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.

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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.

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 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 video-
enabled 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.

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 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.

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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 https://WebChat.na.collabserv.com/ https://mail.notes.na.collabserv.com/verse?

America

Europe https://WebChat.ce.collabserv.com/ https://mail.notes.ce.collabserv.com/verse?

Asia/Pacific 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.

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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 > Adjust Hardware and make
sure that you have the correct devices selected:

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:

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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

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  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.

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 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.

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7. When the action has been completed, save the results in Fiddler by choosing File > Save > All
Sessions.

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Resources
IBM Connections Social Cloud help
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSL3JX/welcome-
user/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.

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