This guide provides you with some recommendations on how to successfully participate in an online meeting or online training session.
General Recommendations
- Connect your computer or laptop via a wired Ethernet jack if possible.
- Test your meeting connections in advance.
- Make sure your laptop is plugged in.
- Test the internet connection before the call.
- Don’t use your computer’s or laptop’s built-in speaker or microphone. If you are alone, use a headset to avoid audio feedback and echo. Use a conference room microphone for a group of participants. Ensure that it is positioned appropriately to pick up all speakers.
- Please mute your microphone when not speaking.
Different ways to access DFNconf video conferences
Weblink
To enter the DFNconf room, please follow the link provided. We recommend using either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as your browser.
The browser will ask you if DFNconf may access your microphone and/or camera. Please accept/allow.
From this point onwards, the browser version will be almost identical to the Pexip Infinity Connect desktop client on a computer. Please read these instructions as well.
Skype for Business
In order to find the room, please enter
[roomnumber]@vc.dfn.de
A typical Skype for Business chat will open. Click on either one of the call buttons to join the DFNconf room.
Telephone
(audio only, German number)
You can call the meeting room with the phone number
0049 3020 + [meeting room number].
In the screenshots, the phone number dialled was 0049 30200 979138541.
Please note that this is a German phone number. We suggest using this only if you can make calls to or within Germany comfortably without high additional costs.
You can mute and unmute your telephone by pressing *6 on your keypad.
Pexip Infinity Connect app
In order to install the Pexip app on your phone, search for “Pexip Infinity Connect” at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. Please note that there is another app called “Pexip”, which is not the one you will need.
When opening the app for the first time, you will be asked to enter your name. On a smartphone, the app will then ask for access to your calendar, as well as permission to record video and audio. Please grant access to the latter two functions in order to use the app. Then, a screen similar to the web version and the Pexip Infinity Connect desktop client will appear. An easy way to activate your microphone and camera is to click on the symbols in red above.
Join a call
In order to join a call, please click on either one of the green symbols depending on whether you require video or not. This can be changed during the call if needed.
You will see the following screen:
If you were provided with a PIN for the room, please enter it now and then click on “Join”. If you were not given a PIN, just click on “Join”.
You will now enter the video conference room, which will look similar to the screenshot below:
To join a call, please click on one of the green buttons. You will then need to enter the room addressprovided by the host:
[insert room number]@conf.dfn.de
The app will now ask you for your PIN. If you were provided with a PIN, please enter it. If not, just click on “Join”.
Using the smartphone app
If you use the smartphone app:
To access the conference room, click on the "Content" button.
Then you have to enter the room address at the top of the page (Search to call):
[roomnumber]@conf.dfn.de.
Click on the screen symbol next to this field.
Then you will be asked to enter the pin number for the meeting. If you were not provided with a pin, just click on "Join".
Most functions are identical in the browser application, the Pexip Infinity Connect desktop client and the smart-phone app. However, screensharing is not available on smartphones. Under “Events”, you can write messages to everyone who has joined the call. Please note that there will be no notification to the other participants after a message has been sent. We recommend checking “Events” from time to time during the call. Under “Participants”, you can see who else has joined the call.
Guideline Chapters
General Instructions – where to Find which Function
Joining the room – PIN:
DFNconf will ask you to enter a PIN if you join via a browser or Pexip Infinity Connect. Access to DFNconf rooms can be restricted by the host via a PIN, but this is not mandatory. Therefore, if you were not provided with a PIN by the meeting’s host, it is likely that no PIN is necessary. In this case just click on “Join”.
During the meeting / presentation:
Please keep your microphone muted unless you want to speak. This is to avoid background noise.
To fix an unstable connection, it may help to keep the camera off if this is mentioned by the moderator of the call. After turning it off you should see the camera button crossed through – as shown here:
Chat function
Under “Events” you can write messages to the other participants. To access the chat, first check if you have a white side panel on the left (which means the chat is already open, but nobody has used it so far). If not, click on the small triangle on the left to open the sidebar, then click on the button on the upper left that looks like a speech bubble (“Events”):
Please note that you will not receive any notifications for new messages. Everyone will have to check for messages regularly on their own.
Settings
You can find the settings under the three dots next to the room number. Here, you can select which microphone / camera should be used by DFNconf. Please do so if you have problems hearing the other participants in the call or if you cannot be heard by the others.
Presentations in a DFNconf room
If you would like to present something in a DFNconf room, you have two options to choose from:
a) Share my screen
b) Present files
If possible, we would recommend presenting a file, as it uses less data and therefore allows a more stable connection.
Please note: presenting files via uploading only works with PDFs. If you have a PowerPoint presentation with animations or a document you would like to work on while discussing it with the other participants of the meeting, sharing your screen might be the better option. Otherwise, please export your file to PDF prior to the call.
Sharing your screen
It is important that you choose “Entire screen”. This is because choosing one particular window might trigger a bug that results in a frozen image for the other participants, meaning that any changes made by you (for example, by clicking “forward” in the presentation) will not be transmitted to the others.
Uploading a presentation
Clicking on the “Present files” button opens the screen shown in the next image. If you click on the +, a standard window for selecting a file to upload will open. DFNconf will now show you what you have uploaded and has preselected all pages of the document to be presented. You can change this by clicking on the individual slides. As soon as you would like to share the presentation, please click on “Present”.
Please note that you will stop any other running presentation automatically as soon as you click on “Present”. If you start your presentation, it will take some time until the other participants can see the shared content.
Presentation rooms – raise your hand
DFNconf offers “Presentation rooms” in which the meeting can be streamed and recorded. These rooms also have a feature called “raising your hand”. If you have a question or would like to answer a question by the presenter, please click on the “hand-raising” button on the right:
DFNconf Streaming Instructions
Watch a livestream
To watch a live stream, click on the link you have received. If it does not work, please try another browser – ideally, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. To start the stream, please click on Play. Please keep in mind that streams are live events. It is not possible to watch the content later.
Ask questions
In order to ask questions or share remarks, please join the chat by clicking on the purple button. A new window will open.
After having entered the chat with your name, you might only see the upper part of this window. You can either enlarge the window or scroll down to find the field where you can enter anything you would like to share.
Troubleshooting – Tips and Tricks
Please note: some internet browsers support the software better than others. Difficulties might be caused by having trouble with a browser. If so, please try a different browser.
You cannot access the room
The first thing to check is whether the room number/ad-dress is correct. If this is the case and you cannot reach the room after two or three tries, you could attempt to use one of the many other ways to access the room. In the past, some people who could not join a video conference via a weblink had no issues using Pexip Infinity Connect or accessing the meeting via Skype for Business.
It might be worth trying to join the room once again.
Your microphone or camera is not working
If you cannot hear anyone or you want to speak and find that no one can hear you, please check whether you have accidentally muted your microphone or plugged something in incorrectly. Then, please check whether your headset is working with DFNconf by clicking on “Get media stats”, which you can find in the settings (see above).
If everything is working correctly as shown here, there might be an issue with the connection. You can also try to click on “Select media devices” and select a different microphone and/or camera if you have various options (for example, if you are using headphones or an external camera).
If you can hear other participants clearly but your microphone is not working even though you have tried to activate it several times, you could also use the chat function (see above) to communicate with the other participant.
