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What is Zoombombing and how you can prevent it

What is Zoombombing and how you can prevent it

Zoom has become a large part of our lives. We engage on the platform daily. However, a common issue is occurring nowadays called “Zoombombing.”  What is it? How can you prevent it?  You can learn all about it here.  What Is Zoombombing? “Zoombombing” means uninvited and disruptive intrusion. This is done to gain a few cheap laughs at the expense of the participants. Zoombombers often pass racial comments, use abusive language or share offensive images. Zoom Bombing isn’t a security flaw. The issue is in people’s handling of public Zoom meeting links. These links are shared thousands of times between clients, friends, colleagues, classmates, and so on. If a user isn’t careful about the links, it will allow the Zoom meeting to become accessible to the public. Then, anyone who finds the link can join an on-going meeting. Public Zoom meeting links can show up in the results section when people search for “zoom.us” on Google. Anyone who finds such links can join that meeting. It should be noted that Zoomboming is illegal in a lot of places including the U.S.  How to Protect Yourself? On April 5, 2020, Zoom announced some features that improve meeting securities. These features would be enabled by default. However, it’s better to take necessary precautions to protect yourself and your near ones. Log into Zoom via the web portal.Click on the “Settings” tab on the left-hand side. Features You Should Disable Here you can find many useful features. Follow the guidelines mentioned below to learn which features should be disabled.  “Embed Password in Meeting Link for One-Click Join”: By enabling this feature,  anyone who clicks on the link can join the meeting.  This defeats the purpose of requiring a password. Hence, turn this feature off. “Screen Sharing”: This feature allows the host and participants to share their screens during the meeting. You can disable this completely or allow only the host of the meeting to share their screen. This way you can ensure that people do not share inappropriate content during the meeting.  “Remote Control”: This allows the screen sharer to let other participants take remote control of their system. Disable this feature. “File Transfer”: this feature allows the participants to share files in the meeting chatroom. You can disable this if you don’t want files to be shared. You can also select the “Only Allow Specified File Types” option. This will ensure that people only share certain types of files. “Allow Participants to Rename Themselves”: Disable this option since it will prevent Zoombombers typing a message as their name.  “Join Before Host”: This feature is disabled by default due to security purposes. “Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin”: This feature is also disabled by default. If it is enabled, kicked out participants can rejoin. Surely, you wouldn’t want the Zoombomber to come back.   Features You Should Enable It is recommended that the following features should be enabled: “Mute Participants Upon Entry”: If someone manages to Zoombomb your meeting, don’t allow them to speak up. Later, you can decide who gets to talk. “Always Show Meeting Control Toolbar”: This feature means that you’ll have quick access to the controls during a meeting. “Identify Guest Participants in the Meeting/Webinar”: This identifies who belongs in your group, as well as any attendees who join as guests. “Waiting Room”: This places all the participants in a waiting room before they’re able to join the meeting. Then, the host will decide if they can join or not. As of April 5, 2020, this feature is enabled by default. “Require a Password When Scheduling New Meetings”: It forces people to type a password before they can join a meeting. This won’t allow someone who found the link to join directly.  This is also enabled by default.  Remember to make security and privacy your top priority whenever you use Zoom.
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How to add a Co-host to a Zoom Meeting?

How to add a Co-host to a Zoom Meeting?

A Zoom meeting with a lot of participants can be difficult to manage. Adding a co-host will help you share your workload and ensure that your meeting is conducted smoothly.  Enabling the Co-Host Setting in Zoom Before adding a co-host to a Zoom video conference, you’ll need to enable this in the settings. To do this, follow the given instructions:  Open the Zoom Web Portal, sign in to your Zoom account, and then select the “Settings” tab. Now, you’ll be in the Meeting tab of the Settings menu. Scroll down until you find the “Co-Host” option. There are many options offered by Zoom in this list. Hence, use the “Control+F” shortcut (Command+F for Mac) and type “co-host” in the search box. Toggle on the slider next to the “Co-Host” option to enable Zoom’s co-host feature. Now, the host can assign a co-host in the meeting. The co-host will have access to all the in-meeting controls as the host. But, a co-host can’t start meetings scheduled by the host. Adding a Co-Host in a Zoom Meeting To assign a participant as a co-host, select the “Manage Participants” tab at the bottom of the screen. A list of participants will appear on the right-hand side. Hover over the participant’s name you wish to make the co-host. Then, select the “More” option. Select “Make Co-Host” from the menu.  A pop-up confirmation message will appear asking whether you want to make this participant the co-host of your meeting. Click on “Yes” to proceed. To verify, you can see that the decided participant has a “Co-host” label next to their name. Removing a Co-Host in a Zoom Meeting If you want to remove a person as a co-host, hover over their name. Click on the “More” option, and then select “Withdraw Co-Host Permission” from the menu. P.S.You can add an unlimited number of co-hosts to the Zoom meeting. If you have to leave a meeting mid-way, remember to pass on the hosting privileges before you exit, otherwise, the call will suddenly end. 
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How to Mute Everyone on a Zoom Meeting

