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Before the Meeting Starts
General
Deciding who should be the host
The conference host should be at the site where most of the meeting participants are present. In addition, the host should be someone who can stay in the meeting until it is over. Once the host hangs up, everyone else is disconnected. If everybody is on the same LAN, the host should be the person with the fastest computer.
If you are the Host of the meeting...
Sending a meeting invitation
If you want your meeting to be a scheduled event, it is helpful to send out a meeting invitation that includes connection information. Outlook 98 has a feature to schedule a NetMeeting, but if you don't have Outlook 98, you can use e-mail or voicemail.Using Outlook 98 - If you and the other meeting participants have Outlook 98, you can use the Online Meeting request in the Outlook 98 Calendar to send a schedule request specifically for a NetMeeting conference. When the reminder for the meeting comes up, you can just click "Start Meeting" to host the meeting. Your participants will see a reminder with a button that says "Join Meeting".
Using e-mail or voicemail - The following is a list of information that you should include in your invitation:
- Name or email name of the person hosting the meeting
or- Directory server (ILS) on which to find the host's name
or- IP address of the person hosting the meeting
- Phone number of the host, if you are using the phone for the audio part of the meeting
- Screen resolution of host’s monitor
Timing
The host should log onto the designated Directory Server (ILS) and begin hosting 5-10 minutes before the meeting is scheduled to begin. If the meeting participants are spread out geographically, the distributed hosts should connect early so participants in their location can connect to them as well. It is important that the host be there first, to ensure that they can control the meeting, e.g. - remove participants if necessary.Note: If you are using Outlook 98 to schedule the Online Meeting, a reminder will pop up automatically.
Size of meeting
NetMeeting supports having 32 people in a meeting at a time, but is really meant for smaller groups. If you plan to share application, having more than 12 people in a meeting can be problematic, especially if you want the other people in the meeting to be able work in your shared application. More than 15-20 connections over a Wide Area Network can yield inconsistent and unpredictable results.Connecting over a WAN
To keep the number of simultaneous Wide Area Network connections to a minimum, only one connection should be made across the Wide Area Network for each site participating.Example: If several geographic locations are participating in a conference, each location should have its own host who connects to the main host of the entire meeting. After the local hosts have connected to the main host, participants can connect to the host at their location.
If you are a participant in the meeting...
Practicing beforehand
If you have never used NetMeeting before, practice a little bit before the meeting starts. Try out the different commands and toolbar buttons, such as the whiteboard and chat, so you are familiar with them when the meeting starts. Practicing during the meeting can be disruptive, since certain tools, such as the Whiteboard, are visible to everyone in the meeting.Preparing your desktop
If you plan to share an application during the meeting, close all the applications you don't want to inadvertently share with others.Joining the meeting
Try to connect before the meeting starts, to make sure you can get connected. Time is often wasted at the beginning of a conference making sure everyone is connected.