How do I use the Twilio network test to troubleshoot Talk agent calls?

Question

I followed the instructions in this article and I performed the Twilio network test. However, I am not sure how to read the results. How do I use the Twilio network test to troubleshoot Zendesk Talk agent calls?

Answer

The majority of Talk or any VOIP solution issues generally comes down to not only the speed of a network connection but more important is the stability and quality of the network connection. A fast connection isn't enough for real-time voice communication. Dropped packets or an unstable connection can cause issues.

Performing the Twilio network test is the first step to understanding if your connection is working. The test ensures you have proper network bandwidth, your ports are open, your browser supports calling, your microphone and speakers work, among other requirements. 

The Twilio network test can be divided into two columns:

• Twilio WebRTC Diagnostics
• Log Output

Twilio WebRTC Diagnostics

The left column of the page contains some general pass or fail diagnostics.

For all the above tests, you need to see the green Pass message. A red Fail message may indicate network issues particularly if you get errors with UDP, TLS, or TCP. 

• If your agent is working from an office environment, many times those errors happen because something is being blocked. Ensure your network team followed the Talk network requirements and opened the ports and whitelisted IP's and domains.
• If this is a home network for the agent, ensure they don't have a special setup or home router blocking ports. Additional investigation of their network may be required.

You can ignore any tests below Voice: Test call using Opus.

Log Output

The right column of the Twilio network test contains the Log Output.

The audits below should be considered:

• Ensure that the logs below are shown green because red indicates a problem.
  • A) Successfully established a UDP connection to Twilio in ___ ms
  • B) Successfully established a TCP connection to Twilio in ___ ms
  • C) Successfully established a TLS connection to Twilio in ___ ms
• D) Ensure that even though you may successfully pass the bandwidth test, the results are much higher than the example above. In there, the results represent the lowest threshold in which Talk works reliably.
• E) Check the Twilio Client connected to audit and ensure that you are connected to the right endpoint. A VPN may connect you to the wrong endpoint, for example, if you're in Germany, but the log shows that you are connected to a US endpoint. Being connected to the wrong endpoint causes latency. Twilio should decide the best route to take, but a VPN may hide the real location or region of an agent. Region can be one of the following: au1, br1, de1, ie1, jp1, sg1, us1. For the latest information about regions from Twilio, see the Twilio article: Legacy Regions. 
• F) RTT (Round Trip Time): Ideally, the RTT should be at 150ms or less. The higher the RTT value, the poorer quality the call is likely to get. 
• G) Jitter: The Jitter audit should not be more than 20ms. A high Jitter can cause delays.
• H) Packet Loss: Packet loss indicates unstable connection and even 1% packet loss can cause issues.