Co-Browser Settings

Created May 2015

There may be some confusion concerning which browser to use with Talking Communities' web conference rooms.

When entering a conference room the only purpose for the browser is to launch/start the plugin/app. Therefore you can use any browser you wish such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, FireFox and Safari.

Once you have provided your user name and password and have entered the room, it is the Co-Browser you will use for Internet browsing activities. The Co-Browser acts like any other browser. It only has one session, unlike other browsers that may have multiple sessions. When Follow Me is enabled the Co-Browser will send the URLs for pages loaded into the Moderator's Co-Browser to the server. The server will send that URL to the Co-Browser of every guest in the room and the content associated with the URL will be displayed. Follow Me is available only to Moderators. Remember that the room may be set up to hide the URL field to prevent room guests from surfing the web.

Browsers use plugins to perform different tasks. Therefore, for example, if the URL is pointing to a PDF file the browser will use the browser installed PDF Reader plugin to display the content or, if the URL is pointing to a media file, it will use the installed media player plugin to play the movie.

Every browser has its own plugins and settings. The co-browser, however, uses the plugins and settings that are maintained by Internet Explorer for Windows and Safari for MACs (and I suspect iPhone and iPADs). Therefore, if you do not use Internet Explorer or Safari as your Browser, the plugins to display PDF files and play media files may not be installed, and you will not see or hear the content provided. To remedy this situation you will need to install the necessary Internet Explorer or Safari plugins. Typically this action would only be required when a new computer is being set up or when some major re-configuration has been made. Vendors do update their plugins and therefore you may need to install these plugin updates. Typically you will see popup messages suggesting you update a plugin. The key is, when you see these messages in the Co-Browser, it is the updates for Internet Explorer or Safari that you need to install.