Step by Step Testing Lync Server 2013 Lync Web App and Looking at Functionality and Features – Part 6

The Lync Web App (aka LWA) gives external users (even without credentials) ability to connect to Lync 2013 meetings without having Lync client installed on their pc. Users with organization credentials might use LWA when they are at a PC that doesn’t have the Lync 2013 client installed.

If we followed the steps in Part 1 of this series then the Lync Web App should be installed and ready to use. By installing the pre-requisites on your FE and enabling Conferencing when defining the Lync Topology you did everything needed to install and configure LWA.

In this blog we will test to make sure the LWA is working correctly.

Before starting, if you are using a server or virtual machine to test LWA, make sure your audio devices are properly configured

• right click on speaker beside clock, click on “Playback Devices” and you be asked if you want to enable Windows Audio Service, the answer is Yes.

To start a meeting, go to a computer that has the Lync 2013 client installed and logged in and start a meeting by pressing ALT+M or clicking Options | MeetNow

Next you will be prompted on how you want to join the Meeting Audio. Let’s click to use “Use Lync (Full Audio and video experience)”

Now click on More Options | Meeting Entry Info and copy/email/type the meeting URL to the PC you want to join the meeting using LWA. The meeting join URL will look something like: https://meet.lab.local/u2/NVCKCK1G

Open Internet Explorer and enter the above URL. (Note: actually LWA will work on select versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, depending on O/S and Version. See this page for details.

NOTE: If this PC has Lync client installed on it, suffix the URL with ?SL=1. This will force the PC to use the browser instead of the Lync client.
Example: https://meet.lab.local/u2/NVCKCK1G?SL=1

NOTE: When you browse to the meeting url in your lab, you may get a Windows Security logon request, you can click Cancel.

Next you will see the Lync Web App sign in screen. Since our first test will simulate a guest external user, let’s click on “Sign in here instead”. Now we see the guest login screen below. Now we can type any guest name and click Join the meeting

If this is the first time you ran LWA on this pc you will be prompted to download and install a small 7MB LWA plugin. Click Run

NOTE: if you do not install the plugin you will still be able to connect to the meeting, just the media based part of the meeting (audio, video, application viewing)

you may need to click Join. next you will be asked to allow the Plugin

you may be prompted to allow the plugin

Now you will be joined to the meeting!

Now that we are in the meeting and see that, Yes, the Lync 2013 web client does do audio (and video) lets turn Instant Message and desksharing…

and Video along with multi-view video (not shown on the screenshot below)

Just to demonstrate how similar the Lync 2013 conversation/meeting window and LWA are, below is a screenshot side by side.

As you can see, the LWA experience is very similar to the full Lync 2013 client meeting join experience. With LWA users can

• participate in Audio and Video
• View and Share desktop
• See multi view video
• configure audio and video devices settings

Below is the Options and settings screen, which we will note is similar to the Lync client Options.

What happens if we try to run the LWA on a platform that is not supported? (Say Ubuntu Linux?) Let’s take a look:

[screen shots]

LWA is quite a good experience, some might ask: Why even install the Lync 2013 client? Some things the LWA does not do

• It is not designed to log into to use as your client because there is no contact list, presence, search for contact
• no meeting recording
• you can think of LWA as the conversation window part of the Lync client

Some final notes:

• due to the functionality of the LWA there is not a Lync 2013 branded Attendee client for Lync
• LWA does not require Silverlight

Continue your lab with more articles in this Lync Server 2013 Step by Step Series:

• Part 1 – Step by Step Installing Lync Server 2013 Standard Edition Front End
• Part 2- Step by Step Installing Lync Server 2013 SE Monitoring Server
• Part 3 – Step by Step Installing Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat Server
• Part 4 - Step by Step Installing Your 2nd Lync Server 2013 SE Server Associated Backup Pool for Resiliency
• Part 5 – Step by Step Enabling Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Voice Features, Response Groups and Managers
• Part 6 - Step by Step Testing Lync Server 2013 Lync Web App and Looking at Functionality and Features – Part 6
• Using Lync 2013 and OneNote 2013 Integration

 

LWA Supported Platforms:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425820.aspx