Abstract: One example method includes receiving, by a network test engine of a conference client application executed by a client device, a script associated with network functionality provided by a conference client application, the network test engine dynamically installable into the conference client application; accessing, by the network test engine, functionality of the conference client application; initiating, by the network test engine via the conference client application, functionality of the conference client application based on the script; monitoring, by the network test engine, one or more parameters of network communications employed by the functionality, the network communications between the conference client application and a virtual conference provider; and providing an indication of network communications status based on the monitored one or more parameters.

Abstract: Audio, video conferencing with a dynamic, configurable mesh network is disclosed. A mesh reliability variable can condition the design of the mesh network between a high resiliency mode and a bandwidth saving mode. Artificial intelligence techniques and ranking techniques are provided to design the mesh network and determine which client machines are to act as parent nodes and/or child nodes. A Media Distribution Server (MDS) can provide the audio, video conference stream to the assigned parent nodes in the mesh network. The parent nodes can provide the stream to one or more child nodes over the local area network, conserving the external bandwidth of a recipient of the audio, video conference stream.