Help needed with contact joining a meeting.

mke
mke Posts: 10 ✭✭
in General questions

Hello,

I've used TeamViewer for a couple of years to connect remotely to my computer at home when I'm away, on both a small laptop and my android phone. Thus, I am able to answer emails (and so keep the trail of related emails in one place) and  I can also print emails for an elderly family member (who is 'computerphobic') and still at home even when I'm not. It has been wonderful - thanks TeamViewer! But remote control of my own computer is the only use I've had for TeamViewer so far.

So when recently Skype updated and became unusable, I thought, perhaps using a 'TeamViewer meeting' would be a good way of talking to a registered blind friend who lives 300 miles away. So I got him to install TeamViewer 13 on his computer, and we did managed to have one very successful conversation (that could have been through a web browser connection - I can't now remember how we connected). I though my Skype problems were over!

However, having added him in the 'people' section of my account, and given him the meeting ID, we can no longer connect which ever way we try to do it. What happens is that I start a meeting and invite him to join. He gets the invitation and tries to accept the invitation, but it just doesn't connect. I've discovered, that if I 'lock' the meeting, when I invite him to join he appears in the list of participants, until he tries to join, at which point he disappears from view the list. The same thing happens if he tried to enter the meeting ID he gets so far, then it disappears, almost as if the accept/join button is acting as the deny/close (or whatever the buttons are called) one. Please, what are we doing wrong?

(Of course, being registered blind, he does have odd settings that enlarge typefaces and high contrast so he can see what is on his screen, so could it be that TeamViewer is not configured to work for the disabled who need such accessibility settings?) 

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Answers

  • mke
    mke Posts: 10 ✭✭

    In an attempt to connect, we have both downgraded today to Teamviewer version 12. When I started the meeting and my friend tried to join it, sdame thing happened, his acceptance just disappeared and he wasn't able to join my meeting. So we tried it the other way round, with him starting the meeting and me joining it. And we were connected imediately, and talked ok. So why does it work one way and not the other?

    Any ideas gratefully received!

  • mke
    mke Posts: 10 ✭✭

    As you can see from my previous messages, people can't join a meeting I've started, though I can join one started by someone else. In an attempt to solve this, I downloaded 'TV Meeting' onto my Android mobile phone, set up a meeting on my computer and tried to join it from my mobile phone. Having entered the meeting ID on my phone, I received a message saying that, either I was black-listed, or I wasn't white-listed. But I thought black- and white-listing was only available if one had a paid licence? So the question now is how and where can I either, disable black- and white-listing from my free account, or add people to a white-list, as this would appear, possibly, to be the problem?

    Any help gratefully received.

  • mke
    mke Posts: 10 ✭✭

    Many thanks, Esther. I've found the black and while lists and there is no-one blacklisted. In the whitelist only I am listed, so either this entry has happened automatically in some way, or I'd forgotten that I've added myself to this list. I do connect to my home computer from my laptop when I'm away, so that could be why I'm there. I've added my mobile phone to the whitelist and successfully joined a meeting I'd started. And I've added my friend's ID too, so I'll see if he can join my meeting this evening.

    Many thanks for your help.

  • Esther
    Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager

    Hi @mke

    I am happy to hear that it works now :-) Enjoy your meetings and if you have any further questions: The TeamViewer Community is here to help.

    All the best, Esther

    Former Community Manager

  • mke
    mke Posts: 10 ✭✭

    Hello Esther,

    Yes, that has solved the problem and my friend was able to join a meeting I started this evening. So very many thanks for your help.

    One thing I'm not sure about (and it may, possibly, help anyone looking at this query in future). Is it just the people and computers I have listed in my full version of TeamViewer (for easy access) that need to be white-listed? Or is anyone I want to talk to (and who may not be a person I frequently connect with, so I'm not going to add them to that easy access list) going to have to be added to the white-list, too? Because I was able to join my friends meeting, and (as far as I know) he hasn't added me to his full TeamViewer yet. Or in other words, have I got the black and white lists switched on and have to use it for everyone, and my friend hasn't?

  • Esther
    Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager

    Hi @mke

    It sounds to me that you friend does not have an active Black or whitelist and therefore you were able to join this meeting without the "Error" message.

    If you have regular meetings with the same people, you can add them to your Whitelist. Maybe you can add them shortly before the meeting starts and remove them afterwards again (if you do not want to keep them on the Whitelist). If there is a specific person, you don´t want to give access to your meetings, you can also use the blacklist. With this you do not need to add people individually to your whitelist.

    I will soon upload a Knowledge Base article about the Black and whitelist which explains its usage a bit more in detail.

    All the best, Esther

    Former Community Manager

  • mke
    mke Posts: 10 ✭✭

    Thanks again Esther,


    A thought for the Knowledge Base article and a suggestion for future development of Teamviewer.

    1. The thought. If my friend doesn't have active Black or whitelists, is there an option for me to turn them off? Or once activated are they there for ever/should my friends TeamViewer have them activated and there is something wrong there?

    2. The suggestion. If participants need to be added to a white-list either permanently or just for the duration of a particular meeting and removed afterwards, I feel the means of doing this is buried too deep in the programs menu structure - after all, I didn't even think about it as a possibility when I first had this problem. So, if it were possible, when asking someone to join a meeting, it would be good if, either, a warning appeared saying that they won't be able to do so because they aren't yet white-listed, or better, the opportunity to add to the them to the list (permanently or temporarily) should be presented to the organiser at the touch of a button before the invitation is sent. Because, surely, no-one is going to invite someone to join a meeting only to then deny them access?

    I have no idea how practical either of these comments are, but hope it is helpful to simplify the use of a very good, and to me now almost indispensable, program.

    I will click on the 'Accept as solution' now, as I think that is it for this query.

    Again many thanks for all your help.

  • Esther
    Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager

    Hi @mke

    Thanks for your reply and your ideas.

    I just published the article about the Black and whitelist in our Knowledge Base. Maybe this will explain the feature a bit more in detail.

    Additionally, please feel free to post your ideas how to improve TeamViewer or this specific feature in our ideas board. Our Product Management is always happy to receive new ideas.

    Thanks again and have a nice day, Esther

    Former Community Manager

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