How to Block Ricrolls When Increasing
Currently, it seems that Zoom will never abandon us, remote work will never let us down, and we are not going to run anywhere else because we will be stuck in quarantine for another year. And if that’s as much Rick Astley as you need in your life right now, you’ll want to make sure your Zoom meetings are protected from this magical meme – and anyone else who might want to step in and cause trouble.
I mention Mr. Astley as this incredible free service just launched today that allows you to manage any Zoom meeting you have access to. I think this is all a lot of fun – and given how much slammed it will get and how big the line for ricrolling will get, I doubt it will last very long. However, it got me thinking: if someone could donate their Zoom account and write a little tool to scroll through random encounters, what’s stopping the person from doing something much more annoying?
Zoom is trying to prevent such situations by forcing its paying users by September 27 (previously July 19) to apply one of two security strategies: waiting rooms or access codes . The first option is the best strategy you can use to prevent unexpected people from joining your Zoom call to cause trouble or sing pesky memes – and stop digital Astley right in its path – but that gets problematic when you have to give green light to a group of people if you have not previously added the group or domain to the whitelist .
In other words, if you pay for a Zoom account to chat with friends or play games , you will have to go through an annoying process of allowing everyone in your Zoom meeting every time you host. However, it also makes it impossible for someone to join your meeting who you don’t need there – unless they somehow make you think they are one of your friends, which would be a pretty good option for guessing the name from theirs. sides. …
In addition, there are access codes , which are another semi-effective way to block your meeting from strangers. The catch is that the standard Zoom link for your meeting already contains a built-in password. This is why you can jump straight to a meeting without typing anything by clicking it.
You will have to edit the “Pwd =” …. “part of your Zoom link to force everyone to enter your meeting password in order to join. And that passcode is not the aforementioned password field from the url; this is a separate six-digit number that you will give people if you copy the “invitation” rather than the “invitation link” when you share a meeting.
Clear? This is a little confusing. And it would be great if Zoom provided you with a toggle that allowed you to paste or not paste the meeting password when copying its link (at least in the Zoom app, not the entire account). Otherwise, if someone gets this link and you are not using the waiting rooms, they can go to your Zoom meeting, even if it is password protected.
If I were in your place, I would now forget all this and completely focus on a different setting. Once you have everyone in the meeting who needs to be present – however they come in – and you can make sure that there is no one in the meeting who should not be, just lock the room. This handy little tweak through Attendees> …> Lock Meeting makes sure no one can enter your Zoom or its waiting room, no matter what link or password they use.
That’s all. Keep this setting in mind and no one will be able to join it once your meeting starts – not the hacker, not the bored teenager, not Rick Astley.