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QoS Setup and Dialer Network Requirements

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Stephanie Griffith
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Prior to using the Dialer, your company and/or IT team need to make sure that your environment is suitable for VoIP calling.

Failing to check and meet these requirements may result in spotty call connections and poor call quality.

In this article, you will learn the requirements necessary for network setup to comply with the SalesLoft Dialer, including:

Set Up QoS

To ensure that the SalesLoft Dialer works great on your network, you need to implement Quality of Service (QoS). By setting up QoS, you can prioritize voice traffic on your network and prevent issues with call quality.

Things to Note: We recommend setting up QoS prior to using the SalesLoft Dialer in order to avoid any interference with network traffic.

Your router should be configured to prioritize packets on the mentioned ports and the Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) tag.

  • The Dialer media travels via UDP on ports 10,000-20,000.
  • The packets are tagged with DSCP 46 for High Priority, Expedited Forwarding. 

 While SalesLoft has researched QoS and believes it is the best practice for quality, we do not know the nuances of your particular network configuration. An IT professional should always verify that this is the correct configuration for your environment.

While QoS is a great start, there are other considerations to make when using SalesLoft Dialer. Read on for additional information.

Computer Requirements and Equipment Recommendations

Computer Requirements

Minimum of 8 gigs of RAM: Computers must meet this minimum for memory. 

Check your activity monitor or task manager for any applications that are taking up CPU usage: Specifically, if you are experiencing audio quality issues, CPU spikes from other apps will cause call quality issues.

Connect Directly Via Ethernet

A Wi-Fi connection is fantastic when it comes to day-to-day internet traffic, but when it comes to VoIP, Wi-Fi can lack the stability and bandwidth of an ethernet connection. A hardwire connection is preferred for calling purposes.

VoIP Compatible Router

Older routers may not be able to handle VoIP capabilities, so your company or remote employees might need to update to a more recent router.

Buy Quality Ethernet Adaptors

If you are using a USB ethernet adaptor, stick to name brand adaptors. These may cost a bit more, but the bandwidth capacities are much higher. USB 2.0 adapters are not fast enough for our Dialer requirements.

Use Fiber Internet When Possible

Fiber internet provides the best quality network connection to the outside world.

Complete the Network Test

The most important thing to maintain effective call quality is a good, solid, reliable network.

To ensure that your network fits the demands of VoIP calling, we recommend you complete the network test. The results of this test will provide a real-time glimpse of your network environment which is crucial when it comes to network configuration for the dialer and troubleshooting dialer issues.

 Screen_Shot_2020-02-21_at_12.55.36_PM.png

When you run the network test, we recommend testing at three times throughout the day and then compare results. Typically, that would be once in the morning, once during normal call times, and once at the end of the day. If possible, run the test(s) using a wireless connection and again with a computer that is wired/plugged into an ethernet internet connection. This way you can compare a range of results.

When you're looking at your throughput, the minimum number of sessions should be greater than or equal to the number of sales reps using the dialer. A high variance between minimum, average, and maximum indicates an unstable network connection and an indication that the team might be operating on WiFi or there is a need to implement QoS.

If you have any further questions about this test please reach out to SalesLoft Support.

Firewall Configuration

In some cases, your network will need to be adjusted to allow the Dialer application to work. Any changes should be applied to all firewalls, routers, switches, load-balancers, and any other hardware or software that could block or manipulate network access to the destinations listed below. 

Open Up Outbound Phone Ports

Comply with these network activity requirements to make sure all ports are open so you may complete and receive calls on your network.

The SalesLoft Dialer uses the following ports (outbound):

  • TCP: 80, 443
  • UDP: 10,000 to 20,000

The ports listed above must be able to communicate to specific domains/IP addresses. Below are the Twilio domains and IPs you will need to allow access to.

  • chunderw-gll.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-au1.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-br1.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-ie1.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-jp1.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-sg1.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-us1.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-us2.twilio.com
  • matrix.twilio.com
  • eventgw.twilio.com
  • chunderw-vpc-gll-de1.twilio.com

Whitelist Twilio IPs

Twilio's requests come from different IP addresses, and we want to make sure your network can connect to all of them. To do this, you will need to whitelist Twilio's IPs and prioritize outbound media UDP ports ranging from 10,000 to 20,000.

Things to Note: Ensure both the SalesLoft and Twilio IPs/domains are excluded from stateful packet inspection (SPI), or you might experience high UDP/TCP latency.

