Why This Happens
Practivated's simulations use real-time voice technology powered by two external providers: VAPI (for voice AI orchestration) and ElevenLabs (for AI-generated voices). When your simulation fails to start — often showing a loading screen that never completes, an error message, or silence on the call — your organization's network firewall may be blocking outbound connections to these services.
This is most common in:
Corporate or nonprofit office networks
University or institutional networks
VPN environments with strict outbound filtering
Any network where IT enforces an allowlist of approved domains
How to Fix It
You'll need to contact your IT or network security team and ask them to whitelist (allow outbound traffic to) the following domains:
VAPI — Voice AI Orchestration
api.vapi.ai *.vapi.ai
Documentation & status: https://vapi.ai
ElevenLabs — AI Voice Generation
api.elevenlabs.io *.elevenlabs.io
Documentation & status: https://elevenlabs.io
These connections use HTTPS (port 443) and WebRTC (UDP/TCP), which are required for real-time voice communication.
What to Tell Your IT Team
You can forward them this message:
"Our team uses Practivated, a voice simulation training platform. To run simulations, the platform requires outbound access to the following domains over HTTPS and WebRTC:
*.vapi.ai*.elevenlabs.io
Please whitelist these domains so our team can access the platform's core features."
Still Having Trouble?
If whitelisting these domains doesn't resolve the issue, or if your IT team needs more technical details (IP ranges, specific ports, or SSL certificate info), reach out to us through the chat below and we'll connect you with the right resources.