Waiting room and joining before the host

[larab]

We are hvaing difficulty being consistent when we setup meetings.  I'd like to create a cheat sheet for all of us to use so the settings are the same each time.

If we enable Joining the Meeting Before the Host AND  enable the Waiting Room, will people joining early or late be automatically placed in the Waiting Room?  

[NRidge]

Hello larab!

"If we enable Joining the Meeting Before the Host AND  enable the Waiting Room, will people joining early or late be automatically placed in the Waiting Room?"  

Not exactly; when considering that Join Before Host is intended to allow participants to join into the meeting without requiring the host to be present (either in advance of host joining or when host cannot attend at all).  With waiting room enabled, users would remain in the waiting room until a host (or alternative host) allows them to join the meeting, so if a host cannot attend, other settings may need to be used (again, alternative host, or internal users could be allowed  to bypass waiting room with proper account settings) to allow users to actively join.  

Without "Join before host" enabled the experience is slightly different; until the host joins the call, participants awaiting the start of the meeting would get a prompt that the host has not yet started the meeting, and once the host arrives, all participants waiting would automatically be allowed to join.

In our article on using Waiting Room there are the following limitations: (Article source: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000332726-Using-Waiting-Room )

Limitations of Waiting Room

• If the Waiting Room is enabled and set to capture all incoming participants, join before host will not work for that meeting. You can set internal account members or participants with a specific domain to bypass the Waiting Room. 
• Webinars do not support Waiting Room. Use a webinar practice session as an alternative.
• The Waiting Room is disabled by default for instant meetings and Zoom Phone calls elevated to a meeting. You can only enable Waiting Room for these meetings using the Security option in your in-meeting controls.
• If two-way chat with Waiting Room participants is enabled, the host and all participants will be required to upgrade to the minimum version or higher to join meetings. Alternatively, participants unable to update due to IT restrictions, can join through the web client instead. 

If you are interested in allowing users within your organization to bypass the waiting room, you can find more details in this article: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/4905283822733-Enabling-and-customizing-the-Waiting-Room 

How to configure waiting room options

Note: If the Waiting Room has been previously customized at the user level then disabled after, when Waiting Room is enabled in a meeting's settings, the meeting will use the user-level setting until it has been reset, or the account setting has been locked.

Below the Waiting Room setting in the Zoom web portal, click Edit Options to configure the following waiting room options as needed, then click Continue:

• Who should go in the waiting room? 
  • Everyone: All participants joining your meeting will be admitted to the Waiting Room. 
  • Users not in your account: Only participants who are not on your Zoom account or are not signed in will be admitted to the Waiting Room. If not signed in, they will have an option to sign in. 
  • Users who are not in your account and not part of your allowed domains: Users who are on your account or signed in to a Zoom account at the domains you list will bypass the Waiting Room. After selecting this option, enter the domains, separating multiple domains by a comma.
• Who can admit participants from the waiting room? If you selected Users not in your account or Users who are not in your account and not part of your allowed domains, you can specify who can admit participants that are in the Waiting Room.
  • Host and co-hosts only: Only the host and co-hosts can admit participants that are in the Waiting Room.
  • Host, co-hosts, and anyone who bypassed the waiting room (only if host and co-hosts are not present)

Join before host article: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202828525-Allow-participants-to-join-before-host  

I know this is a bit to digest -- if this answers your question please mark as solution or let us know if you have additional questions!

Happy Zooming!

[larab]

Our goal is to have people wanting to join the meeting enter the waiting room and wait until we let them in.  We want to be able to have them there 10-15 minutes before we let them in... we don't want them getting the message about the meeting not having started yet.  Based on your reply, I think our plan to enable the Join Before Host and the Waiting Room will let us do that.   I think?

[NRidge · Accepted solution]

Yes that is correct -- from a user perspective you are providing a different prompt, and from a host perspective they have more granular control over allowing users to join.  You can add branding messaging to the waiting room if that helps the experience for the participants:

How to customize the Waiting Room

You can customize the Waiting Room title, logo, and description at an account, group, or user level.

1. After enabling Waiting Room, click Customize Waiting Room.
   This will open the Waiting Room customization options.
   
   • Title: Click inside the text box to update the meeting title. 
     Note: Titles are limited to 64 characters.
2. Choose what Participants in the waiting room will see: 
   • The default screen: Just displays the title text above and the meeting topic. 
   • A logo and description: Display the title message, a logo you upload, and a message. 
     • Logo: Click Upload Logo to select a file for upload. Logos can be in GIF, JPG or PNG format. It cannot exceed 1MB and the minimum height and width is 60px, while the maximum is 400px.
     • Description: Click inside the text box to update the description. You are limited to 400 characters. 
   • A video: Display the title message and a video you upload. 
     