How to Mute Everyone on a Zoom Meeting

Managing a bunch of people on a Zoom video conferencing call can be difficult, especially when their mics are unmuted. It can create disruptive noises and cause a delay in the meeting. Therefore, muting all of the participants at once can be a useful option.   Hosts Only On Zoom, only hosts can mute everyone during a conference call. When you mute everyone, it turns off their microphones so you can’t hear them. However, the video stream remains unaffected. The host can choose whether participants can unmute themselves. How to Mute and Unmute everyone on Zoom? The following set of instructions work on PC, Mac, web, and tablet versions of Zoom. However, the interface elements can be in slightly different locations than the screenshots provided here. Open Zoom. Click on “Participants” or “Manage Participants” from the toolbar.  Find the “Mute All” tab from the Participants list. Click on it. A confirmation message will pop-up informing you that all participants will be muted. Tick the “Allow Participants To Unmute Themselves” tab if you want each participant to be able to unmute themselves. Then click on “Continue.” To verify that all participants have been muted, look at the Participants list, you will see  crossed-out microphone icons next to everyone who is currently muted. If you’d like to unmute everyone at once, tap the “Unmute All” button in the Participants list. There will be a pop-up message confirming that all participants have been unmuted.
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How to Create Polls in Zoom Meetings

How to Create Polls in Zoom Meetings

Participant feedback polls can be a useful analysis tool for hosts.  Zoom allows users to create multiple-choice or single-answer polls. They can also see live results.  However, you have to fill-in some prerequisites before creating polls in Zoom meetings. Firstly, the host needs to be a licensed user. Moreover, polls can only be created for instant meetings where you use your Personal Meeting ID (PMI). It is recommended to use your PMI only for personal meetings, due to security issues. Enabling Polls for Zoom Meetings Open Zoom on your web browser, sign in. Select “Account Settings” under “Account Management” in the “Admin” group. Source: HowToGeek You’ll now be in the “Meeting” tab. Scroll down to the “Polling” option. Toggle the slider to the right. This will enable the polling option. Source: HowToGeek Now that Polling is enabled, you can create your own polls.  Creating a Poll In the Zoom web portal, select the “Meetings” tab. Source: HowToGeek Now, you can schedule a new Zoom meeting, or select an already scheduled one from your meeting list.  Source: HowToGeek Scroll to the bottom of the page, and you’ll find a text box saying “You have not created a poll yet.” Select “Add.” Source: HowToGeek The “Add A Poll” window will appear. Give a name to your poll and select if you want the answers to be anonymous or not. Anonymous means that you’ll see “Guest” next to the answer instead of the actual user. Source: HowToGeek Type in your question (maximum of 255 characters). Choose if you want it to be a single or multiple-choice question. Then, type the available answers (with a limit of up to 10 answers for each question). Source: HowToGeek Select the “Add A Question” tab at the bottom of the window to add more questions to your poll. Click on “Save” when you’re done forming the poll.  Source: HowToGeek You can launch the poll during the Zoom meeting. Start Your Poll During the Zoom Meeting Select “Polls” at the bottom of the screen. Source: HowToGeek The “Polls” window will appear. Review the questions and answers, then select “Launch Polling.” Source: HowToGeek You’ll be able to see live results. Once everyone has voted, select “End Polling.” Source: HowToGeek Now, you can see the results of the poll. You can also share the results with the attendees or relaunch the polling. Source: HowToGeek If you’d want to review the results later, select the meeting in the “Previous Meetings” tab. Select “Poll Report” next to the “Report type” option, and generate the report. Now, you can view the results from past meetings.
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How to Turn Off your Webcam and Microphone on Zoom

How to Turn Off your Webcam and Microphone on Zoom

There may be times when you want to turn off your Zoom video and audio. By doing so, you can ensure the chaos of your home doesn’t reach to your mates on call. Follow the steps mentioned below to learn muting and unmuting while getting a hang of some keyboard shortcuts to save you time. Turning Off Webcam Video To turn off your video during a Zoom call, click the “Stop Video” tab on the left side of the toolbar. Alternatively, you can also press Alt+V on a PC to turn your webcam on or off. Source: GADGET HACK To confirm that your video is off, you’ll see a camera icon with a red slash through it. This means that other people won’t be able to see you. Source: GADGET HACK Muting Microphone Move your mouse to the lower-left corner of the window and click on the “Mute” button. Alternatively, you can press Alt+M on a PC, or tap the Space bar to mute and unmute yourself. Source: GADGET HACK To confirm that you’re muted, you’ll see a microphone icon with a red slash through it.  Turning off Microphone and Video by Default To choose if you want Zoom to automatically activate your webcam and microphone while joining a meeting, you can go into Zoom’s settings window. Click your profile icon at the top of the main Zoom window and click “Settings.” Source: GADGET HACK To automatically turn off your webcam video when joining a Zoom call, click the “Video” option on the left side of the Settings window.Tick the “Turn off my video when joining a meeting” checkbox. Source: GADGET HACK To automatically mute your microphone’s audio when you join a Zoom call, click the “Audio” option on the left side of the window.Activate the “Mute my microphone when joining a meeting” option. Source: GADGET HACK P.S. You can still enable your video and audio whenever you want to during the meeting by following the steps mentioned above.
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