Take me to Your Leader and PinAuthType

06305827_take_me_to_your_leader_design_xlargeNew to Skype for Business Server is the PinAuthType setting. This is set via either the New-CsDialInConferencingConfiguration cmdlet or the Set-CsDialInConferencingConfiguration cmdlet.

PinAuthType can be set to two values:

  • "OrganizerOnly" – The system will no longer prompt the users to enter a leader PIN if an authenticated user has already activated the meeting.
  • "Everyone" – The system will prompt the users to enter a leader PIN even if an authenticated user has already activated the meeting.


A Skype for Business meeting does not become active until an authenticated user joins the meeting. Until an authenticated user joins, callers sit in limbo – which isn’t necessarily the Lobby if bypass the lobby is enabled for PSTN callers. This is to prevent external users from just dialing in to a meeting and starting to talk which could help prevent meeting fraud.


An authenticated user is anyone who belongs to your organization and logs in with their Skype for Business/Lync client or someone who dials in and enters their extension and PIN via the phone. In other words, a user who is configured in your Skype for Business environment must join a meeting to activate it. What PinAuthType does is to remove the prompt for leader credentials after one authenticated user has joined the meeting.


To clarify this setting further, consider the following example where "OrganizerOnly" is the PinAuthType.

  • Alice is the first person to join the meeting.  She dials in from her mobile phone and provides the conference ID.  She gets prompted "If you are the leader, please press * now". But since she is not the organizer she just waits on the line.
  • Bob joins next by dialing in.  He enters the Conference ID and then also provides his extension and PIN when prompted.  He is now an authenticated user in the meeting.  As soon as he joins, Alice is admitted into the meeting as well.  Alice and Bob can now talk to each other.
  • Charlie is the last person to join the meeting.  He dials in and provides his Conference ID.  He does not hear the "If you are a leader…" message due to the PinAuthType setting.

Setting PinAuthType to OrganizerOnly enables this feature. Setting PinAuthType to Everyone keeps the default setting where every caller is asked if they are a leader.

 

2 comments

    • Todd on 2018/03/29 at 11:10
    • Reply

    Hi Michael,

    I’ve read the most comprehensive and useful guide to EV in SFB 2015 ever written…. very useful material for SFB admins. It almost help me get a promotion, but my boss got fired, but that’s another story.

    I am deploying out SFB conferencing using a lync 2013 on prem back end. Have you seen a problem where users who call from SFB handsets (Polycoms and Aastras) automatically become the leader when they enter the conference ID? This happens even if they call from a different extension? This problem does not happen if they call remotely from a cell phone.

    Thank you and look forward to your next SFB book!

    1. Hi Todd,

      The key difference in your scenario is that a Polycom/Astra device has a user logged into it (or a common area phone contact). So the phone is already authenticated to your environment. If your conferencing policy is set to allow all authenticated users to be a presenter – presto – the phone is a presenter.

      The mobile phone is not already authenticated. That’s the point of the whole deal of entering the presenter extension and pin. Punch that in successfully and you are now authenticated.

      Make sense?

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