Meeting rooms and sign-in

A CESNET Meetings session always takes place in a room – simply the address https://meet.cesnet.cz/RoomName. A room comes into existence when the first user enters it, and disappears once everyone leaves.

• Normal (protected) – Any name you choose. The first user is prompted to sign in via eduID.cz (verified against login.cesnet.cz). After sign-in the room is created and that user is the moderator. Everyone else then joins without signing in.
• Public – A chosen name that the operator has added to the public list (see below). The first user sees the same sign-in prompt, but the sign-in is only local – one extra click, nothing is verified anywhere. That user is the moderator. Everyone else just enters their name and joins. The room may additionally have a PIN.
• Telephone – Selected rooms have a phone number assigned to them (see Joining by telephone).

Key point: whether a room is public or not, the first user always gets a “you must log in” window. For public rooms this is just one click with no password; for other rooms a real eduID sign-in takes place. Once the first signed-in user is in the room, everyone else joins without signing in.

When you are the first to enter a room (you click Join meeting), Jitsi shows a “Waiting for the host…” window with a I am the host button. What happens after you click depends on the room type:

Public room – the sign-in is local and instant:

1. Click I am the host.
2. The service returns you to the room without asking anything further.
3. The meeting is created and you are the moderator. (For some public rooms this click is performed automatically and the window only flashes briefly.)

Normal (protected) room – a real eduID sign-in takes place:

1. Click I am the host.
2. The login.cesnet.cz sign-in page opens. Select your home organization and sign in with its credentials.
3. After a successful sign-in the service returns you to the room, the meeting is created and you are the moderator.

An eduID sign-in lasts about 8 hours; after that you have to sign in again to create another room. You sign in to the service, not to a single room – while the session is valid you can create additional rooms.

I'm a guest without an eduID account and the protected meeting hasn't started. You cannot enter the room before the first signed-in user creates it. Wait for the organizer to start the meeting and reload the page.

The moderator is whoever created the room – i.e. the first user to pass through the sign-in window. The moderator role cannot be pre-assigned to specific people or specific rooms.

• Anyone who joins after the room is already running is a regular participant.
• If several people sign in (in a protected room), they are all moderators.
• A moderator can hand/extend moderator rights to another participant during the meeting from that participant's context menu (if the client offers the option).
• If the only moderator leaves, the meeting continues, but some moderator functions are unavailable until someone else passes through the sign-in window.

For details on moderator functions see For moderators.

A “public” room means the operator has bound its name to the local (unverified) sign-in – the first user gets in with a single click, without eduID.

• They are not published anywhere. There is no public list. Only the person who requested the room and their people know its name.
• They are created on request. If you want a permanently open room for your team or a recurring event (e.g. our-group, weekly-call), write to the administrator (see Terms of service and privacy). They add that name to the public list; from then on https://meet.cesnet.cz/<name> works without sign-in.
• Choose a name that will not collide with other people's one-off meetings – short generic words (test, meeting) are a bad choice.
• Opening or removing a public room takes effect immediately, with no downtime.

A public room can additionally be protected by a PIN. It still opens without sign-in, but the browser prompts everyone for the PIN in a “Password required” dialog.

Worth knowing:

• Everyone is asked for the PIN, including the person opening the room.
• The PIN is case-sensitive (unlike the room name).
• Telephone dial-in is not asked for the PIN – a PIN-protected room stays reachable by phone (see Joining by telephone).
• Breakout rooms are not protected by the PIN.
• The organizer gives you the PIN. Do not put it in the room name or in invitations.
• If a moderator clears the password in the Security options dialog, the PIN is re-applied on the next entry. Only the administrator can remove it permanently.

1. Choose a room name (long and hard to guess for non-public meetings).
2. Open https://meet.cesnet.cz/RoomName and pass through the sign-in window (via eduID for a protected room).
3. Send participants the full room address. You can also use the Invite people button inside the meeting.
4. For recurring meetings, keep using the same name – the link then stays valid indefinitely. If it should work without sign-in, ask for it to be added to the public rooms.