The Windows Meeting Room is a new feature in Windows Vista that makes it easy for users to create secure sessions for shared files and online collaboration. In this article, I will also explain to administrators how to open and manage this new feature in an enterprise environment.
Windows Meeting Room is a new feature in Windows Vista that has been designed to make user collaboration easier.
Using conference rooms allows users to share documents and applications and even share their PC with another user. Collaborative sessions can be used on wired or wireless networks and can establish connections directly between two wireless hosts without the need for an AP, even if dedicated wireless communication is used directly (the conference room uses P2P technology and does not need to be like Microsoft NetMeeting) The same depends on the server). It does not have a fixed limit on the number of hosts participating in the conference, but in fact, the number of hosts should not exceed 10, and each host must be running Vista (the conference room cannot be used for Windows XP or earlier platforms). And can't work with early legacy versions, such as NetMeeting)
Create a meeting room
Let's browse the meeting room session between two Vista computers. Our test environment consisted of two Vista computers joining the Windows Server 2003 domain, including user Bob (
[email protected]) on the first Vista computer and user Sue (suev) on the second Vista. Both are domain users, but Bob is a standard user on his Vista, and Sue is an administrator. This difference only indicates that different UACs can be assigned to one of them accurately, that is, Bob needs to provide an administrator password and Sue can easily continue.
Bob will start a new conference room session first. But before we do this, let's open the Windows Firewall on Bob to see the current exceptions (Figure 1):
Bob Now click Start, find all the programs, and click on the Windows Meeting Room. A dialog box like the one shown in Figure 2 will be opened.
In order to configure the conference room on the computer, Bob clicks Yes directly in the window (the UAC window pops up quickly, so he has to enter an administrator password before he can continue). A new window asks if he (confirmed) allows nearby people to contact his computer (Figure 3):
Warning
Two users in the vicinity (same network) can use the same display name, So you should be careful to use this collaboration feature in an insecure environment. Now the Windows Meeting Room window appears and Bob initially asks for an existing session he will join. However, as shown in Figure 4, no session is opened.
Before we create a new session, let's add an exception to the Windows Firewall to allow the meeting room to work properly (Figure 5)
< Br>Three new exception lists:
Windows Conference Room
Windows Peer to Peer Collaboration Foundation
Connect to a Network Projector (not visible in Figure 5 above)
Recommendations
If you want Know which TCP and UDP ports are open outside these three regulations, open the Advanced Security Windows Firewall (in the Administrative Tools in Control Panel), select the inbound or outbound connection and carefully monitor the exception entries through the group's filters.
Note that an additional service has been turned on at this time. Before executing this step, you can use the sc query command to compare which service is enabled on Bob's computer:
Peer Networking Identity Manager (ptpimsvc)
Peer Networking Grouping (p2psvc)
Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPsvc)
Bob anyway, Bob wants to open a new meeting, so he clicks Start A New Meeting and assigns a password (Figure 6)
Note:
If a conference room is used in a domain environment, the password policy defined by the domain policy will be implemented.
The main room window has been shown to Bob, who can now invite others to join his meeting, open a sharing session, add a handout, and more. (Figure 7)
Now let's switch to Sue's computer and initialize the configuration meeting room. Once she did, his meeting room would show that Bob's meeting had begun, but she couldn't join it unless Bob invited her or offered her Bob the password to set up the meeting. Bob can send Sue the following invitation: Bob invites others to join his conference room (Figure 7) and opens a dialog box to invite others (Figure 8):
Bob Now select the name of Sue and click Send Invitation. Note: By clicking on the invitation, he can invite others by sending an E-mail or instant message. For example, Bob can create a meeting invitation file (*.wcinv file), save it in his user profile (use Bob's desktop with Explorer), and then share this file to Sue or other users. Sue can browse to the \\\\computername\\Users\\BobV share via a share on the Bob computer, double click on the invitation and join the meeting. In either case, Suc has accepted the invitation, she is now in Bob's conference room (Figure 9):
Using conference room collaboration
Once Sue joins Bob's meeting, they can Start collaborating. For example, Bob can right-click on the icon in his conference room to send a message to Sue. Open the Send A Note window on Bob's computer (Figure 10):
When Sue receives this message, she will be able to reply directly to this message and continue to chat with Bob.
If Bob has a handout to share with Sue, he can click the Add button on the toolbar. When he does these operations, a window prompts him: At the same time, only one participant is allowed to modify the handout. Any changes made by the participants to the handout are only for the copy that the participant copied to. The original Bob's handout itself is Not modified in the process. For example, Bob can share the Budget.rtf file in his "My Documents" folder, which will appear in the conference room window of each participant (Figure 11):
or Bob and Sue have Mobile PC, Bob can be displayed with his budget document. He right clicks on the document in the meeting room window and selects Share to the meeting to complete some operations.
Or click to share a program or her desktop, Sue can allow Bob to access applications running on her desktop or even control her desktop via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). For example, if Sue is currently running a drawing on her desktop, she can share this program for Bob. Once she does this, Bob can see the program as seen in Figure 12.
As the menu bar shows, the current Sue is controlling the drawing program, but by clicking on the menu bar and selecting Request Control, Bob can also request Sue to hand over her own control, so he can control the program remotely.
Lock Meeting Room
Finally, if you are a corporate Active Directory administrator, you will be able to use the group policy shown in Figure 13 to control the meeting room
ADMX files exist in common Vista versions This policy is set in Computer Configuration\\Administrative Templates\\Windows Components\\Windows Meeting Rooms and User Configuration\\Administrative Templates\\Windows Components\\Windows Meeting Rooms, so you can control the conference room features of each user or computer. This policy setting is interesting. Yes:
Enable Windows Meeting Room: Windows Meeting Room is a feature that enables quick, face-to-face collaboration to share programs and handouts and deliver notes.
Enable Windows Room Review: Windows Room is a feature that enables quick, face-to-face collaboration to share programs and handouts and pass notes. If this setting is enabled, the Windows meeting room will audit various events in the event log that occur during the session (for example, when a user creates a session, joins a session, or launches a presentation). If this setting is disabled or not configured, Windows Room Review will be turned off.
Summary
Windows Meeting Room is an interesting new feature in Windows Vista, and administrators should start getting familiar with it now. Mobile users should especially feel the use of wireless collaboration capabilities in a business environment.