4 Ways to Protect CUCM Meetme Conferences with PIN

One of the useful features Cisco Unified Communications Manager provides is Meet Me conference. Admin defines the phone number for each conference room, and users need to dial the conference number to join the meeting. The common problem is that Meet Me conferences are not secure enough, anyone who knows the conference number can dial it and join.

This article describes the ways to add the PIN authentication to the CUCM Meet Me feature, which forces users to enter PIN before joining the meeting.

1. TCL script for CUCM Express (CME)

If you use Cisco UCM Express (CallManager Express), you can deploy the TCL IVR script that plays a voice prompt, waits for the user to enter PIN and checks if it matches the one configured in application or not before routing the call further. The TCL script and its discussion can be found here - https://communities.cisco.com/message/151723

2. Cisco Unity Express/Connection

You can also use Cisco Unity to provide your employees with password protected Meet Me conferences. In the following  article you can learn, how to setup the Meet Me authentication with the help of Cisco Unity Connection (CUC) - http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/unified-communications/unified-communications-manager-callmanager/118722-configure-cucm-00.html

3. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX)

If you have UCCX deployed, you can use it as an audio front end to meet me conferences. There are several UCCX scripts around the web which prompt the user for Meeting ID and password and if the entered PIN is correct, transfer the call to the MeetMe bridge. Meeting IDs and passwords are managed by the UCCX admin.

The common issue with these approaches is that you use Unity or UCCX for something that they’re not initially designed for. Thus when using these “workarounds” you still face  with some restrictions and lack of user features. So, the fourth way is to turn to the app from the authorized Cisco Solution Partner.

4. Commercial app

For a quite affordable price you can get the solution on top of the Cisco Meet Me conferencing feature that allows you to:

• schedule Meet Me conferences from a web-calendar;
• use the MS Outlook plugin to schedule the meetings from the Outlook calendar;
• use only one phone number for all meet me conferences, when user calls are routed to  appropriate  meetings in accordance with the entered PIN;
• protect meetings either by PIN or by Caller ID;
• control the conference with the web-interface – the meeting organizer can see the list of  participants and disconnect anyone when needed;
• start the meeting from any phone - without the necessity to use a Cisco IP phone to initiate the meetme bridge;
• control the resources of the conference bridge.

One of the top 3rd party apps which can be used for MeetMe Security is Aurus PhoneUP. Aurus PhoneUP is the bundle of apps that works in Cisco UC & Collaboration environment. The PhoneUP solution counts more than 10 modules and includes the full-featured solution for Cisco Meet Me PIN authentication and scheduling.

Don't think about paying for 3rd party products. Think smarter about how much will you save if you use 3rd party product to protect MeetMe free solution versus the charges for global meeting solutions.