Setting up Talkdesk: Requirements and Best Practices

March 02, 2021 11:03

To ensure a smooth experience with Talkdesk, you can find below a list of requirements and best practices that you need to keep in mind when setting up your hardware, software, and network.

✔️ Getting Started: Checklist

1. Review the operating environments that the agents will use;
2. Make sure everyone is using a wired headset with the best configuration;
3. Connect via Ethernet and read the recommendations below for VPN/VDI usage;
4. Where will the Agents work? Depending on whether it's home or the office:
   • Make the necessary changes in the Firewall and QoS;
   • Follow our alternatives to Wi-Fi when Working from Home.
5. Test your connectivity using our Network Test Tool.

Please continue reading for more details.

💻  Supported Operating Environments 

When setting up the operating environment to work with Talkdesk, please review these requirements:

• Operating System (OS): Windows 10 / OSX 10.14+ / Linux 64bit (Debian 9 or Red Hat 8 based distros) / Chrome OS;
• RAM: Recommended 8 GB of RAM;
• CPU: Intel i5 / AMD Ryzen 5;
• Browser: Google Chrome configured as the default browser and updated to the latest version;
• Security: If you use any software or Proxy that can block applications, please include Callbar in the allowlist.
• Virtualization: avoid using the Callbar usage inside a VDI and read the recommendations below for VDI usage;

🎧  Headsets

When choosing headsets to handle calls with Talkdesk, please consider the following:

• We recommend using a wired headset with a 3.5 mm jack (analog) port;
• You can use a USB headset but this option will consume resources from your computer;
• We also do not recommend Bluetooth/Wireless headsets for professional long-term usage:
  • The battery level is a factor on these devices (the lower the battery, the lower the range);
  • Being a wireless device, it suffers from interference from other wireless devices in the area;
  • Bad reception or increased latency is common, which could falsely point to a network issue.
• If you use Windows OS, follow the recommended settings for Callbar.

📎  Learn more about the headsets that we recommend here.

🌐  Network

Internet Bandwidth

Make sure that enough bandwidth is reserved to work with Talkdesk:

• A good rule of thumb is a 1Mbps symmetrical connection per device;
• Avoid having other people using/sharing your bandwidth while you are on a call, especially if it involves activities that consume a considerable amount of bandwidth, such as:
  • Streaming multimedia content (4K/HD/Full HD Movies);
  • Online gaming;
  • Downloading large content (such as torrents).
• Disable recordings on any DVR / Set-top boxes, as these can consume bandwidth.

Connection best practices

Make sure to follow these guidelines regarding the type of connection:

• Ethernet is the preferred connection type. Use a Cat 5E cable, or above;
• Set the following DNS servers (if possible):
  • Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
  • Secondary DNS: 1.1.1.1
• Avoid using VPN (Virtual Private Network). If you do need to use a VPN, split tunneling must be configured in order to ensure that all traffic from Callbar is routed directly to the internet instead of through the VPN;

• Avoid VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) or Remote environments.

Although practical from a systems administration perspective, virtual/remote desktop environments are still a suboptimal solution when it comes to real-time voice as users are much more prone to suffer call quality constraints. From a network perspective, it is something we advise against.

For best results, Talkdesk recommends that customers:

1. Move the agents from the VDI environment / thin clients to local dedicated desktop machines;
2. Configure Callbar to "Connect to External Device" and:
   2.1. Receive the calls on an External Phone, for example, the agent cell phone (possible call costs associated with this setup);
   2.2. Receive the calls on a SIP Phone.

Successful usage of Talkdesk's Callbar in a VDI environment may require significant tuning and additional testing at scale to be carried out by the customer's system administrator(s) / VDI provider(s).

Office and Home

If you and your agents are:

• Working from the Office: Make sure to implement the required Firewall and QoS configurations. 
• Working from Home: If you can't use Ethernet, please follow our Alternatives to Wi-Fi.

Using Wi-Fi as a Temporary Solution

As you can see in the above image, Wi-Fi is prone to packet loss, latency variation, and jitter.

If you are waiting for an Ethernet or PLC (powerline) adaptor and need to use Wi-Fi temporarily, please follow these guidelines:

• Use the latest standards (> Wi-Fi 5 IEEE 802.11ac) with MU-MIMO support and the 5 GHz band, as opposed to the 2.4 GHz. This will reduce the range but decrease the probability of environmental interference;
• Connect as few devices as possible to the same AP, to better concentrate and serve your own;
• Upgrade to a mesh AP network. It allows reachability from several points in the home and repeats the traffic between the cells. This way, the packets are not lost if a specific area is affected.

📎  Learn more about why we recommend Ethernet here.

🎛️  Final Step: Testing your Network Connection

Finally, you can test the quality of your network connection by using the Talkdesk Network Test Tool.

If you face any call quality issues or the test results are not as expected, you can reach out to our support team, by submitting a request here.