Why did my Basic meeting terminate with 7 minutes still remaining on my countdown?

[msutcliffe]

I have a Basic account, and host a scheduled weekly meeting. Anyone with the link can join. No waiting room. This week, the meeting terminated unexpectedly early - there was about 7 minutes remaining on MY countdown timer. I got the big 'Need more time?' popup message at the usual time - around 30 minutes in. I suspect that it was because someone entered the meeting 10 minutes early, then left the meeting early (that was the only difference I know of compared to other meetings that lasted 40 minutes).  Oh, and this week I dismissed the popup message (I usually just leave it there). There were no noticeable connection issues. Can someone shed any light on this, specifically what should I do to ensure I get the full 40 minutes? Should I perhaps use the waiting room to prevent people from joining early and starting the timer? Thank you in advance for any helpful hints!

[EssayB]

Thanks for useful info. I had a similar problem as Host of a 40-minute meeting that was abruptly cut off with 10 minutes still on my countdown timer. Discovered that one participant had joined 10 minutes early, and suspect you are right that the timer starts when the first person logs on. So will prevent that in future by having a Waiting Room.