Before you start
Objectives: familiarize yourself with the Windows Meeting Space application in Windows Vista
Prerequisites: no prerequisites.
Key terms: meeting, space, people, windows, options, file, handouts, invitation, join, share, application
Open Windows Meeting Space
To open Windows Meeting Space we can go to Start > All programs > Windows Meeting Space. When we first open Windows Meeting space we will get a warning that we need to allow this application to go trough our Windows Firewall in order to share information with other users. We will select the “Yes” option so that we can continue setting up Windows Meeting space.
Firewall Warning
The new window will pop up. Here we will set up the People Near Me feature. We will enter our display name and choose to allow invitations from anyone. We could also allow invitations only from trusted contacts or from no one. Trusted contacts are those who have digital certificates to verify their authenticity.
People Near Me Options
The next thing we will see is the Windows Meeting Space window. On the left-hand side we can start a new meeting, join an existing meeting, or open an invitation file to join the meeting.
Meeting Space
Let’s start a new meeting. We have to enter a meeting name and a password which has to have at least 8 characters.
New Meeting
Before we continue let’s look more options by clicking on the Options link. Here we will be able to edit visibility options. With visibility options we can allow people which are signed in People Near Me feature to see our meeting, or we can disable that. If we disable this, only people with invitation will be able to join our meeting. Here we can also configure a private ad hoc peer-to-peer wireless network and set up meetings that way.
Visibility Options
We will continue creating our meeting by clicking on the green arrow button. This will create our meeting. As we can see on the picture, we have a very simple interface.
Interface
On the left-hand side we can choose to share some program or our whole desktop with others. When we click that we will get a warning about a security risk. The risk is that others will see all items on our desktop, but we can actually avoid that by choosing the program from the list. Notice that in our case we have a Windows Calendar application running in the background. In our case we will choose only that application and share it with others.
List Of Programs
We can see how our shared session looks like on other computers by clicking the appropriate option on the Meeting Space window. We can also stop sharing at any time. On the upper right-hand corner we can see the list of participants attending the meeting and invite people to our meeting. To invite others to this meeting, they have to be signed in to the People Near Me.
Invite Window
We don’t see anybody on the list, so we will click on the “Invite others” button and create an invitation file. We can send an invitation in e-mail or simply create an invitation file and save it on our computer.
Invitation Options
In our case we will select the second option and save or file to our Documents folder with the name “CicnaviMeeting”. This file can then be sent by e-mail, instant messaging, or shared on the network. So, other people have to get this invitation file somehow. The password for the meeting can also be phoned in person, in addition to mentioned methods.
In meeting we also have a handouts feature. We can add handouts to our meeting which will then be copied to each participant’s computer. In our case we have added one handout which is a picture of a creek.
Handouts
All handouts can be edited during the meeting. All handouts can be saved by going to the upper left-hand corner menu.
Save Handouts
Here we can also leave the meeting, we can invite others, share our desktop or application, and add handouts. In the upper right-hand corner we can give control of the program we are sharing or our desktop to someone else. We can take it back with the Windows+Escape buttons.
Give Control
On the Options button we can show windows meeting space window, and also connect to a network projector.
Options
We cannot be joined to two meetings simultaneously. We have to leave one meeting and then join another separately. We always have to be sure that we trust the people in a meeting since we will typically share our resources. Also, we should only share the specific resources we need to share.
Troubleshooting
In order to set up a meeting we have to make sure that we have network connectivity. Firewall settings also have to be set up. Meeting Space will try to automatically open the correct firewall ports when we first start the application. We must sign in to People Near Me before we can use all the Meeting Space features. The maximum number of participants in a meeting is 10 (one presenting while 9 watch). If Meeting Space won’t run, we have to make sure that the proper services are running. Those services are Peer name resolution protocol, Peer networking grouping, Peer networking identity manager and DFS replication. Sometimes others won’t be able to see or join a meeting. To resolve this, the person who set up the meeting should have Network discovery enabled in the Network and Sharing Center. Also, other people might not have the correct firewall ports open. During the meeting certain file types cannot be shared. Those files are Encrypting File System (EFS) files.