Forum Discussion
Expected behaviour when sharing files in a meeting with external users
mikkele Hello, difficult to grasp this one and to be honest I have only given it a brief reading. The main reason I decided to reply is the ending part with "Note:"
Maybe this will help.
- Anonymous users are external users not being federated or invited as guests.
- Federation is set up with external access in Teams.
- Guest access, also set up in Teams (enabled by default), are external users that has been invited to your organization and consequently having a guest account created in your organization's AAD. Sometimes it's necessary to invite an already federated user, for example. You can see the comparison table below.
This is why you have all the Teams meeting lobby options. You can have anonymous users only end up in the lobby, or both anonymous and federated being stuck in the lobby. While guest users with a guest account in your org. (being considered part of your org). let in directly when choosing "all in my org". A new lobby setting is coming where you can put your "true" guests (with an guest account in AAD) in the lobby as well.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-external-access
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/guest-access
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/communicate-with-users-from-other-organizations#compare-external-and-guest-access
ChristianBergstrom thanks for your input
The reason for my Note was to point out that Anonymous is a type of user in the context of Teams meetings, so I'm afraid your definition is incorrect because even users that are federated are actually considered anonymous in the context of a Teams meeting
I am quoting here a https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-security-guide#participant-types
Federated users have valid credentials with federated partners and are therefore treated as authenticated by Teams, but are still Anonymous to the meeting organizer tenant.
I have also updated my post to clarify that this scenario doesn't specifically include Teams Guests. The lobby topic is also completely outside the scope of this scenario.
I am very aware of the articles you linked, my problem is that nowhere in MS documentation or elsewhere I could find the answer to my question
mikkele Well, I tend do disagree. Might even be wrong. Or the docs is wrong.
I only referred to the lobby settings because they differ between what kind of user you are. But as you are very aware of all settings please explain to me why they have differentiated between federated user and anonymous users with the lobby settings? I'd like to hear that.
Everyone in your organization and federated organizations:
"Authenticated users within the organization, including guest users and the users from trusted organizations (federated) join the meeting directly without waiting in the lobby. Anonymous users wait in the lobby."
Hence the Teams meeting treats them differently.
If we would go with what you're saying, or the docs you linked to, the lobby option above would put federated users in the lobby together with the anonymous users. The meeting lobby option would be obsolete to no use.
Why don't you just open up a support ticket with Microsoft to get an official answer? Please update this post when they reply.
And just to add to this post.
Share files
Federated user: NO
Guest user: YES
mikkele Let's see what comes out of it https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/OfficeDocs-SkypeForBusiness/issues/6936
- Thanks for the update, I understand your point about the lobby, and you are right it is somehow related to this topic. However my main focus is about file sharing so I'll try to keep this thread focused on that.
If the definition of Microsoft about all external users being considered anonymous in a meeting is correct, it shouldn't play a role in sharing files