> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.operata.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Proxies and the agent softphone > A proxy between the agent's browser and your contact center cloud can delay softphone traffic enough to drop calls and freeze softphone controls. Here's how to recognize it and prove it. A proxy sits between the agent's softphone and your contact center cloud, inspecting traffic and passing or blocking it. When it's loaded, misconfigured, or simply in the path of real-time media, calls degrade in ways that look like a platform fault. ## How it works The proxy acts as an intermediary between the agent's browser and the cloud. Which traffic goes through it is usually set by a desktop **Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC)** file. Diagram of a proxy sitting between the agent's browser and the contact center cloud, inspecting traffic in both directions Real-time media is where it bites. Signaling and media between the softphone and the cloud are latency-sensitive, so a proxy that adds delay — or that terminates and re-establishes connections — breaks calls that would otherwise be fine. ## Symptoms * Dropped calls, with no matching fault on the platform side. * Softphone controls that don't respond, so agents can't answer and fall into a missed-call state. * Clustered signaling and handshake errors across every agent behind the same proxy. * Agents on one network affected while agents elsewhere are fine. ## Prove it Take a sample of affected agents and do one of these: 1. Put proxy bypass rules in place for the softphone's media, signaling, and API traffic. 2. Move them to a network that doesn't apply the same proxy rules. If the symptoms stop, the proxy is the cause. Extend the bypass to every agent permanently, or fix the proxy's performance. ## Platform specifics Which endpoints must bypass the proxy depends on your platform. * [Amazon Connect: proxy bypass rules](/docs/help/amazon-connect-proxy-bypass) — the four CCP (Contact Control Panel) endpoints, which of them must bypass, and the AWS networking constraints that go with them. ## Related * [Softphone issues](/docs/diagnose-softphone-issues) — reading the errors a proxy produces. * [Which URLs and protocols to allow](/docs/help/which-urls-and-protocols-will-i-need-to-allow-so-i-can-use-operata) — Operata's own network requirements. * [RTC session failure and ICE timeout](/docs/help/rtc-session-failure-and-ice-timeout-causes-and-troubleshooting) — when media can't establish at all.