Cisco Collaboration and Contact Center Solutions - Messages with tag "PIN authentication"

Aurus Blog

This blog is to share our expertise in Cisco UCM, UCCX/UCCE and Cisco Meeting Server

  • Archive

    «   March 2024   »
    M T W T F S S
            1 2 3
    4 5 6 7 8 9 10
    11 12 13 14 15 16 17
    18 19 20 21 22 23 24
    25 26 27 28 29 30 31
                 

All Possible Ways to Set Up PIN for CUCM Meet-Me Conference

  • "How to configure Meet-Me video conference with PIN?"
  • "We need to configure Meet-Me conference with PIN…"
  • "CUCM 10.x Meet-Me with Name announcement and Pin number…"

- try to search the Cisco Support Forum and you'll get dozens of similar tickets.

Yes, the built-in Meet-Me conferencing feature doesn't support PIN authentication, so here goes the list of all possible ways to set it up.

Before we start, let's agree that we only consider Cisco Unified Communications Manager Enterprise or Cisco BE 6000/7000. If you've got CUCM/CallManager Express (CME) you can play with TCL IVR scripts, but that’s definitely another story.

So you're enjoying Cisco UCM Meet-Me conferencing, but you want attendees to hear the voice prompt asking for a PIN needed to join the meeting. You’ve got 4 options:

1. Cisco Unity Express/Connection

If you have Cisco Unity deployed you can use it to achieve the Meet-Me authentication. The attendees call should be transferred via CUC and the User System Transfer Conversation should be used to authenticate the caller (a user is created on CUC). The conversation prompts the caller to sign in to CUC with his CUC ID and PIN and then transfers the call to Meet-Me conference number.

Looks like a kludge? Still it gets the job done.

2. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX)

You can use UCCX as an audio front end to Meet-Me conferences. You may find several UCCX scripts around the web which prompt the caller for meeting ID and password and then transfer the call to the MeetMe bridge. Meeting IDs and PINs are set up by UCCX admin.

This works, but since UCCX is used for something that it’s not initially designed for, this workaround isn’t as feature-rich as you users may require and hard to maintain.

3. The "Conference Now" feature of CUCM 11

The "Conference Now" feature is introduced in Cisco UCM v.11 released in the summer of 2015. It's not the replacement for Meet-Me feature, but allows users to create their personal conference rooms protected (optionally) by the access code. The attendee has to call your conference room number, enter the access code and listen to the music until you start the meeting by joining it.

Quite promising feature but the access code stays the same until you change it, so if I participated in your meeting once, I can use it to join the next time even if I wasn’t invited. Also, no scheduler and conference control tool are available.

4. The “Conference” module of “Aurus PhoneUP” suite

The CUCM Meet-Me conferencing solution from Aurus is designed specifically for CUCM conferencing and allows you to:

  • schedule Meet-Me conferences with a web-interface;
  • use the MS Outlook plugin to schedule the meetings from the Outlook calendar;
  • use the same phone number for meetings (the PIN entered is used to define which meeting you're joining);
  • protect meetings with a randomly generated PIN (the PIN is automatically added to the meeting invitation sent to invitees);
  • control the conference with the web-interface – the meeting host can see the list of participants, join a new attendee and disconnect anyone;
  • start the meeting from any phone - without the necessity to use a Cisco IP phone to initiate the meetme bridge;
  • control the resources of the conference bridge.

So, these are 4 options to secure your Meet-Me conferences. Which one works better for you, depends on your business requirements and Cisco products used. Hopefully, this article will help you to evaluate the pros and cons of each option in relation to your environment.

How to Improve the Enterprise Security with Cisco UC Applications

Secured Meet-Me conferences

The Meet-Me conferencing functionality is provided by Cisco Unified Communications Manager in such a way that it's enough to dial-in to the conference to join it. Unless you deployed the latest CUCM v11 you can’t secure your Meet-Me conferences.

The "Conference" module is developed to close this gap protecting the Meet-Me conferences:

  • by PIN – you need to know the PIN to join the meeting;
  • or by Caller ID – your phone number must be included into the predefined group for you to join the meeting.

In addition the "Conference" module provides the meeting scheduler functionality (web-calendar or MS Outlook plugin) and conference control tool.

Locking Cisco IP phone

The "Lock" module restricts access to IP phone functions while his owner is away. The phone may be locked either manually or automatically when user's PC is locked or turned off. When locked, the IP phone:

  • denies the access to IP phone services (personal phone directory, information services, calls history and the list of missed calls, recorded calls archive and etc.);
  • allows only emergency calls to be made;
  • forwards all incoming calls to user's mobile.

To unlock the IP phone its owner must unlock the PC or enter the PIN using the IP phone keypad.

Extension Mobility automatic authentication

Mobile employees working in different locations use the Extension Mobility functionality for authentication on IP phones and loading their profile (phone number, settings, etc.). To authenticate the employee has to enter his User ID and PIN, which he should always remember.

A more convenient way is to use automatic authentication - when an employee logs in to PC his Extension Mobility profile is loaded automatically to the IP phone associated with this working place. When an employee leaves this location the current configuration of the device is replaced by the logout profile.

Special call control features

The "Forced Connection" feature enables top managers to get in touch with an employee even when the employee's phone is busy. When activated, the current call is put on hold and the employee gets connected to his manager.

"Monitor", "Whisper", and "Barge" features are useful, for example, in the commercial department:

  • the team supervisor can silently listen to agents' calls with customers or others to ensure the high quality of service or sales is delivered;
  • using the "Whisper" feature he is able to privately coach the agent without the customer hearing what he says;
  • when monitoring the call a supervisor may join it to switch the call to a conference, where all three parties can hear each other.