How can I troubleshoot Talk issues?

Question

How can I troubleshoot call issues with Zendesk Talk?

Answer

All web-based software can experience performance issues in relation to the connection and operating environment. Existing system or network connection issues may not be as noticeable during normal ticketing, but these issues can be much more pronounced with the additional demands of a telephony connection such as Zendesk Talk.

To help you deal with such issues, this article contains a list of common troubleshooting steps to address these problems. This article includes the following:

• Questions to think about before troubleshooting
• Troubleshooting problems with voice quality such as delays, static, echoes, or dropped calls)
• Additional common Talk problems

Questions to think about before troubleshooting

• Was Talk working previously and did it just stop working? Check if your company's IT team made recent changes to your network or laptop, installed new software or add-ons.
• Is the issue happening to other agents or just to you? If the issue only happens to you, take a look at your local settings and network. If you and others are all having issues, check with your IT team and networking team first, especially if you connect with a company-managed laptop.

Talk is not working
Resolve common widespread call issues

Issues with Talk are usually related to network issues. In office setups, it's common practice for the network team to block some ports or IP addresses. Have your network team ensure that all the Talk network requirements are met. For more information, see this article: Talk network requirements.

There are other things to keep in mind:

• Check the Zendesk and Twilio status pages for any outages.
• Check the Agent leg quality issues report in Explore. The report assists you in determining the call quality of your team overall and specific agents. This way you can identify individuals who have Talk issues.

Troubleshooting problems with voice quality
Troubleshooting calls, delays, static, echoes, and dropped calls

Consider the following when troubleshooting calls:

• Verify with your IT team if your Talk account is running through a VPN. If that is the case, ensure that traffic to Talk doesn't run through your company network. Your IT department can split-tunnel this traffic or remove the Zendesk IP addresses from the VPN.
  
  Note: Talk doesn't work with MPLS or VPN due to a service that runs in the background called GLL. This service decides on the best network path to run the call through. If you use a VPN or MPLS, the system doesn't give the true location of your agents and as such cannot route the call efficiently. This potentially leads to latency and other call quality issues.
• Run the Twilio network test to ensure ports are open, speed is adequate, and that you're connecting to the right endpoint. For more information on how to use these results, see the article: How do I use the Twilio network test to troubleshoot Talk agent calls?
  
• Plug in a hard-wired ethernet cable to your router. Wi-fi works, but an ethernet connection tends to provide a more stable connection. This is because other wireless devices can interfere with the signal and make it unstable.
• Test Talk functions within a different web browser to make sure the issue isn't browser-related.
• Plug in your headset to the computer with a 3.5 mm connection instead of using Bluetooth. A USB connection is also better than Bluetooth. Other wireless devices and signals can degrade audio performance. To eliminate the possibility that your headset is the cause of the issue, connect your speakers to the computer and make a test call.
• If you use gaming headsets, disable their special driver software. Occasionally browsers such as Chrome don’t synchronize fast enough.
• Ensure that you have a stable internet connection. If your web browser passed the Twilio network test and you're still having issues, your connection may be unstable. You might still be dropping some network packets or have a connection that works for a while and slows down occasionally. The IT or network team of your company has software that they can run over time to see how stable your internet connection is. You can also do this yourself if you feel comfortable and your company's IT department allows it.
  
  To see how stable your internet connection is
  1. If you are at home, reboot your router.
  2. Run a ping test and verify if your connection is stable and not dropping packets over a 10-15 minute test especially when you have problems. See the image below for a short example of the test results.
  
• In addition to zendesk.com, try the Twilio client endpoints as well with a ping test:
  chunderw-vpc-gll.twilio.com
chunderw-gll.twilio.com
chunderw-vpc-gll-{region}.twilio.com
Use one of the following values for the region: au1, br1, de1, ie1, jp1, sg1, us1.
  
  Ensure that the ping time in 'ms' (milliseconds) is adequate and not going up and down wildly in terms of speed. In most cases, you want zero packet loss. If you're seeing as much as 1% packet loss in 15 minutes this might be enough to affect your connection. Talk with your IT department or contact your internet service provider to help.

Calls drop frequently
Resolve issues with outbound call dropping after two minutes or every time

If calls drop after two minutes, check with your admin as you may be in a trial account. Talk trial accounts limit the call to two minutes.

If calls drop every time you call into one of your numbers and you have an IVR setup, create a custom greeting. If you don't have a greeting set in the appropriate locations for the IVR menu, the system hangs up on you. If you do have a greeting set up, occasionally a corrupt audio file can also cause similar behavior. Re-record the audio file and upload it again to make sure that this is not the problem.

Receiving an EC# error
Understand and resolve this error message

See the example of an EX# error below:

EC# errors are often caused by your network or router configuration. They represent an issue with Talk not having an adequate network connection. This can occur anywhere along with the network, but often they are the result of local network limitations, or from a computer that does not meet the minimum requirements to make the connection. Review the Talk network requirements. Ensure all ports are open. Also, verify the troubleshooting steps above.

If you are still experiencing EC# errors, contact the Zendesk support team and provide a screenshot of your firewall and router settings showing these open ports. For more information on what to include in a ticket about Talk, see the article: How can I share example calls for troubleshooting a Talk issue?

Zendesk Talk resetting to offline status
Resolve the call status issue

If you refresh your page, this can change your agent status to unavailable in Talk. An agent needs to manually reset their Talk agent state to become available. Do not refresh your page in your browser when you wish to be available to receive calls.

reset progress

If you are still unable to determine the cause of your quality issues and your issue is specific to call routing, see the article: Why are phone calls not routing to agents? This article goes over next steps and what information to include if you need to open a ticket with Support.