The IPs that we need to be whitelisted include the following:

  • 54.252.254.64/26
  • 177.71.206.192/26
  • 54.171.127.192/26
  • 52.215.127.0/24
  • 54.65.63.192/26
  • 54.169.127.128/26
  • 54.172.60.0/23
  • 34.203.250.0/23
  • 35.156.191.128/25

IPs Added as of July 2019

  • 3.1.77.0/24
  • 3.112.80.0/24
  • 3.122.181.0/24
  • 18.228.249.0/24
  • 3.104.90.0/24

IPs Added as of November 2019

  • 54.244.51.0/24

Twilio TURN Server IPs

TURN Servers help with call traversal in secure network environments, as such, we recommend adding their IPs as well.

  • 34.203.254.0/24
  • Ports:
    • 443
    • 3478 (TCP and UDP)
    • 5349 TCP
    • 10,000-60,000 UDP

DSCP Tagging

The DSCP assigns, or tags, the packets that travel through a network. DSCP tags in packets are useful for letting network appliances know how to prioritize traffic.

If congestion is an issue on your network, consider implementing DSCP on your network/domain. By default the SalesLoft Dialer traffic call gets a DSCP tag of 46.

These details explain how DSCP will be implemented within your system: 

 

  • Twilio Client 1.3 enables DSCP by default in compatible browsers, like Google Chrome.
    • Things to Note: To check if you're on the latest version of Chrome, navigate to: "chrome://help/" in your address bar. If there is a "Relaunch" button, click it; this will update Chrome.

  • The SalesLoft Dialer works with the WebRTC technology. Google Chrome will tag WebRTC media packets. This enables differentiated handling on a LAN, so that real-time media can be prioritized above other network traffic.

  • The Differentiated Services Field is located in the IPv4 header TOS octet or the IPv6 Traffic Class octet. A differentiated services-compliant network node (e.g. router) includes a classifier that selects packets based on the value of the DS field, along with buffer management and packet scheduling mechanisms capable of delivering the specific packet forwarding treatment indicated by the DS field value.

  • With Client 1.3 sent RTP packets will have a DiffServ code point on their local Wireshark packet captures. When we enable DSCP, the WebRTC engine marks the RTP packets with EF, and below are the values related to Expedited forwarding:
    • binary: 101 110
    • hex: 0x2e
    • decimal: 46

DSCP with Microsoft Windows

In some Windows-based environments, DSCP tags are filtered out despite the network being set up for DSCP.

Your network (or IT) team can verify if DSCP tags are being filtered out by Windows by running a capture in Wireshark. To make everything play nice, please either implement a group policy that will enforce DSCP, or if your computers are not on a domain, then do it on a machine-by-machine basis.

The steps to determine whether Windows is stripping out the DSCP tags are dependent on your Windows machine. Please follow the steps below based on whether your machine is on a domain or not.

Checking DSCP tags for machines on a domain

For machines on a domain, you control the QoS settings that are used for certain applications by designing different Group Policy rules.

The above steps will ensure that that WebRTC packets get prioritized, which will make the Dialer work optimally.

You will need to force client machines to pick up this new Group Policy for the above to work. Usually a reboot will sort it.

To check DSCP tags for machines on a domain, follow these steps:

  1. Open up the Group Policy rules by typing "gpedit.msc" in the command line.
  2. Under Computer Configuration, select "Policy Based QoS Settings."
  3. Right click, then select "Create new Policy."
  4. A wizard interface will open to configure the QoS rules to use.
  5. On the first screen, enter "SalesLoft DSCP as the Policy name and specify a DSCP value of '46'."
  6. Click Next.
  7. On the second screen, select "Only applications with executable name," then enter "Chrome.exe."
  8. Click Next.
  9. On the third screen, you do not need to enter any settings; click Next.
  10. On the final screen, select the protocol the QoS applies to. For the SalesLoft Dialer this will be limited to UDP.

Checking DSCP tags for machines not on a domain

This section will modify the registry setting to allow you to specify the QoS setting that will be used based on Group Policy settings you configure.

To check DSCP tags for a machine not on a domain, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > CurrentControlSet > Services > tcpip > QoS.
  2. If the QoS Key does not exist, right click TCP/IP and select "New Key."
  3. Enter the name "QoS."
  4. Once complete, select the QoS key.
  5. If the string does not already exist, create a new string value called "Do not use NLA."
  6. Set the value to 1.
  7. Reboot for the settings to take effect.

Dialer Requirements for Windows Operating System Users

You may encounter issues with the SalesLoft Dialer if you are using a computer with a Windows operating system due to adjustments in the startup settings.

You (or your IT team) must have the Quality Windows Audio/Visual Experience (QWAVE) service set to the startup type Automatic and not Manual, as this is the default.

To ensure QWAVE is enabled and startup is automatic, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Start, then type cmd.

2. Right click the command icon, then select Run as Administrator.

3. Paste the following into the command line: 

net start QWAVE

4. Hit the Enter key.

5. Paste the following to set the startup type to automatic:

REG add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\QWAVE" /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

6. Hit the Enter key.

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