IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide Imran Khan Adam Goodison IBM Collaboration Solutions, IBM Software Group, Mulhuddart, Ireland
Contents Introduction... 3 Meetings... 3 Starting a meeting... 5 Meeting Room tools... 6 Chat... 9 Starting a chat... 9 Chat tools... 9 Troubleshooting... 12 "Download WebPlayer Plug-in" message... 12 Audio problems... 13 Screen-sharing problems... 13 Collecting information for IBM Support... 14 Resources... 19 About the authors... 19 Copyright IBM Corporation 2017. US Government Users Restricted Rights Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 2
Introduction This guide reviews the main features of Chat and Meetings that are available to Connections Cloud users, and provides troubleshooting information for common issues. Meetings Connections Cloud Meetings is available from three data centers: North America - https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/ Europe - https://apps.ce.collabserv.com/meetings/ Asia Pacific - https://apps.ap.collabserv.com/meetings/ Meetings landing page The Meetings landing page is divided into the following sections: Host Start your own meeting room by clicking Host Meeting. The meeting opens in a new window. Audio/Video Conference details This section displays if you have an audio subscription; it is intended for users who call into meetings from a phone instead of a computer. Here you can build your conference dial-in numbers, and view your moderator and participant codes. The A/V and screen-sharing features are provided by the IBM Sametime WebPlayer. Reports and Recordings This section allows you to view saved recordings, usage statistics, and meeting reports. Join This section allows you to join a meeting by providing the meeting room ID. You can also see a list of IDs from meetings that you recently attended. Meeting Software This section contains links to download additional software that might be needed for attending meetings: Sametime WebPlayer plug-in, which provides audio/video and screen-sharing features. WebPlayer Chrome extension, a required addition if you want to attend meetings from the Google Chrome browser. Mobile Meetings app for Android and ios devices. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 3
The following image shows the different sections on the Meetings landing page: IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 4
Starting a meeting When you click Start Meeting in the Host section, the Welcome to Meetings window opens, as shown in the following image. Here it is important to select your preferred access level, which ranges from allowing only members of your own organization to join, to allowing authenticated users from other organizations, or even allowing everyone (including guests) to join the meeting. After selecting the permissions level, click Start Meeting to open the meeting room: IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 5
Meeting Room tools The meeting room provides a set of tools to help you host a successful web conference. Participant List Displays the names of people who are currently in the meeting room. Meeting stream Displays a running record of who joins and leaves the meeting, along with any messages posted in the chat. Library Allows users to upload and download files. Permissions can be changed by clicking > Change Room Permissions. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 6
Start Sharing Allows users to share their entire screen or a single application. Permissions can be changed by clicking > Change Room Permissions > Present and add to the library. A/V options If A/V is enabled for your organization, a phone icon displays. The meeting host clicks the phone icon and selects an A/V option for the call; for example, to make it a videoenabled conference or to automatically mute participants. After the call is started, a participant clicks the phone icon to join the call from their computer. Microphone and call settings All participants can click the microphone icon to modify their own microphone settings and view call or performance information. Record The meeting host can enable recording to capture the audio and video during the meeting. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 7
Settings Allows the meeting host to change permission levels, create meeting reports, view network performance and view room information. End Meeting Allows the meeting host to exit the meeting while leaving the room open for others, or to end the meeting for all users. The host can also create a meeting report. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 8
