If participants are unable to connect or stay connected while you’re presenting live, you or they may be experiencing a connectivity issue.
What is a connectivity issue?
Anything that causes you or participants to frequently lose connection, or that prevents connection, to our game servers. Most often they are related to network or security settings that you or an IT admin can adjust quickly. But on a rare occasion, there may be server-side issues that require our engineers to fix. Check for outages here.
Quick links
Testing your connection
Simply go to test.kahoot.it and choose one of the two tests available.
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Tests
| Test | Description |
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Access to kahoot.it |
This checks that your network isn’t blocking https://kahoot.it. |
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Access to play.kahoot.it |
This checks that your network isn’t blocking accessing https://play.kahoot.it. |
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Access to create.kahoot.it |
This checks that your network isn’t blocking https://create.kahoot.it. |
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Access to profanity checker |
This checks that your network isn’t blocking https://apis.kahoot.it. A failure here may indicate issues with more than just profanity, though profanity is the exact service that's tested. |
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Access to game server (kahoot.it) |
This checks that websockets connections can be made and remain open for at least one minute. |
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Connect to a game PIN |
This checks that a PIN can be assigned to games you host. |
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Connection speed |
This checks that you have sufficient internet speed. It will let you know roughly how many players can connect to your game before any serious latency issues occur. This does not reflect your account's actual player limit. Only what's possible based on your internet speed. Results are subject to vary based on fluctuations in your network's load. |
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Connection type |
This checks if you’re on a stable network. It determines if you’re on a local or cellular network. It also checks if any data is lost in transit. |
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Proxy testing |
This checks if there’s a remote service (such as a cloud-based network security solution) that might prevent connections. These are not always detectable. But this test will check for any obvious indicators. |
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Account plan |
This is not yet functional. If you are already signed in at https://create.kahoot.it and test your connection, this will tell you what your account’s current player limit is. |
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Browser version |
This checks what browser you’re using, what version you’re running, and if it’s supported by our quality assurance testing. Generally, we fully support the two latest versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. |
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Computer speed |
This checks how fast your device executes javascript, which our services rely on. A lower score indicates faster execution. If this score fails, you might have javascript disabled or something blocked your device from completing our javascript test. |
Common connectivity issues
Players see a “trying to reconnect” message immediately after entering a nickname.
This is typically due to the network that the host and/or players are on is interrupting websockets connections. Go to test.kahoot.it and see if the following tests fail on host and/or player devices:
- Access to game server (kahoot.it)
- Proxy testing
Player devices should be tested too!
Some schools and organizations are able to set different access levels for specific groups. Your players’ devices may have a more restrictive access level than your device. If these tests fail on either side, then players won’t be able to stay connected.
What are websockets?
Most internet traffic today is communicated via https, which only allows you to briefly open a connection to send or request data before the connection is closed. But for live games which require all devices to send and receive data instantly, we use websockets to keep connections open until the game is over. Compared to https, websockets allow for lightning-fast data transfers with very low bandwidth requirements. However, networks don’t always support websockets. Some firewalls, antivirus, and network monitoring tools automatically close connections if they remain open.
Solution
Since this is typically a network security issue at a school or place of business, this usually requires an IT admin’s help. The following URLs need to be whitelisted:
- wss://play.kahoot.it/cometd
- wss://kahoot.it/cometd
If whitelisting doesn’t work, then the network security software might not support websockets connections. The above URLs would need to be allowed to bypass the network security software. The network/IT admin may need to contact the network security software’s IT support team for assistance.
Players see a “trying to reconnect” message after answering a few questions.
Refer to Players see a “trying to reconnect” message immediately after entering a nickname for advice. The problem and solution are essentially the same. Some network security software will cut off websockets connections immediately while some are delayed. Some allow websockets to remain active for one or a few minutes.
IT overview
Kahoot! uses end-to-end, industry-standard encryption in transit to end-users and internally between data centers and internal/external services. Data is always encrypted at rest.
We use multiple backup strategies for various parts of the platform. Backups are always encrypted and stored at a different site. Backups are kept for up to six months.
Our public certificates are obtained from an acknowledged certification authority, and we support TLS 1.2 or higher.
You do not need to download anything to use Kahoot!, as it is a stand-alone website with no inbound connections. No installs, plugins, and integrations with internal systems are required to use Kahoot!. Optional integrations with Microsoft Teams and Zoom are available.
