Enabling and Configuring Remote User Access

You enable and configure remote access to control whether remote users can collaborate with internal Office Communications Server users. Remote users have a persistent Active Directory identity within the organization. They include employees working at home or on the road and other remote workers, such as trusted vendors, who have been granted enterprise credentials. Remote users can create and join conferences and act as presenters.

You control remote access on two levels:

On the Edge Server, you specify whether to allow incoming remote access connections. Use the procedure in this section to specify whether to allow incoming remote access connections. If you configured this functionality when you deployed your Edge Servers, you do not need to do so again, unless you want to change an option.
At the user account level, you specify which users can make incoming connections from remote locations. To specify which users can connect remotely, see Managing User Accounts.

To configure the Edge Server for remote access with federated contacts and anonymous participation in meetings

On the Edge Server, open Computer Management.
In the console tree, expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and then click Properties.
On the Access Methodstab, select the Allow remote user access to your networkcheck box, and then, if appropriate, do either or both of the following:
- To enable anonymous external users to join meetings, select the Allow anonymous users to join meetingscheck box. For details about additional configuration required to support this option, see Managing Connectivity Between Internal Servers and Edge Servers.
- To enable remote users who connect through this Access Edge service to communicate with federated users who connect through another Access Edge service, select the Allow remote users to communicate with federated contactscheck box. This option applies if this Edge Server is configured with an Access Edge service dedicated to remote user access and another Edge Server is configured with an Access Edge service for federation and public IM connectivity.