9-25-20

The Information Technology team will be performing maintenance on Zoom, late Friday, 9-25-20.

Zoom themselves will be requiring all institutions to implement passcodes or waiting rooms this week to improve account security and reliability. We will be making the following changes to be in compliance with this.

Passcodes will be enforced for all meetings

This change will force all Zoom meetings to use passcodes and cannot be disabled.

This change is intended to provide easy and basic protection against unwanted guests guessing the meeting ID through brute-force. This change will retroactively apply to any meetings currently scheduled. If you have a meeting scheduled, it will become protected by a passcode, and you will need to send an updated invitation.

How does this affect scheduling a meeting?

If you are scheduling a meeting, the passcode field will be checked by default and a random passcode will be generated alongside. You can change the passcode if you like, however, it cannot be completely disabled.

Keeping the passcode strictly numeric may make it easier for users joining via phone call.

How does this affect people joining meetings?

Joining by clicking the meeting link remains unchanged as Zoom embeds an encrypted version of the passcode within the link itself. Joining from this link will effectively bypass the password prompt.

Joining by either calling in on a phone or manually entering the Meeting ID will require you to manually enter the passcode. Participants with the Zoom mobile app, however, will be able to take advantage of bypassing the prompt by using the provided link, like mentioned above.

I’m the host and I had a meeting scheduled, where do I find the passcode or get an updated invitation?

Navigate to https://felician.zoom.us and sign-in, a link to the Meetings or Webinars page will be on the left.

Click on a meeting or webinar’s name to open its details where you will be able to reveal the password as well as copy an updated invitation if needed.

Make sure to update the invitation on already scheduled meetings so your attendees will have the new link and password!

Once you’ve copied the new invitation, you can update the calendar item in Outlook by double clicking it. Replace the original invitation and click Send Update.

I’m the host, can I add a passcode to a meeting in advance of this change?

Yes, and we recommend doing this if possible.

Navigate to https://felician.zoom.us and sign-in, a link to the Meetings or Webinars page will be on the left.

Click on a meeting’s name to open its details. There will be a button near the bottom labeled Edit this Meeting/Webinar that will let you change the settings for the meeting.

The Waiting Room feature will be enabled by default

This change will enable the Waiting Room for all meetings.

By default, guest attendees will be placed in a temporary waiting room until they’re admitted by the host. If you are actively signed into your Felician Zoom account, you should bypass the waiting room.

This provides additional security over just using a password – even if your meeting invitation is leaked, password and all, it is still impossible for an unwelcome entity to join unless they are manually allowed in by the host.

How does this affect scheduling a meeting?

If you are scheduling a meeting, the waiting room option will be enabled by default (but can be changed). We strongly recommend keeping this feature enabled as it’s one of Zoom’s strongest security features for your meetings.

Users who are logged into Zoom with their Felician account will allowed to bypass the waiting room. Guest, or external attendees will be subject to it.

To disable this setting when scheduling your meeting in Outlook, expand Advanced Options at the bottom, and uncheck the Enable Waiting Room option.

How does this affect people joining meetings?

Once users join the meeting, they will be put into the waiting room until a host admits them. This will apply to guests - users who are signed in under their Felician account will bypass the waiting room.

Anyone in the waiting room is completely isolated from the meeting and cannot interact with it.

I’m the host, how do I admit people to my meeting?

If you are in the meeting, Zoom should present a little notification near the bottom that attendees are waiting.

Click the Participants button to see who is waiting; once there, you can either admit or reject a user.

I’m the host, can I add a waiting room to a meeting in advance of this change?

Yes, and we recommend doing this if possible.

Navigate to https://felician.zoom.us and sign-in, a link to the Meetings page will be on the left.

Click on a meeting’s name to open its details. There will be a button near the bottom labeled Edit this Meeting that will let you change the settings for the meeting.