On some Lync conferences, especially large ones, inevitably there are one or two participants who are having difficult joining the meeting.
In my experience, the issue is almost always client-side – either the pre-requisite software components are not installed, or there is a configuration issue with Lync client or the client machine. As a remote participant, it is difficult to offer troubleshooting advice from afar.
I discovered a small web-based script from Microsoft that easily checks that the right web browser components are installed and configured to launch and join Lync On-Line meeting and gives a simple “yes” or “no” result (and follow-on description of the issue). If the end-user is attempting to join via the Lync Web App for example, it will check that Silverlight is installed.
This link is available from this web site: Microsoft Office – First Online Meeting?
Click the Meeting Readiness link.
If this script is successful, but the participant still cannot join and I suspect client-side DNS problems or network issues, I will send the end user a link to my Remote UC Troubleshooting Tool (RUCT) and have them enter their SIP address and test the network availability of where the SRV records are pointing to.
Microsoft has also recently published a nice best practices document called ‘Successful Meetings with Lync Get Started’ to help end-users create and manage a successful meeting.
The Microsoft Readiness link however is a great easy first step for end-users to take if there are having troubles joining a meeting.
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