Skip to main content

Network requirements: allowing Lyrebird through your firewall

For IT providers and practice managers — what Lyrebird needs to reach on your network, how to confirm a firewall or filter is the cause, and the additional checks that apply to Bp Premier.

Is this your issue? Network restrictions are a likely cause when:

  • One site in a group can use Lyrebird normally and another cannot, on the same software version

  • Lyrebird will not load for anyone at a single location

  • Clinicians see a connection error rather than a login or account message

  • You see this error when connecting within Best Practice

Part 1: Allow Lyrebird through your firewall

What does this do?

Lyrebird runs as a web application and connects out to our servers over HTTPS. If your firewall, proxy, web content filter or DNS filtering service blocks that connection, Lyrebird will fail to load or will show a connection error — even though nothing is wrong with the clinician's account or the software on their computer.

This section applies to every practice, whichever practice management system you use.
​

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Allow the Lyrebird application and domain

    1. Allow https://app.lyrebirdhealth.com — this is the application clinicians load.

    2. Allow the lyrebirdhealth.com domain, including subdomains.

  2. Check SSL inspection

    1. If your firewall performs SSL or TLS inspection, add Lyrebird's domain to the inspection bypass list.

  3. Check web and DNS filtering separately

    1. Web content filters and DNS filtering services often sit outside your firewall rules and are assessed separately.

    2. This is a common reason one site behaves differently to another despite apparently identical firewall configuration.

  4. Apply the rules to servers as well as workstations

    1. Where practice software runs on a terminal server or virtual desktop, the rules need to apply to the server, not only to the client machines.

  5. Apply the rules at every site

    1. Firewall and filtering policy often differs between locations in a multi-site group, even where the sites are centrally managed.

    2. Apply the same rules at each site rather than only at the site reporting the problem.

Tips for Best Results

  • If one site works and another does not, compare the two configurations directly. This is the fastest route to the answer, and the difference is usually a filtering or inspection rule rather than the firewall rules themselves.

  • Test by opening app.lyrebirdhealth.com in a normal browser from a computer at the affected site.

  • Endpoint protection and antivirus products are worth testing separately from the firewall — they can block Lyrebird without any firewall rule being involved.

Part 2: Additional checks for Bp Premier

What does this do?

Practices using Bp Premier have two further things to check. Both produce errors that look like a network problem but are not, so they are worth ruling out before or alongside any firewall change.

The error clinicians most often report is Unable to Contact Lyrebird Scribe API, which appears when opening Lyrebird from within Best Practice:

This error has three possible causes: the integration is not enabled at that site, the network is blocking the connection, or the WebView2 component is not working. The steps below rule out the first and third.
​

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Confirm Lyrebird is enabled at this site

    1. In Best Practice, the integration is enabled per site, not per organisation — each site has its own Site ID, so a group of six clinics needs it switched on six times.

    2. Go to Setup > Configuration, then Database > Setup third-party integrations. You will need Best Practice administrator access.

    3. Search for Lyrebird Health, tick the checkbox, then click Save.

    4. If it was already ticked, untick it, click Save, then tick it again and save. This refreshes the connection.

    5. Open a patient visit and confirm the Lyrebird L button appears, then repeat at every other site in the group.

  2. Narrow it down with a browser test

    1. On an affected computer, open app.lyrebirdhealth.com in a normal browser

    2. If it will not load there either, the restriction is on the network — work through Part 1.

    3. If it loads normally in the browser but not inside Best Practice, the network is reaching us and the problem is more likely to be WebView2.

  3. Check the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime

    1. Best Practice displays Lyrebird using a Microsoft component called WebView2 — the same component it uses for other pages inside the application, such as help links and the latest news panel. This applies to Bp Premier only and does not affect clinicians using Lyrebird in a browser.

    2. Open a help link or the latest news panel inside Best Practice. If those are broken too, the problem is with WebView2 across Best Practice as a whole rather than with Lyrebird — worth mentioning when you contact us.

    3. Confirm WebView2 is not blocked by application control, endpoint protection or software restriction policies. Your IT provider can test this by temporarily excluding Best Practice from scanning.

    4. To repair or reinstall the component, follow Best Practice's own WebView2 troubleshooting guide.

    5. Clearing the Lyrebird cache resolves many WebView errors on individual machines — the method is set out in Why is Lyrebird slow, crashing, or showing a WebView error in Bp Premier?.

Still not connecting?

If Lyrebird still will not load after the steps above, these details let our support team pick it up straight away:

  • The exact wording of the error, or a screenshot.

  • Whether it affects one site or several, and whether any site in the group is working normally.

  • Whether it affects one computer or everyone at the affected site.

  • Whether practice software runs on a terminal server, virtual desktop or standard PCs, and whether the server is on site or hosted.

  • What firewall, web filter and endpoint protection products are in use, and whether SSL inspection is enabled.

  • Which of the steps above you have already applied.

  • For Bp Premier: your Best Practice version and Site ID, and your Bp error log — how to find and send it is covered in Why is Lyrebird slow, crashing, or showing a WebView error in Bp Premier?

We're here to help if you have any questions. Reach out to our support team for a same-day response at [email protected] or click the blue chat widget on the right.

Did this answer your question?

Related Articles