Zoom Waiting Room Requirement Beginning September 27th

In an attempt to secure Zoom meetings and to avoid interruptions such as “Zoombombing” where uninvited visitors manage to join unsecured meetings, Zoom will require all meetings (pre-existing and new) to use either a Waiting Room or Passcode beginning September 27th. If you have not already added one of these to your meetings by September 27th, Zoom will automatically enable a Waiting Room for you. What this means is, if anyone wants to join your meeting with an account that is NOT a College account, they will be placed in the Waiting Room and the meeting host will have to allow them to join the meeting. Please note that though Zoom will default all unsecured meetings to have Waiting Rooms, the host can selectively disable this and use a Passcode instead.

We understand that these steps add another level of complexity to setting up meetings, but in the wake of continued hacking and interruptions, this is a necessary precaution. Please review the document on securing your Zoom meetings and follow those guidelines. We strongly recommend using unique Meeting IDs with a Waiting Room, and the document provides details on how to set these up. 

It is very important that all Wellesley participants sign into their Wellesley Zoom account beforehand to avoid being placed into a Waiting Room. If you are a faculty member, please remind all your students to sign in using the MyWellesley portal and click on the Zoom link, which will assure that they are using their College credentials to log in to Zoom.

In some cases, you may prefer that all participants be placed into a Waiting Room for certain meetings, such as virtual office hours. You can adjust Waiting Room settings to hold everyone until you admit them individually. To do this, sign into Zoom and in the navigation menu, click “Settings”. Under “Waiting Room Options” click “Edit Options” and select “Everyone”.

About waiting rooms

To enable the Waiting Room for your future meetings, open Zoom and navigate to Settings.  In the Security section, verify the Waiting Room is turned on.  By default, everyone signed into their Wellesley Zoom account will bypass the Waiting Room if the host has not changed this setting to send all participants there.  Remember to sign into your Wellesley Zoom account before attending a Zoom meeting so you are not placed in a Waiting Room unexpectedly.

Note: In the Zoom Security section Waiting Room Options, “Users not in your account” is referring to the College’s campus wide Zoom account.

How do I know if I need to take action on previously scheduled meetings?

Log into Zoom at https://wellesley.zoom.us.  Click on Meetings on the left, and look at your Upcoming Meetings.  If any have a red exclamation point next to them, you need to edit each meeting to add a Waiting Room, or Passcode if you prefer.  Hover over each and click Edit.  Remember to click Save for any changes.

About passcodes

If you would prefer not to use a Waiting Room, Passcodes are an alternative that will meet Zoom’s security requirements after September 27.  Your Passcode should ideally be shared separately from a meeting link.  Please do not use an easily guessable password such as “wellesley” or your course number. Also, do not use numbers such as 12345. Zoombombers have a dictionary of such passwords that they can repeatedly try to break in.

Using a personal url (e.g. wellesley.zoom.us/my/yourname) and an easy to guess Passcode will likely result in unwanted interruptions.  

To add a Passcode to your future meetings, open Zoom and navigate to Settings. In the Security section, verify that the Passcode settings that you would like to use for your future meetings are enabled by clicking the toggle buttons.  You can add them to all newly scheduled meetings, instant meetings, and meetings that use your Personal Meeting ID (PMI).

If you need any assistance please contact the Computing Help Desk at helpdesk@wellesley.edu or 781-283-3333 (faculty/staff) or 781-283-7777 (students).

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