Sandbox-Freshdesk

You can set up a call-centre in minutes without requiring any specialized software. It is powered by Twilio, our VoIP provider. 

When you are in a call, the voice data is transmitted over the internet via WebRTC or Flash depending on the browser. Chrome and Firefox support WebRTC. With Internet Explorer and Safari, where WebRTC is not supported yet, Freshdesk's phone channel falls back to flash.

Minimum Requirements

The following are the minimum requirements in order to use the voice call features in phone channel.

• Minimum 8kbps per agent per call. The more the better.
  
• You can benchmark your network connectivity either in pingtest.net or in speedtest.net. Our service provider recommends "A" rating from pingtest for seamless voice data transmission.
  

• Clients (Browser and App) should allow outgoing UDP connections to the public internet and allow return traffic in response. Since our service provider uses dynamic IP addresses, it is not possible to specify a range of IP addresses requests go to.
  
• Clients (Browser and App) must also allow incoming connections from chunderm.gll.twilio.com and matrix.twilio.com. Also, they must be allowed to make outgoing connections from any port in the ephemeral range (1024-65535).
  

The following ports / port ranges must be opened in order to ensure the continued usage of voice services:

Phone channel on the browser

Phone channel on the mobile app

Note: If your network policy mandates you to restrict network access, you will need to ensure that you allow outgoing UDP and associated return traffic to any IP address in Amazon’s published range of public IPs. However, note that this range keeps changing, so you would have to monitor and update these configurations when they change.

Testing firewall and port configuration

• http://www.netscan.co/ for a general scan
  
• https://pentest-tools.com/discovery-probing/udp-port-scanner-online-nmap for a UDP port scan.
  
• http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/ for a much more detailed network scan
  

For more details, refer to our service provider’s list of network connectivity requirements.

Browser requirements

• The flash (fallback mode) supports Google Chrome 11+ (however, Flash is currently not compatible with Chrome incognito mode), Internet Explorer 7+, Safari 5+, and Firefox 3.6+ with Flash 10.1 or higher installed.
  
• WebRTC is supported in Chrome (v28+) and Firefox (v23+) on desktop. We do not support Android browsers. You can use the phone channel on mobile by installing our native app. (iOS | Android)
  

You can check if your browser is supported and configured correctly here: http://clientsupport.twilio.com/

Other

If your router includes SIP Application Level Gateway (ALG) function or Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), disable both these functions.

Best Practices

• Use ethernet and not WiFi. The wireless medium adds to the packet loss and can cause issues with call quality and hence must be avoided.
  
• If you are using WiFi, reduce packet conflicts by reducing the number of devices operating on same channel.
  
• Avoid transferring huge amounts of data in the same WiFi network as the voice because this can add to the latency.
  
• Use high bandwidth internet connection as a lower bandwidth adds to the inherent latency involved in algorithmic processing, network traversal etc.
  
• Local network conditions have the highest impact on voice quality. Make sure you have sufficient bandwidth and try using ethernet for voice data.
  
• If you have addressed the above issues and continue to have jitter related impact on your voice quality, you may consider configuring your router with QoS rules to prioritize traffic on the UDP ports ranging from 10000-20000. (You can read this great article on setting up QoS for VoIP in your network.)
  
• We recommend you use USB / 3.5mm headsets over bluetooth ones. Even while using bluetooth ones, it is better to connect to the USB dongle that comes with the headsets rather than rely on native bluetooth capabilities. This is because each browser behaves differently with different hardware vendors and it becomes impossibly difficult to troubleshoot such issues.
  

Steps to troubleshoot when you are having problems with the phone channel

First Steps

1. Upgrade Browser and Flash to latest version.
   
2. Ensure your network ports aren’t being blocked by Firewall / router / antivirus software. Check out the section “Firewall” under “Minimum Requirements” in this document for the ports to be opened.
   
3. If your router supports QoS, prioritize UDP ports in the range 10000-20000, and the IP address of the agents making/receiving the calls. Tips on setting up QoS for VoIP in your network can be found here.
   
4. Check your network latency with the Ping test site. Select Ashburn VA as the preferred server in the settings menu. If the grade is less than A, call quality might be degraded.
   

If Twilio Client cannot establish a call:

1. Check open network ports in your router / firewall / antivirus software (step 2 in the First Steps checklist).
   
2. Confirm a network connection is currently available.
   
3. Review the javascript console for application errors.

1. Check open network ports in your router / firewall / antivirus software (step 2 in First Steps checklist).
   
2. Confirm the hardware is correctly attached and ensure the correct microphone and speakers are selected in software settings.
   
3. Check to ensure the microphone is not muted (some have a hardware mute button) and the speaker volume is turned up.
   
4. If you are using a bluetooth headset, use a USB dongle instead of relying on the computer’s native bluetooth. Retry with a USB headset or a 3.5mm headset and compare the call quality. Since each device behaves differently with each browser, it can be more than a little trouble to tackle such hardware related issues.
   

If call audio has dropouts:

1. Twilio Client requires a high speed and low latency network connection. Benchmark the network using pingtest.net or speedtest.net and aim to improve the scores.
   
2. Enable router QoS or prioritize traffic for Twilio Client (step 3 in First Steps checklist).
3. Reduce network activity not related to VoIP or use a separate network for VoIP workstations.
4. Chrome v38/39 has known issues of audio dropouts / one-way audio. Upgrade your browser or use Firefox and see if the issue persists.

If call audio is garbled:

1. Use a (analog) headset instead of built in computer microphone.
   
2. Reduce ambient noise such as nearby speakers or fans.
   
3. Adjust the distance of the microphone from the mouth – too close can cause audio clipping.
   
4. Adjust microphone levels in the computer’s sound settings.
   
5. Ensure computer has resources available to process a call:
   

• CPU and RAM are not over utilised
• Close unnecessary applications and browser tabs
• Try disabling the antivirus software