Cisco TelePresence MCU 5300 Series

How do I create a conference on a Cisco TelePresence MCU that is not publicly accessible?

This article applies to the following products:

• Cisco TelePresence MCU MSE Series
• Cisco TelePresence MCU 5300 Series
• Cisco TelePresence MCU 4200 Series
• Cisco TelePresence MCU 4500 Series

Restricting access by callers

The MCU's default behavior is for all conferences to appear on the default auto attendant, and for that auto attendant to be available to all callers. This behavior can be changed in various ways:

• It is possible to change the configuration of the default auto attendant so that it does not include all conferences, but instead just a specific selection. Log in to the web interface as the administrator. Then go to Conferences > Auto attendants, click Default and then configure the Accessible scheduled conferences parameters as appropriate.
• Conferences can be configured with a PIN so that only those who know the PIN can join them.
• The default auto attendant can be configured with a PIN so that only a restricted set of callers can see the available conferences.
• If you use an H.323 gatekeeper or a SIP registrar, you can set up each conference with a numeric ID and a PIN^* (if required). You can configure the auto attendant to not show any conferences, which means callers can only access the conferences for which they have the ID and PIN, and will call into those conference directly rather than through the auto attendant.

* Make sure H.323 gatekeeper callers are required to enter the PIN (the setting is on Settings > Conferences). SIP callers are always required to enter the PIN if the conference is protected by a PIN.

Restricting Access via the web interface

If you log in to the web interface with "admin" privilege you can see the active and scheduled conferences and change those conferences' configuration.
To restrict availability of conferences from the web interface, accounts can be configured to have "guest" access only and the "guest" privileges can be set appropriately. To do so, go to Users, select User ID "guest", and then change the Guest access rights as required.