Overview

You can restrict users from joining meetings outside your organization or restrict access to certain in-meeting features to make sure that users follow your organization's policies. When a user tries to use a disabled feature, an indicator appears to let them know about the restriction set by the organization.

Collaboration restrictions apply only to users who sign in to Webex using the domains that you've claimed for your organization. Users can bypass these restrictions by joining external meetings with their personal email addresses, or as guests.

To avoid users bypassing these restrictions, follow the steps in Restrict Collaboration Features for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices to add a token to company devices to make sure that accounts used with the devices follow the restrictions set by your organization.

Block users from joining external meetings in Control Hub

When you block users from joining external meetings, they can't join meetings that are hosted from Webex sites outside of your organization. But you can allow users to join meetings on certain Webex sites, by adding those Webex sites to an approved list setting.

Before you begin

You must claim the domains of users that you want to block from joining external meetings. If users in your organization have a domain that hasn't been claimed, they can still join external meetings even if the setting is disabled.

1

From the customer view in https://admin.webex.com, go to Meeting and Settings.

2

Switch the toggle in the Block external meetings section to off.

3

Under Approved sites list for external meetings, enter a Webex site and click Add.

Restrict collaboration features in Webex Meetings

These settings apply only to users who join meetings that aren't hosted by someone in their organization. If you want to restrict in-meeting features for meetings within your organization, then you can create and use a custom session type.

1

From the customer view in https://admin.webex.com, go to Meeting and Settings.

2

Toggle the following settings that you want disabled to on:

  • Chat—Users can't see the chat box.
  • File transfer—Users can't upload files for other participants to download during meetings.
  • Screen share and annotation—Users can't share their screen or use the annotation feature.
  • Q&A—Users can't see the Question & Answer panel.
  • Polling—Users can't see the Polling panel.
  • Remote Control—Users can't remotely control another computer during the meeting, nor permit anyone to remotely control their computers. Applies to 42.1 and later.

Restrict collaboration features for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices

If you want to restrict these collaboration settings devices in your organization, you can edit the system files so that those settings apply to anyone who uses the device to join a meeting outside your organization.

To do this, you have to first find and copy your organization ID in Control Hub. After getting the organization ID, follow the steps that apply to the devices that you want to edit.

1

From the customer view in https://admin.webex.com, go to Account.

2

Click on the Copy icon in the Organization ID field.

What to do next

Now that you have your organization ID, choose one of the following methods to edit the devices.

Restrict collaboration features for Windows devices

You can choose from three options to set up collaboration feature restrictions for Windows devices:

  • Configure using registry keys—You can manually edit specific devices by adding the organization ID to one of these registry values:

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\CiscoWebex\OrganizationID

    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\CiscoWebex\OrganizationID

  • Configure using a Group Policy template—You can import a Group Policy administrative template (.adm) to apply the organization ID to the same registry values as above.

  • Configure using an MSI Installation—You can run a command to install webexapp.msi using the organization ID to edit this registry value: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Webex\Policies\OrganizationID .

Configure using registry keys

  1. Open the Registry Editor.

  2. Add the organization ID to one of the following registry values:

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\CiscoWebex\OrganizationID

    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\CiscoWebex\OrganizationID

Configure using a Group Policy template

  1. Import an .adm file.

  2. In a group policy management tool, click either:

    • Computer Configuration to apply the organization ID to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\CiscoWebex\OrganizationID

    • User Configuration to apply the organization to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\CiscoWebex\OrganizationID

  3. In the navigation panel, click Administrative Templates > Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) > Cisco WebEx Meetings > Cisco WebEx Meetings General Settings.

  4. Double-click Configure Organization ID in Cisco Webex.

  5. Click Enabled, add your organization ID in the Options box, and then click Apply.

Configure using an MSI installation

  1. Run the following command to install webexapp.msi with the ORGANIZATIONID parameter to configure HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Webex\Policies\OrganizationID:

    msiexec /i webexapp.msi /log webexapp.log ORGANIZATIONID="%ReplaceWithYourOrganizaitonId%"  /*For example:*/msiexec /i webexapp.msi /log webexapp.log ORGANIZATIONID="ab1c2d34-56e7-89f0-g123-h4567ijkl890"

Restrict collaboration features for Mac devices

To set up collaboration restrictions on Mac devices, create a .plist file named com.cisco.webexmeetings.config.plist under /Library/Preferences/, and add the following key to the file:

Key name

Value

Description

OrganizationID

%OrganizationID%

Specify the organization ID that you copied from Control Hub for the collaboration restrictions.

Restrict collaboration features for mobile devices

To set up collaboration restrictions on Android and iOS mobile devices, you have to configure the organization ID using the Mobile Device Management AppConfig service.


 

This feature works only for mobile devices that use the Webex Meetings app on version 41.7 and later.

Configuration key

Value type

Description

OrganizationID

String

Specify the organization ID that you copied from Control Hub for the collaboration restrictions.

Restrict collaboration features for Google Chrome

To have your organization's policies apply to users who join from Google Chrome, you must add the Webex Meetings Policy plugin downloaded from the Chrome Web Store and then add a rule for your organization to the policy.

Users who are restricted from joining certain meetings will see the following message when they try to join a restricted meeting through Google Chrome.

1

Open Google Chrome's IT admin page at https://admin.google.com

2

Add the Webex Meetings Policy plugin extension by going to Chrome > Apps & extensions > Users & browsers > Add Chrome app or extension by ID.

3

Add the following extension by ID: denhmfenjcamjiamkogegcjieeiahjgp.

4

Add the following rule to the policy:

{

"orgID": {

"Value": "31b45abd-7528-46f6-8a8c-cf8c3514430b"

}

}

5

Right-click the tab and select Force install.