Aircall allows your company to interact with your customers or prospects from everywhere, leveraging state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure.
It is essential for your own experience when using Aircall to have a proper network connection. Below you will find a set of recommendations and guidelines to help you experience the best of Aircall.
As Aircall has no control over personal networks, it is important that users invest in their network stability so that we can guarantee the best call quality possible on both our in and out carriers' side.
Working from Home
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Reserve enough bandwidth
- It is important to ensure that you have established enough bandwidth in your network to support the number of simultaneous calls your team is making. Aircall requires at least 100Kbps (upstream and downstream) for each concurrent call. In addition, Aircall requires an appropriate amount of bandwidth to be able to operate with your integrations, contacts, and any other software your team may be using while making calls. A rough estimate is around 1 Mbps per person.
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Avoid other people using/sharing your bandwidth while you are on call, such as:
- Streaming multimedia content (4K/HD videos)
- Online gaming or Peer to Peer downloads
- Using cloud backup apps
- If you haven’t checked on your home router in a while, it’s worth looking at what upgrade options you can easily make. Nowadays, routers offer multi-band networks that come with router management software programs that will allow you to prioritize the traffic easily, and in this case, Aircall. Most routers will have 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz options, with 2.4 GHz being enabled by default. You can easily switch to 5gHz WiFi and keep the channel selection to Auto for faster, better, and more reliable performance.
- Prefer a wired connection over Wi-Fi
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- A cable provides a consistent network connection and the best quality possible. We recommend using at least a Cat. 5E Ethernet cable (ideally a Cat. 6). If your computer doesn't have an Ethernet port, you can use an adapter.
- Although an Ethernet connection is strongly recommended, if you prefer to use Wi-Fi, make sure you're using a professional Wi-Fi connection (at least 802.11ac) as it offers more stability and is capable of handling more users connected at the same time.
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Avoid using a VPN as VPNs add an extra hoop for traffic to travel through, which increases latency and adds extra encryption and security policies that can impact VoIP traffic.
- If it is necessary to use a VPN, split-tunneling must be configured in order to ensure that the voice traffic is routed directly to the internet instead of throughout the VPN routing.
For more information on Split Tunneling, please visit VPN Split Tunneling.
We are happy to jump on a call with your IT to help implement VPN tunneling as necessary. If assistance is required, please raise a ticket with our Support team to schedule a call!
Working from an Office
Most offices have advanced network setups that can influence the call quality experienced when using VoIP. Find our recommendations below:
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Prefer Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi.
- Cat 5 ethernet cables or superior is advised
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If your office network has a Firewall:
- Please whitelist Aircall’s traffic:
For more information on whitelisting traffic, please visit Firewalls, Anti-Virus, and Other Content Blockers.
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If your office network gateway supports QoS and congestion issues are detected:
- Please follow our QoS recommendations:
Network Configuration: Setting Up a QoS – Aircall
Please note: it is important to take into consideration that the below Gateway features may impact VOIP quality:
- SIP ALG
- Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)
- Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI)
- Intrusion detection/intrusion prevention system (IDS/IPS)
- Web proxy
- WAN optimization devices
- Port filtering
- Packet-by-packet load balancing across multiple ISP links
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UDP Time Out:
- VoIP traffic generally uses UDP to set up the call and transmit media. Unlike TCP, UDP does not have a handshake, making it difficult for routers to know when a call is finished. Many firewalls/routers will have a timeout that kills the connection if no traffic is received. For the purposes of our service, this timeout should be increased to 90 seconds. If your firewall/router is capable, you can limit this extended timeout to only Aircall IPs.
Co-working Spaces
Typically co-working space provides shared bandwidth to Wi-Fi users which is impacted by user count. Kindly ask for dedicated bandwidth for your users and an ethernet connection, if available, in order to enhance your experience with Aircall.
Bear in mind that some co-working spaces may not have their network optimized as per our recommendations for VoIP traffic, so you may experience some limitations. Additionally, they may not have a network infrastructure sized for usage peaks, causing temporary traffic delays with a consequent impact on voice quality.
The further the user is from the network station, the more interruptions they may experience. If users need to place a lot of calls during the day, it is recommended to choose a quiet secluded place in the co-working zone, closer to the WiFi.
Working Outdoors
You can use the Aircall Mobile App on your mobile device (Android or iOS), to work outdoors. You will need to ensure that your mobile device has at least a 4G+ connection established and you are in a place with good coverage.
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Connection Type
- If your mobile device displays connectivity inferior to 4G (the most common technologies are GSM, UMTS, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, and LTE) you may experience audio issues.
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Coverage
- Even if you are connected to a 4G+ antenna of your Internet Service Provider, if the coverage is reduced, your internet connection may be too weak to maintain a VoIP conversation. Ensure you avoid tunnels, basements, crowded places, or other remote areas.