Interview Connection Test

Testing your ability to successfully connect with judges or others in an interview room on the zFairs platform is incredibly helpful. It also ensures, or at least helps, your experience on the day of the event is positive and smooth sailing.

What you should know

When you join a Virtual Interview Room and see yourself this has NOT tested any connections to the zFairs servers. zFairs is simply showing you what is being sent out to others.

When you join a Virtual Interview Room with only one other person / connection you have established a Peer to Peer connection. This means that the zFairs platform has connected you directly with the other person and not routed you through the zFairs servers. This saves bandwidth for everyone but unfortunately means that you have yet to fully test your Virtual Interview Room.

When you join a Virtual Interview Room with at least two other people / connections you are now fully sending data back and forth to the zFairs servers.

When testing with three people if you can see and hear at least one other person through the zFairs Virtual Interview Room you have verified your connection as good to go.

Running a Connection Test

Students

1. Locate three separate devices you can test with and ensure that they are all connected to a network that has internet access

   These devices need to be able to run the latest version of a major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge)

   As best you can, make sure that one of the devices is in the same location and connected to the same network that you will be using on the day of the event (connection to the same network is typically the more important thing to test)

   Ensure that none of the devices are connected to a work or school district VPN (They don't always cause problems but they are often the culprit)

2. Log into your relevant zFairs user on all three devices
3. On the first device click on Virtual Contest and the click the Enter Virtual Judging / Interview blue button
4. Ensure you can see yourself and that your microphone and video permissions are granted
5. On the second device click on Virtual Contest and click the Enter Virtual Judging / Interview blue button
6. Ensure that you can see and hear yourself on both devices

   Be careful when testing this way as the feedback sound can become rather loud and alarming quickly. Mute yourself in all of the Interview Rooms you are connected to in order to resolve this issue if it arises

7. On the third device click on Virtual Contest and click to Enter Virtual Judging / Interview
8. Ensure that you can see yourself in all three tiles and that you can hear yourself as well

   Again, please be careful to manage the feedback sound

Judges

1. Locate three separate devices or judges with different devices to assist in your test. Please ensure that all of them are connected to a stable internet source

   These devices need to be able to run the latest version of a major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge)

   As best you can, make sure that one of the devices, the one you will be using, is in the same location and connected to the same network that you will be using on the day of the event (connection to the same network is typically the more important thing to test)

   Ensure that none of the devices are connected to a work or school district VPN (They don't always cause problems but they are often the culprit)

2. Log into your relevant zFairs user on all three devices or have the other judges also do so
3. Click on the Go To Online Judging button in the Menu / Nav Bar of zFairs.
4. Locate and coordinate with your other judges to go into the same project and then into the same Virtual Interview Room together

   If testing by yourself make sure that your three devices all enter the same project and Virtual Interview Room

5. Test to see if you can see and hear all of the other judges inside the zFairs Virtual Interview Room

Common Issues

• I can't get my video/audio to turn on, what do I do now?

  This can be cause by a wide variety of things but here are some tips for getting it working.

  • Make sure you are not connected to any other Virtual Meetings (Zoom, WebEx on a different Browser, etc...)
  • In the URL bar, at the right, is there a red X or a red dot? Either of these may indicate that something went wrong finding, accessing or granting permissions to your camera or microphone
  • Have you granted permissions in your system preferences for the browser you are using to have access to the Microphone or Camera. If you had not and then do so, please close out and then restart your browser to make sure that all of the new settings are fully in place.

• Are you connected to a VPN at all? These can block connections to zFairs servers and will need to be closed / terminated to resolve any issues they may cause.

  Does your Camera or Microphone have a Physical Stop to prevent them from being used? If so please make sure all of these are set to off / to allow the Video and Microphone to see and hear properly