Chat Chat works the same in Connections Cloud and in IBM Verse. In a chat, the A/V and screen-sharing features are provided by the Sametime WebPlayer. Starting a chat Chat is available from the data centers listed in Table 1. Table 1. Data centers that host Chat for Connections Cloud and Verse Connections Cloud Verse North America Europe Asia/Pacific https://webchat.na.collabserv.com/ https://mail.notes.na.collabserv.com/verse? https://webchat.ce.collabserv.com/ https://mail.notes.ce.collabserv.com/verse? https://webchat.ap.collabserv.com/ https://mail.notes.ap.collabserv.com/verse? In Connections Cloud, navigating to the Chat host URL launches the Chat window and you can immediately begin a session. In Verse, you can start a chat by clicking the Chat icon and then clicking Chat Contacts: Chat tools This section provides an overview of the tools available during a chat. For additional information on using chat, see the Connections Cloud Chat help in IBM Knowledge Center. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 9
Search The Search bar allow you to search for a user or a group. When the search results display, click the menu next to a name to see the menu of possible actions: You can add the user to your contact list, start a chat with that person, or call them using audio and video. Settings The Settings menu lets you add a new contact, create a new group, invite someone to an instant meeting, or send an announcement. You can also find the help, set your preferences, and adjust your hardware settings. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 10
Starting an audio/video call To make an a/v call, complete the following steps: 1. Open a 32-bit browser. 2. Install the Sametime WebPlayer plug-in (available in the Meeting Sofware section of the Meetings landing page). 3. Start a chat with the other user. 4. Convert the chat to a clall but clicking on the (video) or (audio) icon: If you encounter an issue with audio or video during a chat, click sure that you have the correct devices selected: > Adjust Hardware and make IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 11
Troubleshooting This section reviews some common problems encountered while using Meetings and Chat, and provides information to help you resolve the problem or, if needed, collect information for IBM Support. "Download WebPlayer Plug-in" message In both Chat and Meetings, audio/video and screen-sharing capabilities are provided by the Sametime WebPlayer, which is a plug-in that must be installed for each user. If the message Download WebPlayer Plug-in displays, the plug-in was either not installed, or has encountered a problem and must be re-installed using the following procedure: 1. Uninstall the WebPlayer. For example, on Windows, click Start > Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program: 2. Navigate to the computer s \SmartCloud folder and delete the \Sametime WebPlayer subfolder: Windows XP: %PROGRAMFILES%\IBM\SmartCloud Windows 7: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IBM\SmartCloud Mac OS X: $HOME/Library/Application Support/IBM/SmartCloud For example, on Windows: IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 12
3. Download the WebPlayer and install it: a. Start the browser and log in to your IBM Connections Cloud account. b. Select Apps > Meetings. c. Install the Meetings plug-in: o Windows: Click the Install via a Desktop Installer link in the sidebar. o Mac: Click the Install the Meetings Plug-in link in the sidebar. d. In the Opening IBMWebplayer_cloud message that displays, click Save File. The file is saved to your local Downloads folder. e. Close all browser windows. f. Navigate to the folder containing the downloaded IBMWebPlayer_cloud.exe file. g. Right-click the file and select Run as an Administrator. For more information on installing the WebPlayer, see the IBM Knowledge Center. Audio problems If you encounter audio problems such as distortion, echo, or poor call quality, the WebPlayer might be the cause. If you have not already re-installed the WebPlayer as explained in the previous section, do it now and see if that resolves the issue. If you re-install the WebPlayer and still encounter audio problems, you might need help from IBM Support. Capture the following information so you can provide it when requesting assistance: Call performance information Network performance information WebPlayer logs PCM Audio dumps Instructions for capturing this information is provided at the end of this Troubleshooting section. Screen-sharing problems If you encounter problems during screen-sharing sessions, the WebPlayer might be the cause. If you have not already re-installed the WebPlayer as explained in the first Troubleshooting section, do it now and see if that resolves the issue. If you re-install the WebPlayer and still encounter screen-sharing problems, you might need help from IBM Support. Collect the following information so you can provide it when requesting assistance: WebPlayer logs IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 13
