Proper network and security settings are important to your safety. But they can sometimes cause hiccups with web services. If you’re planning to host an important game session, we’d recommend you to test for connectivity issues at your venue at least a few days before your event. This will give you time to work with your IT team to fix any issues discovered.
Testing for connectivity issues
Any public kahoot can be used to test for issues. All you need are two devices with a supported browser. Here’s a shareable play link for a public kahoot:
https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/ba0d29ff-87f8-11e2-ac18-12313c03a233
How to test
- Use the shareable play link above on one device to start hosting a live game.
- Go to https://kahoot.it on the other device to join your live game.
- Navigate both devices through all questions to see if any connectivity issues arise.
Issues that can cause connectivity issues
Proxy servers
Kahoot! uses SSL to encrypt data between devices and servers. Kahoot! Also uses secure websockets to establish low-latency, low-bandwidth connections between all devices and our servers. Presenters or players may experience certificate authentication errors if a proxy server is replacing our SSL certificates with its own, or frequent “trying to reconnect” messages if a proxy server is severing websockets connections. You may need to let the websockets URLs listed below bypass your proxy server.
- wss://play.kahoot.it/cometd
- wss://kahoot.it/cometd
Firewalls
Kahoot! needs access to ports 80 and 443 for URL *.kahoot.it. If this domain is blocked by a firewall, presenters or players may witness error messages stating they can’t connect to our web pages.
Bandwidth
A stable internet connection will keep everyone’s devices updated within milliseconds of each other. Players may experience gameplay on their devices being seconds behind the presenter’s screen if the players or presenter are on a slow connection.
Ideally, the hosting device should be connected via ethernet (not wifi or cell data). We recommend encouraging players to use their cell data if they have a good 3G or better signal. Try to reserve wifi for players with bad or no signal.
Based on the maximum number of players you’re expecting (whether by wifi or cell data), we recommend the following minimum internet speeds:
- 20 players / 2 Mbps up & down
- 50 players / 3 Mbps up & down
- 100 players / 5 Mbps up & down
- 500 players / 23 Mbps up & down
- 1000+ players / 45 Mbps up & down
Javascript and cookies
These are used extensively to keep track of progress during a live game. These will need to be allowed for our services to work. Presenters or players might see blank screens or error messages if either of these are disabled in their browser or blocked by their network.
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5 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
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