sound properties. usually all sound cards nowadays support this. afaik realtek sound cards have this feature.
 
regarding echo, the speaker volume might be too high causing the microphone to pick the sound and retransmit causing an echo effect. Check the volume is not boosted(not sure if possible in windows) and if possible keep the volume at 90% or try to keep the speakers away from the microphone direction if using external.
Skype has echo cancellation but its not always perfect.

video issues it could be on either side:
1) parents laptop might be uploading at full speed saturating the download link and causing pixelated video.
2) your side download speed saturating the upload bandwidth, unlikely if you have high speed download link, at least higher than upload(1mbps),or
3) wifi interference common in apartments where there are many wifi access points halving your total bandwidth.
4) There is also show technical information in skype which gives good idea what rate your are sending your video, if there are any frame drops, good for troubleshooting.
5) Most of the times bad day! line quality not good.

---- advance stuff
Best is to monitor your upload and download speed in your wifi router(assuming you connect via wifi) if it supports or directly in your computer via some software.

My case its possible to monitor the up/down speed directly on router, as seen below skype call in progress via tablet, upload(my side) ~60KB/s and download at 125KB/sec. I can check if either side is getting overwhelmed with data.

nfqt6x.png
 
This is something normal, don't know why this bothers you?

I know that most people don't like to hear own voice, also have problem same as your but I just deal with it.
 
Like @archish mentioned, the echo problem is mostly because your parents are listening to you through laptop speakers, so the same is getting transmitted back to you. If possible, ask them to use headphones. That will greatly solve the problem.
The second issue is mostly due to network issues resulting in decreased connection speeds. Nothing much can be done, other than making sure that no other program or device uses the bandwidth while you are on video call.
 
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