Fiddler trace Instructions for collecting performance information is provided in the following section. Collecting information for IBM Support If you contact IBM Support for assistance, you might be asked to provide the following information: Call performance information Network performance information WebPlayer logs PCM Audio dumps Fiddler trace Capturing call performance information For issues with audio, you must be on a call when you capture performance information. During the call, click More > Performance: Take a screenshot of both the Outgoing and Incoming tabs on the Call Performance Statistics page: IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 14
Capturing network performance information For screen-sharing and audio/video issues during a meeting, you must capture the network performance information from the meeting room while the meeting is still active. During the meeting, click > View Network Performance and take a screenshot of the information displayed on the Network Performance page: Collecting Sametime WebPlayer logs Before you send the logs to IBM Support, you must edit the webplayer.ini file to set a higher logging level and then recreate the problem so that the information is captured in the logs. 1. Open the WebPlayer.ini file, located in the Sametime WebPlayer folder: Mac OS X: $HOME/Library/Application Support/IBM/SmartCloud/Sametime WebPlayer/ Windows XP: %PROGRAMFILES%\IBM\SmartCloud\Sametime WebPlayer\ Windows 7: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IBM\SmartCloud\Sametime WebPlayer\ Tip: If the \Users\AppData folder is not displayed on Windows 7, you can un-hide it. Click Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization. In the Folder Options section, click Show hidden files and folders. In the Advanced Settings section of the Folder Options dialog box, click Show hidden files, folders and drives, and then click Apply. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 15
2. Set the LogFileLevel parameter to 16. 3. Set the SoftphoneLogLevel parameter to 16. 4. Reproduce the issue so that information is captured in the log files. 5. Copy the log files from the WebPlayer s \Logs subfolder to a safe location so they do not get overwritten during your next meeting. Capturing PCM Audio dumps If you are having issues with VoIP in meetings, you must set up a special file to capture PCM audio information and then run a meeting so that you can reproduce the issue and capture debugging information. Note: The PCM audio dump must be captured by each of the meeting participants. Every participant in the meeting must complete the following steps: 1. Create the following folder structure on your computer, if it does not exist already: Windows: %USERPROFILE%/%APPDATA%\IBM\Sametime\Logs\ Mac: /Users/<user_name>/Documents/MFW_debug/ 2. In the location specified in step 1, create an empty text file with name bubble.debug (make sure the file does not accidentally get name bubble.debug.txt). 3. Run a meeting with the same participants as when you previously encountered the problems (use the same meeting room/moderator as before). 4. When the meeting ends, each participant needs to move the bubble.debug file to a safe location. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 16
When collecting the copies of the bubble.debug files, make sure you don t accidentally overwrite existing copies. Capturing a Fiddler trace Fiddler is a free web debugging proxy server that logs all HTTP and HTTPS traffic between your computer and the Internet. You must download and install Fiddler before you can capture a trace. 1. Close all other browser windows. 2. Open Fiddler. 3. Configure Fiddler to decrypt the HTTPS requests: a. Click Tools > Fiddler Options. b. Click the HTTPS tab. c. Select Decrypt HTTPS traffic and Ignore server certificate errors. d. Click OK. 4. Run the Fiddler application. 5. Log into the Connections Cloud environment. Note: If you are prompted to trust the Fiddler root certificate named DO_NOT_TRUST_FiddlerRoot, agree to trust it one time only. 6. Have the user perform the operation that is causing the error. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 17
7. When the action has been completed, save the results in Fiddler by choosing File > Save > All Sessions. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 18
Resources IBM Connections Social Cloud help https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssl3jx/welcomeuser/welcome_end_user.html IBM Sametime wiki https://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stwiki.nsf IBM Connections wiki https://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf System Requirements https://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/bhwiki.nsf/dx/system_requirements#meetings About the authors Imran Khan is a Level 2 Sametime Technical Lead. He has been with IBM since 2006, with a focus / special attention on Sametime development, cloud, support, cross-product interoperability, and security architecture. Imran has worked on Level 2 Customer Support for the past 6 years. Adam Goodison joined the Level 2 Sametime team in 2014. Since joining the L2 Sametime team, Adam has been working with a focus on Connections Cloud. IBM Connections Cloud Meetings and Chat Features Guide 19