If controlling the Lobby for Webex Meetings has brought you to tears, then read on. But first, a disclaimer. Given the rate at which Webex (Meetings) is changing, be aware that what I write today might well be obsolete tomorrow!
What tears?
After following the convoluted and ambiguous discussion on the community forum, I thought it better to write a stand-alone piece rather than add to a question asked 10 months ago and with no solution accepted. At the end of the day, the tears possibly could have been avoided if Cisco had better options for the host to control a meeting.
So let be begin by defining what a locked and unlocked meeting is, as of version 40.9, as defined here.
When the meeting is locked:
- No one can enter the meeting until you unlock it.
- You see a list of all attendees waiting in the lobby. The list indicates who has logged in and who hasn’t. You can choose who to allow into the meeting.
- Anyone who already joined the meeting, including the host, can't call in to connect to the meeting audio. They can still use their computer for audio, or have the meeting call them.
This would indicate that anyone who wants to disable the lobby during a meeting simply has to UNLOCK the meeting.
BUT unfortunately, it is NOT that simple - there is a set of options that define what happens with guests when they join an unlocked meeting. You meeting can be set up at the time of scheduling so that:
- (o) Guests can join the meeting
- ( ) Guests wait in the lobby until the host admits them
- ( ) Guests can't join the meeting
In other words, UNLOCKING the meeting ONLY works as expected if the (o) Guests can join the meeting option is selected AT THE TIME OF SCHEDULING - if the (o) Guests wait in the lobby until the host admits them option was set at scheduling time, unlocking the meeting just means new guests just keep turning up in the lobby.
So here's my formula to set up a meeting to behave as expected, and giving the host maximum control.
PART 1 - When scheduling the meeting
Step 1: Click the Schedule option on the Webex App - this will take you to the scheduling options for the meeting.
Step 2: On the scheduling page, click Show advanced options
Step 3: Under the Advanced options, click Scheduling options
Step 4: for the Unlocked meetings option, select (*) Guests can join the meeting
Step 5: for the Automatic lock option, check the option and specify:
[x] Automatically lock my meeting 0 minutes after the meeting starts
Step 6: Set the start time and any other options you require for your meeting and click Schedule
Tip: Once you have these options set, save them as your preferred template
PART 2 - When running the meeting
When you start your meeting, you should find anyone who has joined already waiting in the lobby.
Note: There may be a global setting that has to be set to allow this
You can select the participants one-at-a-time to admit them, or all at once.
Tip: If you can, assign a co-host to do this job
If you have set the Automatic Lock (as I suggested above) then any new participants will also turn up in the lobby. This works for smaller meetings or if you have a co-host looking out for this possibility
BUT the good news is (at least as of version 40.9) is that you can easily lock/unlock the meeting from this point on (by clicking the ellipsis). With the meeting unlocked, anyone with the link can join, with the meeting locked they hit the lobby.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, first of all, realise that a host cannot fully unlock a meeting if the (o) Guests wait in the lobby until the host admits them option was set during scheduling. Perhaps you'd like to vote for this idea to fix that.
But also remember this is Webex we are talking about. When I was doing my testing preparing for this article, I set up a meeting as described above, and had a guest join the meeting before I had started the meeting. When I started the meeting, the guest was automatically admitted, even though I had set the option to lock the meeting 0 minutes after the meeting started.
It seems that zero doesn't necessarily mean instantaneous!
RedNectar
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