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Audio Problems

Click on any of the following questions to jump to the answer:

  1. I’m having voice quality problems when I make calls from my PC.
  2. I’m having audio problems when I make calls using my Bluetooth Headset.
  3. I’m having audio problems when I make calls from my phone as the Calling Device.
  4. On my calls only one side is hearing sound – the other side gets silence.
  5. I hear tones then nothing after the call connects. Why?

Questions & Answers

I’m having voice quality problems when I make calls from my PC.

The most common symptoms of poor voice quality when making calls from “This PC” are:

  • Choppy voice
  • Can’t hear anything
  • One-way voice (one side can hear, the other side cannot)
  • People complain your voice is distant or echo-ey.
  • You see a message in the turboDial status window saying: Connection Warning: Degraded voice quality

These issues are almost always associated with one or more of these issues in your local environment:

  • Other apps on your PC causing performance degradation,
  • A Poor Internet connection,
  • Your PC/Mac audio/sound settings
  • Your Headset
  • A VPN connection
  • Firewall port blocking problems
Choppy Voice – Quick Analysis:
  • If a single user in your team is experiencing “choppy voice”  then it is most often due to other apps on their PC causing performance degradation.
    Have them re-boot their PC to clear out those performance hogs.
  • If multiple users in your team are co-located and are experiencing “choppy voice” then it is most often due to local LAN traffic congestion or Internet access traffic congestion. It can also be due to WiFi interference, such as what can be caused by a microwave.
    Ask your IT staff to identify the source of the problem in your local environment.
  • If multiple users in your team are not co-located and are experiencing “choppy voice” then it is most often due to a common VPN they are using.
    Have your IT staff investigate VPN congestion.
Distant or Echo-ey Voice – Quick Analysis:

This is usually caused by your voice being picked up by the microphone in your PC instead of (or in addition to) the microphone in your headset.  Please carefully check the sound settings in your PC to ensure your voice is only picked up my your headset microphone.

Audio Problems – Steps to Try

Note, you can usually bypass all causes of voice quality problems by choosing a Calling Device other than “This PC” to make your calls with turboDial. That’s a good option if you determine that your PC or network are not going to be compatible with voice calls.

Before trying the steps below consider if the problem  you’re having has just appeared or have you never been able to have successful calls with turboDial?  If the problem just appeared then consider if anything about your computer and LAN has changed – those changes may be the source of the problem.

Try the following steps one at a time to find the cause.
After each test try some calls to see if the problem is resolved:

        1. Reboot your PC to kill off any processes that may be hogging resources.
        2. Close all tabs in your browser except Infusionsoft/Keap, and also leave turboDial open.
        3. Quit all programs on your PC/Mac that are running except for your browser.
        4. Identify programs on your computer that are hogging resources, and terminate them.
          Instructions for a Windows PC
          Instructions for a Mac
        5. Clear the cache in your browser – select to clear it for “all time” – then close and restart your browser and turboDial.
        6. Twilio provides a test tool at https://networktest.twilio.com/    Run all tests and look for indications of problems that could cause voice quality issues. You may need to work with your local IT support personnel to resolve any issues. You cannot achieve good audio using ‘This PC’ as your calling device in turboDial unless that test tool succeeds.
        7. Carefully review the sound settings on your PC/Mac. You may be using different audio devices for the microphone or speakers than you expect. Experiment with alternative settings.
        8. Try a different headset. Your headset may have a broken wire or a bad connector.
        9. If your headset connects via the audio jack on your PC, try using a USB headset, and likewise, if you’re headset uses USB try using a headset that connects via the audio jack.
        10. If you have a Bluetooth headset or a noise canceling headset, try a plain wired headset.
        11. If your PC is connected to your router via WIFI try connecting using an Ethernet cable. If that solves the problem then your issue was likely caused by radio interference. You can try forcing your WIFI router to use a different frequency band.
        12. Try a different PC.
        13. Power off your Router and your Internet Modem (cable or DSL). Wait 2 minutes and power back on.
        14. Try using a different Internet connection. For example, if you are experiencing the problem in your office try it at home.
        15. Ask your IT support if you are using a VPN. If so, seek their help to test voice quality when the VPN is not used.

    I’m having audio problems when I make calls using my Bluetooth Headset.

    Complex headsets such as the bluetooth headsets from Plantronics will sometimes need adjustments to your PC sound settings and/or headset driver settings to succeed with web-based VOIP services. Please use the following test site to test your headset, and experiment with your PC sound settings and headset settings until you get the tests to succeed.

    I’m having voice quality problems when I make calls from my phone as the Calling Device.


    If you are making your calls using a mobile phone (cell phone) then there is a strong chance your phone service is the source of your voice quality problems. In particular, if your phone has the ability to use either your carrier’s network or a WiFi network then you should take steps to force the phone onto the carrier’s network. A mobile phone operating on a WiFi network is a common source of voice quality problems.

    Note that the turboDial app sets up your calls but is not involved in sending or receiving voice—voice is handled by Twilio. So unexplained voice quality problems must be investigated with Twilio. If it persists you can have your account owner login to the Twilio account and submit a support ticket. In that ticket it is always helpful to include the “SID” for an example call that had the problem.  That “SID” value can be found in the Call Note Record that turboDial created, and in the body of the note comments the “SID” is the long string of characters following “Twilio ID=”.

    On my calls only one side is hearing sound – the other side gets silence.

    This is called “one-way voice”.

    Note that the turboDial app sets up your calls but is not involved in sending or receiving voice; voice is handled by the internal software of your PC/Mac and Twilio. If you are making your calls using your PC and a headset then the one-way voice problem is almost always associated with the headset you are using or the sound settings in your PC/Mac, or both.
    Please thoroughly review your sound settings to make sure they are configured as they should be. If that doesn’t solve the problem also try re-booting your PC/Mac.
    You may also need to try different headsets and headsets that use a different connection to your PC.

    Also see this page for some additional step you can take.

  • If you are making your calls using a Calling Device such as your mobile phone or a desk phone, then the one-way voice may be caused by a problem in Twilio’s network. If it persists you can have your account owner login to the Twilio account and submit a support ticket. In that ticket it is always helpful to include the “SID” for an example call that had the problem.  That “SID” value can be found in the Call Note Record that turboDial created, and in the body of the note comments the “SID” is the long string of characters following “Twilio ID=”.

I hear tones then no sound after the call connects.

If you make a call through your PC, hear tones, then hear no sound, please refer to this site that will help you determine what is causing the audio issue:

https://networktest.twilio.com

If you still cannot hear anything after visiting that link, you will need to experiment with headsets, jacks, audio settings, etc on your PC until it works there.