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Network Best Practices

Here are recommended network settings and device specifications. Following these best practices will help maximize speed, reliability, and overall functionality across all features of the platform.

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Written by Sadie Timmons
Updated over 3 months ago

Network Best Practices

Check your firewall settings, and make sure you have the following domains whitelisted:

Volie application invitations come from the address: [email protected]

Please ensure that this domain is whitelisted and that your inbox does not block these messages.

Also whitelist the following IP address:

  • Add 168.86.128.0/18 to your firewall rules.

  • Enable UDP from these IP addresses over ports 10000-60000

You can test the change by setting and configuring a non-production version of your communication system in another account, enabling that account to use the new IP address, as shared below:

Websockets

Volie’s Realtime service relies on WebSocket connections from the user’s browser to the realtime.volie.com server hosted on AWS. While most local networks support this, issues can arise from firewalls or hardware that close idle connections or inspect persistent traffic. Below are high-level best practices to help ensure stable connectivity, regardless of network hardware or configuration.

  • Whitelist *.volie.com or at the very least realtime.volie.com on any firewalls, antivirus, anti-malware software (Avast in particular seems to interfere with our realtime server)

  • Turn off packet and or traffic inspection between realtime.volie.com and the local firewall and network

  • Turn off connection scavenging with realtime.volie.com

  • If using a content or proxy server, do not cache connections to realtime.volie.com

  • though Volie uses WSS (secure web sockets), some packets inspection algorithms will interfere and/or modify the traffic

  • You can test web sockets through this link: https://websocketstest.com/.

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BDC / Hardware Best Practices

The agent's hardware should be above these specs:

  • At least 8GB of RAM to account for Volie + other app usages

  • Ensure the computer has an SSD

  • Ensure the computer is on the latest operating software

If Volie feels slow, test other sites with live content—like a YouTube live stream. Lag or choppiness there likely indicates a local network issue.

Run a speed test at speedtest.net—if the ping is in the triple digits, your connection is likely the issue.

Implement a router restarting policy. We recommend restarting once per week.

Implement a computer restarting policy. We recommend restarting once per week.

Check for updates:

  • Are computers up to date?

  • Are headphone drivers up to date?

  • Is Chrome up to date?

If a rep has call quality/suspected internet issues, please run the following tests:

  • Have the agent experiencing issues run a network speed test—speedtest.net is a reliable option.

  • Have the affected agents do the Twilio test https://networktest.twilio.com/

  • Provide screenshots of both tests to your Volie team.

    • For the network speed test, we typically recommend 500 Mbps download & upload for speed and 300 Mbps for the lowest supported concurrent calls.

    • In the Twilio Network Test, be sure to capture a screenshot including the PCMU and Opu s results section on the right hand side.
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  • For the “Lowest” call numbers under the Opus protocol, we’re hoping to see results above 300.

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