DOSITS Webinar Testing and Troubleshooting Tips
The DOSITS Webinars take place on Zoom, an online platform for meetings and webinars. From your local computer, you will be able to view and hear a speaker’s presentation. Participants will have their microphones muted throughout the webinar. Questions can be asked in the Q&A box during the webinar. A very brief tutorial, walking participants through the functionality of the Zoom meeting portal, will occur at the start of each webinar. The webinar will also be streamed live on YouTube if Zoom is not an option. The webinar will be recorded for viewing at a later date. The sections below are designed to help get started with Zoom, prepare for DOSTS webinars, and to troubleshoot audio issues that might happen during a webinar.
Using Zoom for DOSITS Webinars
Zoom can be used from a desktop application in Windows or macOS, a mobile app for Android or iOS, or in your browser with no installed applications or extensions. The best experience is with the desktop application or mobile app. The in-browser option has some reduced functionality.
In addition, the audio portion of the webinar can be accessed through a call-in phone line. The phone line is a toll number. If there is not a phone line for your region in the connection information, please contact the DOSITS Team for assistance.
The audio for all participants is muted throughout the DOSITS Webinar. Participants can hear but not speak. To ask a question related to the topic, use the Q&A Window. To contact the host about a problem, use the Chat Box.
Before a DOSITS Webinar, participants will receive the meeting link. On the day of the webinar, use that link to join the meting. Zoom will open a window in your browser and offer to start the application or you can choose to join from your browser. Mobile apps can use the meeting ID number to join a meeting or put the meeting link into your browser (it should offer to open the Zoom App).
Zoom meetings can accessed from recent versions of all major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, or Internet Explorer. However, if you are going to use the in-browser option, DOSITS recommends Chrome or Firefox for the best experience.
Preparing for a DOSITS Webinar
The Zoom application can be downloaded from the Zoom website. The mobile versions of Zoom are available in the app stores for you platform. A Zoom account is not necessary to join a DOSITS meeting. To test Zoom, audio in Zoom, and become familiar with the Zoom controls, start a test meeting at https://zoom.us/test.
Audio Troubleshooting
All participants are muted for DOSITS Webinars. Audio is listen only. If you are having trouble hearing the webinar, look at this page about audio in Zoom meeting: Computer or Device Audio. Despite the article name, it does walk through how to check audio before and during a Zoom meeting.
On mobile devices, there is additional advice for audio problems: Audio is Not Working on iOS or Android
On Windows or macOS, if the steps to connect audio do not work, try leaving and re-joining the meeting. You may need to look at setting on your machine. If continued troubleshooting does not resolve the problem with audio on your device, consider doing the audio portion of the webinar by phone.
Security and Best Practices
In April 2020 there were widely circulated reports about security flaws and poor practices with Zoom. Since then Zoom has corrected the security issues and improved the best practices and default options. For the DOSITS webinars the best practices for security are followed. To that end, the DOSITS Webinars will always have a password and do not publish the meeting link in a public forum. For DOSITS webinars, routing to Zoom servers is disabled for China and Hong Kong. To continue best practices, please install the latest version of Zoom before a DOSITS Webinar.