Other sites open but InterScribe doesn't, or the page opens and the live audio never connects. You may see one of these:
- The desktop agent's Overview says Agent is disconnected.
- A listener sees Can't reach live captions: "Your network may be blocking our captions service, or it may be briefly down."
Most likely: an old address cached on your computer (DNS)
Check: InterScribe opens on a phone hotspot or mobile data, but not on this network or this computer.
Fix: clear the DNS cache. Your computer remembers where websites live, and a stale entry makes InterScribe look "down" only for you. Clearing it is safe and takes seconds.
General advice about your network, not an InterScribe setting.
Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities), paste this, press Return and enter your Mac password. Nothing is printed when it works.
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponderNext: a firewall or content filter
Check: you can sign in, but the agent never connects; or it works on a phone hotspot and not on the building's network. Companies, schools, hospitals, hotels and many places of worship filter their networks. A filter can let the website through and still block the live audio connection.
Fix: send the allow-list to your IT team, a week before the event if you can: interscribe.io, *.interscribe.io, scrb.live and *.scrb.live on port
443, and the live audio hosts we give you. See The allow-list for IT.
Next: a Wi-Fi sign-in page
Check: a page asks you to accept terms or sign in before you can use the Wi-Fi. Until you do, nothing gets through.
Fix: open any website in a browser on that computer and accept the terms. For a computer that sends the sound all event, ask for a network without a sign-in page, or use a cable.
Next: a VPN
Check: a VPN is on, on the computer that sends the sound or interprets.
General advice about your network, not an InterScribe setting.
Fix: turn it off for the event. A VPN can send everything through another country, or block the live audio connection.
Rarely: a problem on our side
Check: in the Portal, Status page in the sidebar opens the public InterScribe status page. Many workspaces are affected at once when the problem is ours.
Fix: nothing to change on your side. The desktop agent and the command-line agent keep trying and reconnect on their own, and listeners' pages keep trying too. See Alerts and the status page.
Still not working
Note the time, the network you were on, and whether a phone hotspot works. Send a support report from the desktop agent's Help & Support tab with Include connection diagnostics ticked, or contact support.