Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-15
In this documentation, we use the term external user to refer to a user who signs in to your Microsoft Communications Server 2010 deployment from outside the firewall. External users that you can authorize to use Communications Server to communicate with internal users can include the following:
- Remote users. Users within your organization who sign in
to Communications Server from outside the firewall, such as
business travelers and telecommuters, when not connected to the
organization’s network using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
- Federated users. Users who have an account with a
trusted customer or partner organization. When you have established
a trust relationship with such an organization’s domain, you can
authorize access from users in that domain to your Communications
Server deployment. This trust relationship is called federation and
is not related to or dependent upon an Active Directory trust
relationship.
- Public IM users. Users of public instant messaging (IM)
services, including any or all of the following: Windows Live, AOL,
and Yahoo!, as well as XMPP-based providers and servers, such as
Google Talk and Jabber. A public IM service provider is a specific
type of federated partner. Support for public IM users has specific
requirements that are different from the requirements for users of
other federated partners. Customers that do not have a volume
license for Communications Server 2010 require a separate license
if they choose to configure public IM connectivity with Windows
Live, AOL, and Yahoo! For details, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=197275.
- Anonymous users. Users who do not have a user account in
the Active Directory Domain Services of your organization or in a
supported federated domain but who have received invitations to
participate remotely in an on-premises conference.
Your edge deployment authenticates such users and controls external access for the following types of communication:
- IM and presence. Authorized external users can
participate in instant messaging conversations and conferences, as
well as obtain information about one another’s presence status.
- Web conferencing. Authorized external users can
participate in Web conferences that are hosted on your
Communications Server deployment. Remote users, federated users,
and anonymous users can be enabled for participation in Web
conferencing, but conferencing support for public IM users is
limited. Depending on the options that you select, Web
conferencing-enabled users can participate in desktop and
application sharing and can act as meeting organizers or
presenters.
- A/V conferencing. Authorized external users can share
audio and video in conferences that your Communications Server
deployment provides.
In order to control communications across the firewall, you can create global policies that define how users inside and outside your firewall communicate with each other. You can also configure settings and create and apply policies for individual internal users or for specific types of external users to control communications with external users. For example, you can allow users in federated domains to access IM and presence but not A/V conferencing or Web conferencing.