     • Video: Click Upload Video to select a file for upload. The video must be in MP4, MOV, or M4V format, and cannot exceed 30 MB. Videos can include sound, but are muted by default.
       Note: Videos for the waiting room require version 5.7.3 or higher. 
3. Click Save when you are done.
   Participants will see your custom Waiting Room branding when they join the meeting.

[kellyrbc]

We hosted a meeting previously where event attendees were given an access link via RegFox. As added security, I want to allow only people in my organization or people coming from the RegFox domain. However I set up the previous meeting, it worked where everyone was held in the waiting room and I was able to let them in. I made that meeting a template. I then created another Test meeting using the same template, but all attendees were able to bypass the waiting room. What settings do I need to ensure that only "RegFox authenticated" attendees can attend but they are held in a waiting room until I let them in?

[NRidge]

Hello kellyrbc!

Hopefully this covers it: It sounds like:

1) You need authentication profiles to allow only specified domain users, and

2) You need to place all users in the waiting room, regardless of the domain.

The respective settings needed:

1) Authentication profiles with the RegFox domain as only allowed domain under "Sign in to Zoom with specified domains"

2) Waiting Room: "Who should go into the waiting room?" set to "Everyone."

More Details below:

How to create an authentication profile

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin with the privilege to edit account settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Under the Security section, verify that Only authenticated meeting participants and webinar attendees can join meetings and webinars is enabled and then click Add Configuration.
4. Under Select an authentication method, choose one of the following options:
   
   • Sign in to Zoom: Allows any user to join the meeting or webinar, as long as they are signed into their Zoom account.
   • Signed-in users in my account: Allows any signed-in user in the account to join the meeting or webinar.
   • Sign in to Zoom with specified domains: Allows you to specify the rule so that Zoom users, whose email addresses contains a certain domain, can join the meeting or webinar. You can either add multiple domains, using a comma in between and/or use a wildcard for listing domains. You can also upload a CSV file with the domains.
     Note: You can't add any domains that are on your domain block list.
   • Signed in to account associated with invited email: Allows you to require meeting and webinar registrants to join the meeting or webinar signed-in to the account that matches the email they registered with. If they are authenticated with a different account or not authenticated at all, they will be directed to sign-in or switch accounts. 
   • Sign in to external Single Sign-On (SSO): Allows you to specify a rule so that users need to authenticate through a 3rd party authentication service.

(Source: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360037117472-Configuring-authentication-settings-and-profiles )

How to configure waiting room options 

Note: If the Waiting Room has been previously customized at the user level then disabled after, when Waiting Room is enabled in a meeting's settings, the meeting will use the user-level setting until it has been reset, or the account setting has been locked .

Below the Waiting Room setting in the Zoom web portal, click Edit Options to configure the following waiting room options as needed, then click Continue:

• Who should go in the waiting room? 
  • Everyone: All participants joining your meeting will be admitted to the Waiting Room. 
  • Users not in your account: Only participants who are not on your Zoom account or are not signed in will be admitted to the Waiting Room. If not signed in, they will have an option to sign in. 
  • Users who are not in your account and not part of your allowed domains: Users who are on your account or signed in to a Zoom account at the domains you list will bypass the Waiting Room. After selecting this option, enter the domains, separating multiple domains by a comma.

(Source: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360037117472-Configuring-authentication-settings-and-profiles )

[pjt008]

I cannot figure out how to make this work.  I have waiting room enabled (no passcode), "only users not in your account" going to waiting room, allow participants to join before host "anytime".  I've done all this at both the account and meeting level.  There is an additional account admin user and when signed in and trying to join the personal room, it always gets "please wait for host to start meeting."

Other meetings are set up so the account admin user can join the meeting without the host present (meeting not yet started), bypassing the waiting room, no passcode.

I want account admin user to be able to bypass the waiting room and go right into the meeting without anyone having started the meeting and not having a passcode on the meeting.  I'm stumped and cannot find the right combination of settings to make this work.

[pjt008]

Never mind, I figured it out - you also have to check "allow participants to join anytime" in the meeting invite as well as in the account/meeting settings.