Koldov Posted January 19, 2021 Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) So, I guess Zoom has come a long way... Where are we now on allowing it? 50/50? I initially was lead by comments on here, educational establishments and LEAs banning it and many IT articles slamming it... So, I went belt and braces in taking it off our network. Along with a task to remove Zoom.exe to get rid if installed, I also have measures to stop it being reinstalled (not specifically - SRP). Although we use Google Classroom/Meet for online learning, teachers can always use the web version of Zoom and have been doing so (although some complain about certain features not being available) to attend other types of meetings and training. Even though these are run by other educational establishments, most of them appear to use Zoom to hold these meetings! Anyway, it hasn't been a major problem until today, as twice I have been emailed (whilst supporting the school remotely) saying that they are not able to join separate Science and Maths training Zoom meeting. Now, I have some screenshots (as I have trained them well when reporting problems) and it appears the host of the meeting has taken security seriously and all credit to them. However, this means that not only does the meeting not accept participants without an account, it appears joining from the browser is also not supported.... However, apart from the poor English, I believe 'joining from the browser' is something that can actually be restricted (option can be hidden by the host?) and is maybe also because the teacher wasn't signed in to an account in the browser... can anyone please confirm? Should I just throw in the towel and push out the Zoom.msi.... Edited January 19, 2021 by Koldov
Koldov Posted January 19, 2021 Author Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) Hmmmm.... A bit of further research shows it may well be that they can disable the ‘join from browser’ option…. EDITED ORIGINAL POST TO CONFIRM. Edited January 19, 2021 by Koldov
strawberry Posted January 20, 2021 Posted January 20, 2021 We've had this over the weekend, meant a few staff weren't able to attend the training they had booked and paid for.
MatthewL Posted January 20, 2021 Posted January 20, 2021 Really as an origination you need to risk assess and decide what is best on weather its allowed or not. Our stance is that Teams is our platform to use and anything we initiate has to be through that but if a third party is hosting a call weather it be Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, WebEx what ever it is then they can join a call using that platform unless its something unknown its quite safe to join.
free780 Posted January 20, 2021 Posted January 20, 2021 I'd do the MSI but you need to enable updates in group policy (you need the admx). If you have SCCM you can make Zoom available rather than push it to all devices. You don't need to update via SCCM. It only updates when launched. The Per Machine version can update as standard user using zupdater.exe. Go to meeting uses a schedule task and will update proactively for the per user and the the system level installer. There will always be external meetings to join. So I think trying to make the per machine version of WebEx, Go to Meeting etc is the lesser of 2 evils. Better than per user apps everywhere. You also want them to be on the most recent version. Most update themselves. Back when Zoom had a lot of Security issue an update was forced before you could join a meeting.
MrBitey Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 We're having issues with the Zoom app not playing nicely with Smoothwall since half term. Can join meetings via the browser (if this has been allowed by the meeting host) but connection always times out when using the app. I'm working from home and can't tinker and test. Our visiting ICT techs are also trying to sort issues remotely. No luck at the moment. I am not a fan (residual I guess from the security issues back last Spring) and would much rather use teams/Meet. Our new head (since Jan) wants to use it for everything though as he is familar with it and likes all the additional features. The workaround we have at the moment is to click a meeting's link, wait for the connection to time out and then click the 'join in a browser instead' button. Really not ideal. We are all at a loss to figure out what has changed since half term
Rob_D Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Rather than having to install and keep zoom updated everywhere, we just installed it to a server share (and gave everyone a shortcut). Seems to work fine for the few zoom calls we still have.
Ex-MGSTech Posted March 10, 2021 Posted March 10, 2021 I'm still reluctant to install the client ( Any client that used a vulnerability to bypass local permissions to install is somewhat doggy to me) and highly doubtful that enabling access for all students is a good idea. As soon as we do we'll be asked to police its use and that's just not possible.... I've enabled it for staff via the web, but the mental Health charity MIND are no ONLY using Zoom and our pastoral team want to be able to let MIND have Zoom sessions unsupervised by staff... I know that eventually I'll be overruled by our head who will only consider that he "needs" it and not why I'm resisting it! "Business needs" trump security considerations when you have no comprehension of the latter!
Ex-MGSTech Posted March 10, 2021 Posted March 10, 2021 http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/220370-men-exposed-themselves-school-zoom-lesson.html
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