Novell Conferencing Readme

May 18, 2010

Novell Conferencing is a Web conferencing service where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk, and broadcast via webcam with no download required for attendees.

1.0 General Administration Issues

1.1 Purchase and Administration Communications from Novell

When you purchase Novell Conferencing, you will receive two email messages. The first email confirms your purchase and enables support. The second email gives you detail about your account: the URL to access the account and your administrator credentials. It may take up to 2 business days from the date of your purchase to receive the email messages.

1.2 Specific Account (User) Per Room

A Novell Conferencing room should be assigned to a specific user. Allowing multiple users, even if they are using the same account, to schedule meetings in a single room is a violation of the license agreement. The exception to this is the Webinar room, which can be a shared resource.

2.0 Known Issues

2.1 Meeting Recording Stops When the Presenter Is Changed

When you record a meeting, the recording stops when you change presenters. If you start the recording again, it overwrites any recording you have done in that session, prior to the presenter change.

2.2 Whiteboarding and Web Sharing Are Not Recordable

You cannot record whiteboarding and Web sharing. However, you can record screen sharing, presentation sharing, and VOIP audio.

2.3 Video Recording Requires Display Settings Higher than 16-bit Color Set

If you experience problems recording a shared computer screen or presentation using 16-bit color set for your display, switch to a higher display resolution in your Control Panel > Display settings.

2.4 Meeting Display Shows Only Those Meetings You Have Scheduled

There are various places in Novell Conferencing where a schedule of meetings can be displayed. In all of these places, only the meetings you have scheduled are displayed. Meetings for which you are only an attendee are not displayed.

2.5 Using Port 1935 for Improved Audio and Video

Unless otherwise defined, audio/video functionality uses port 80. However, you can use port 1935 for improved audio/video performance.

2.6 Double-Byte Character Support

This release of Novell Conferencing does not support the use of double-byte characters.

2.7 PDF Files and Encryption

When you use the Show Presentation feature to share a PDF file, you might get a Document Encrypted error message. This is usually because the PDF file was created with security features enabled.

2.8 OpenOffice Support

Novell Conferencing Show Presentation Feature

The Show Presentation feature does not support OpenOffice files. You can work around this by saving the file as a PDF file (recommended) or a Microsoft Office file.

Novell Conferencing Share Computer Screen Feature

You can show OpenOffice files with the Share Computer Screen feature. However, if you are in the presentation mode for an OpenOffice presentation, screen sharing stops.

2.9 Widgets and Meeting Keys

If you use a meeting key for a scheduled meeting, the widget does not display (for security reasons). This means that users are aware of the meeting only if you specifically send them an invitation.

2.10 Linux Desktop Support

On Linux, the presenter cannot use the Share Computer Screen feature, because the WebMeeting plug-in is not supported on the Linux operating system. However, non-presenters using Linux can still view screens shared by others.

Also, audio/video is not supported on Linux desktops because of problems with Flash support. If you have the appropriate Flash driver for your operating system, audio/video support should work.

However, you can still view shared presentations.

2.11 Macintosh Desktop Support

Novell Conferencing supports the Intel platform on Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6. However, on Mac OS 10.5, the presenter cannot use the Share Computer Screen feature, because the WebMeeting plug-in is not supported on Mac OS 10.5. Non-presenters using Mac OS 10.5 can still view screens shared by others.

2.12 Extending Meetings Longer than the Default Setting

You will be unable to extend meetings that have a duration equal to or greater than the default setting of four hours. You may still schedule meetings for longer than four hours, but you will not be able to extend the meeting time once you've reached the specified duration. Also, meetings set for less than four hours may be extended to up to four hours.

3.0 Documentation

The following documentation is found on the Novell Conferencing Web site.

  • Novell Conferencing Quick Start

  • Novell Conferencing User Guide

  • Novell Conferencing Adminstration Guide