IT Requirements for VXT

Certificate security rule required

We recommend using a certificate-based security rule to allow users to run the VXT Desktop app. Download the latest installer from the URL our team has provided you with, which will start with download.vxt.co.nz.

The process for whitelisting our certificate depends on your security provider/system, so please reach out to them if you are unsure of how to whitelist our certificate. Our certificate is issued to “VXT Limited” and is issued by “Sectigo Public Code Signing CA EV R36".

Firewall rules required

VXT uses a variety of different protocols to ensure our app is responsive and has good quality audio for calls.

At present you will need to allow the follow rules in your firewall for outbound traffic:

HTTPS, port 443, traffic to various external APIs, likely this will already be enabled for regular web browsing.
WebSocket Secure (WSS), port 443, traffic to:
wss://*.firebaseio.com (realtime database)
wss://hubspot-eu-realtime.ably.io (customer support tool)
UDP (or more specifically RTP) traffic to all IP addresses for destination port ranges (10,000 - 20,000).
This is the traffic that is commonly blocked by firewalls and is the cause of most network related issues.

Firewall rules explained

WebSocket traffic is used by Firebase Realtime Database, and HubSpot Conversations (an in-app customer support tool). This traffic will almost always work fine without any configuration changes, unless deep packet inspection is being used along with SSL interception in an enterprise network in a way that affects WebSocket traffic. However this is very uncommon.

UDP traffic is used for call audio and video. RTP is the underlying protocol. Unfortunately we are unable to provide an IP range that this traffic will be directed to as we operate dynamically scaling clusters that use IP addresses from Google Cloud’s pool. We can ensure that the destination port (on our end) will always be between 10,000 and 20,000. If this firewall rule is not set correctly then users will be able to initiate calls, but they might experience no audio in one/both directions, as the audio is carried by the UDP packets. The call might eventually hang up as our media server is configured to automatically hang up calls that have no audio in one/both directions.

Network

To learn more about how network quality can affect voice and video calls, read this article.

In-office
Where possible we strongly recommend that you connect desktop computers to internet networks using ethernet cables. For WiFi networks at the office ensure there are a suitable amount of connection points, placed optimally throughout the office to avoid congestion i.e. too many devices connected to any one individual connection point.

At home
We recommend that staff who perform a significant amount of work from home use high quality internet routers for their home networks. Network quality issues at home can be improved by replacing internet network routers provided by internet service providers with routers designed to support more simultaneous and higher bandwidth connections.

Internet service providers
We recommend using internet service providers that have a significant market share of customers in your local area because they tend to pay network infrastructure providers for greater network bandwidth and therefore typically provide more reliable networks. If you aren't sure which networks are popular in your area you can use tools like Cloudflare Radar to compare networks in your area using a third party estimate of network populations and general quality.

Devices

Updated January 2024

Mobile devices

We recommend using modern iOS devices.

Desktop computers
For someone in a professional role that involves using a lot of different applications on the computer at once such as an attorney, consultant, or accountant, a computer should reach the following minimum specifications:

Memory ⚠️
Minimum 6Gb of RAM (Random-access memory)

CPU ⚠️
A modern Intel i5 dual-core, Apple M1 processors, or equivalent, initially released no earlier than the last few years.

Operating system
64-bit version of Windows 10 / Windows 11 or macOS 10.14+

Internet browser
Google Chrome (the most recent version)

Hardware acceleration (Windows)

The VXT Desktop app uses hardware acceleration by default. If you would like to disable hardware acceleration on Windows, you can opt-out via a registry key. Add the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Vxt\Vxt Desktop\Settings, and then add to that key a new DWORD (32-bit) value named HardwareAcceleration with a value of 0.

Google Chrome policies

In most cases, we recommend users use the VXT desktop app. However, if your organisation uses Chromebooks, users will need to use the VXT web app. In this case, please add “app.vxt.co.nz” to the AutoplayAllowlist and TabDiscardingExceptions Google Chrome policies for your organisation to ensure users don’t miss calls when the VXT web app tab is in the background.