The Kahoot! platform is accessed from kahoot.com, while participants with no account can join games at kahoot.it. For an enhanced user experience, we recommend downloading the Kahoot! app on iOS or Android.
For building, presenting and participating in games, access to the following are needed via TCP/443:
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https://create.kahoot.it |
This is where a presenter would sign in to their account and access games to present live or assign as a challenge. |
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https://media.gettyimages.com |
When an account holder is building a kahoot, this is where our image library searches for images. |
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https://play.kahoot.it |
This is where games are presented. |
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https://assets-cdn.kahoot.it |
This is where essential assets like music, javascript, and CSS are fetched. |
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https://media.kahoot.it |
If images are embedded in a kahoot, this is where images are fetched from. |
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https://youtube.com |
If videos are embedded in a kahoot, this is where videos are played from. |
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https://apis.kahoot.it |
This is where various services like our profanity filter are accessed. |
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https://kahoot.it |
This is where participants join games. |
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wss://play.kahoot.it/cometd |
If presenting a live game, this is where presenters maintain an open websockets connection for lightning fast response times between their device and players. |
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wss://kahoot.it/cometd |
If participating in a live game, this is where participants maintain an open websockets connection for lightning fast response times between their device and the presenter. |
Article discussion
6 comments
I am not having any connectivity issues with the internet in general, but for some reason my students who are trying to join are getting an error code saying they are disconnected. It works if I send as a challenge, but as challenges are only available on smart devices I have some students who cannot complete the assignment because they only have the school-provided Chromebooks! I don't use Kahoot very often but this has been a nightmare of a day for it.
Hi jkrasuski!
Unfortunately, we can't tell on our end with 100% certainty what the issue is. But our support team has helped several teachers and IT admins in your exact situation troubleshoot this issue.
The fact that their screens indicate they were disconnected suggests that they were connected at least briefly. As mentioned in the part about proxy servers, live games rely on something called "websockets" to keep all devices in sync. Challenges don't require websockets since gameplay is self-paced (hence why students don't have this issue with challenges).
When your students attempt to join a live game, something with your school's network security is likely not allowing websockets connections to stay active for longer than a short instance. This is usually related to some sort of proxy'd network security service. Your school IT should be able to resolve things by adjusting security settings aligned with the above advice about proxy servers. The problematic service on their end may not be expressly called a "proxy server". But it is likely some sort of network security suite that monitors and logs student internet traffic.
Also, you mentioned that your students use Chromebooks. If these Chromebooks are capable of accessing the Google Play Store, then our mobile app can be downloaded and used on them!
Also, we're hoping to have some good news before end of year about the playability of challenges on non-mobile devices. Keep an eye out for news in our blog about this.
I am having an issue as well today (11/15). I have tried to connect with our ChromeBooks and on our cell phones (using a cell signal, not the school wifi), and we are able to put in the game pin and our names, and then we get disconnected.
Hi worldhistory!
Since you can access things like kahoot.it just fine, it doesn't sound like your network is blocking our URLs. But again, something on the network is disrupting websockets activity and the likely culprit is a network security suite that monitors and logs internet traffic. Your school IT should know what service is used on your network for such purposes be able to resolve things with the above advice about proxy servers.
I know you mentioned use of cell signal. But if the hosting device was on the school network, then the websockets failure may have been on that device's end (not student devices trying to join). The solution would still be to ask your IT to review the part of the above article about proxies.
AP GOV/ECON
Recently I have been having several issues with Kahoot in class using the classic game.....one- kids are getting kicked out halfway thru the game.....another seems to be a lag between what is happening on my computer/the big screen and their devices.......their devices say theyve run out of time to answer a question, but their is still time on the clock. Their devices tend to hang. Using their own cell phone provider is not really an option for us because the structure of our building prevents reception in the area im in. We use a LAN/WIFI protal in the classroom. My device running the game has a landline...once in a while their is a lag for me, but it seems to happen to portable devices more frequently. I have sent the link of this page to our District IP guys
We have had two Quizzes now where 30-35% of our participants have been kicked out of the Kahoot.it or App. We have approximately 190 participants and we have some short breaks in between. It appears that after a certain amount of time, they're getting kicked out. How can we prevent this from happening? Is it because it goes over a certain amount of time? Too long a break in between rounds? Or is it server overload on your end? Thanks for the help!
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