Using Zoom's Waiting Room

The Waiting Room allows you, as the host, to control how each participant joins the meeting. Participants who have Northwestern Zoom accounts can be allowed to join automatically whereas those connecting as “Guests” can be held outside of the meeting until you permit them to enter. This prevents unwanted attendees from causing a disruption or offending participants.

You can admit attendees one by one or hold all attendees in the waiting room and admit all. While this requires more work by the host, it only allows participants to join if you specifically admit them.

Enable the Waiting Room - Account Profile

1. Log in to Zoom at https://northwestern.zoom.us
2. In the left navigation menu, click Settings and scroll down to Waiting room
3. Click the toggle to turn it on (By default, everyone attending your scheduled meeting will be placed in the waiting room.) 
4. Click the Edit Options button if not using the default waiting room setting
5. Select your Waiting Room Options 
   • Everyone - everyone who joins your meeting will be placed in the waiting room. 
   • Users not in your account - anyone who does NOT have a Northwestern NetID will be placed in the waiting room. Selecting this option gives you two additional options down the list
     • Who can admit participants from the waiting room? We recommend leaving this with the default hosts and co-hosts only option.
     • If the host and co-hosts are not present or if they lose connection during a meeting - check this box if you'd prefer to have participants of your meeting go back to the waiting room if you have an unexpected disconnection. 
   • Users who are not in your account and not part of your whitelisted domains - same as the previous option but also includes users who may have their email domain (like another institution, for example) who have been added to your whitelist. If you select this option, a field will open where you can enter domains. Selecting this option gives you the same two additional options mentioned in the previous option. 
   • Regardless of which of the three waiting room options you select, you have two features that apply to any waiting room
     • Users invited during the meeting by the host or co-hosts will bypass the waiting room - Zoom allows hosts and cohosts to invite people directly from the meeting. This requires you to integrate your default email application with Zoom. 
     • Allow participants in the waiting room to reply to host and co-hosts - this option allows participants in the waiting room to reply to chat messages you may send from the meeting if you still have the waiting room enabled. 
6. To customize your waiting room, click the Customize Waiting Room button and edit the default message, add a logo image, or a waiting room description. 
7. Click Save