Jun 24, 2020 Step #1. Launch Skype on your Mac → Go to the Dock. Right click on Skype icon in the Dock while holding Ctrl key. A menu will swipe up with some options. Uncheck “Open at Login” option. Next time when you start your Mac, you should not see Skype automatically starting. Re: Disable Skype for Business Video I will try to disable that setting but I thought that was for video based screen sharing such as sharing content with someone while in a chat or meeting. It was not clear that those settings will affect direct video chat when not sharing content.

A glitch in the matrix that’s been bugging me for a while but just haven’t sat down to think it through… What to do with Video Based Screen Sharing and QoS. VBSS came to us midstream for Skype for Business in June 2016, as a nice improvement to update speed and smoothness for Application/Desktop sharing, utilizing video and UDP instead of RDP and TCP. Of course if you have a older client or if you start Recording the session, it reverts back to RDP/TCP.

What many have not realized though is that when a client is using VBSS in a Skype Meeting (not talking peer to peer here), that the Skype client selects an Application Port for the Source, but the Skype Server actually selects a Video port. For the purpose of this post I’m using my typical QoS settings:
Audio Server: 49152-57500 Audio Client: 50040-50079
Video Server: 57501-65535 Video Client: 58000-58039
App Server: 40803-49151 App Client: 42000-42039
DSCP: Audio=46, Video=34, Application Sharing=24

The screenshot below is a Wireshark capture on the FE server. As you can see, the Client source port is 42004, and the Destination port on the Server is 62345. And in this particular network where this sample is taken, there are source/destination port restrictions set for the DSCP tags. Best free office suite for mac yosemite. In this case 42000-40039 <–> 40803-49151. Result is that not only is the traffic using both App and Video ports, it’s not even left tagged at all.

QoS Problem #1 – assuming the network does not have Src/Dst restrictions, you would end up with a DSCP mismatch; traffic from the server tagged with 34, traffic from the client tagged with 24. Server Video traffic is then getting mixed with Server VBSS traffic.

QoS Problem #2 – with network Src/Dst port restrictions in place, traffic is deprecated into the lowest bucket 0, or worse.

In my opinion, the VBSS ports, both server and client, should have remained in the Application port ranges, but obviously this is not the case. Surprisingly the solution is not to difficult. We need to modify the QoS Policy on the Frontend servers by adding one new QoS policy.

New-NetQosPolicy -Name “Skype Server VBSS” -IPProtocol Both -IPSrcPortStart 57501 -IPSrcPortEnd 65535 -IPDstPortStart 42000 -IPDstPortEnd 42039 -DSCPValue 24

This new policy filters for network traffic matching both the Source port and the Destination port to tag it with a 24. From my observations, because the “Skype Server VBSS” has this additional criteria, this makes it more restrictive than the “Skype Server Video” policy and it gets applied and the tagging works as desired.

Look at those happy little tags. .101 is the Server in this screen shot and the .119 is a Trio.

If it is a particular concern, or just really want to locked down the policy, you can use this “Skype Server Video” policy. My concern about adding this policy restriction is the traffic with the Edge for external users would not be prioritized on the network. Edge traffic to the front end is going to be 443 or 3478 and would meet either Video QoS policy criteria:
New-NetQosPolicy -Name “Skype Server Video” -IPProtocol Both -IPSrcPortStart 57501 -IPSrcPortEnd 65535 -IPDstPortStart 58000 -IPDstPortEnd 58039 -DSCPValue 34

To address QoS Problem #2, the network will need to be reconfigured to allow:
42000-40039 <–> 40803-49151 with DSCP=24
and
42000-40039 <–> 57501-65535 with DSCP=24

Of course another solution is to modify your App and Video ports for client and server to all live in the 57501-65535 space with both using DSCP=34, but then you have no delineation between VBSS and Camera Video streaming. A less then ideal solution.

Or disable VBSS… yuck.

For posterity sake, the other Net QoS Policy settings I use are:

Frontend Only:
New-NetQosPolicy -Name “Skype Server Audio” -IPProtocol Both -IPSrcPortStart 49152 -IPSrcPortEnd 57500 -DSCPValue 46

New-NetQosPolicy -Name “Skype Server Video” -IPProtocol Both -IPSrcPortStart 57501 -IPSrcPortEnd 65535 -DSCPValue 34

New-NetQosPolicy -Name “Skype Server App” -IPProtocol Both -IPSrcPortStart 40803 -IPSrcPortEnd 49151 -DSCPValue 24

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Video-based Screen Sharing (VbSS) in Skype For Business Server 2015 is now available for download: Skype for Business Server 2015 Cumulative Update KB3061064. VbSS is included with Skype for Business Server 2019.

Video-based Screen Sharing, or VbSS, grew out of Lync screen-sharing. The difference between VbSS and traditional screen-sharing has to do with the underlying protocols used, and what they excel at. Screen-sharing uses the remote desktop protocol (RDP), which is great at creating thousands of 1-to-1 sessions between people's computers. Newer technology, VbSS, will make use of User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

Skype for Business Server wanted to improve people's 1-to-1, and their 1-to-many (multi-party) conversations and meeting experiences. VbSS makes use of the media platform (which relies on UDP as the underlying protocol), with the goal of improving your video start times, the viewing quality of what you're watching (especially if what you're watching is moving fast), and reliability overall.

Part of the goal of improving screen-sharing is that transitions between VbSS and RDP be as seamless as possible when they occur. Since VbSS is an update to underlying technology that is used in screen sharing for Skype for Business Server, it may be difficult to detect which technology you're leveraging unless you're looking at SIP details in the network traffic, or you're sharing content that is fast moving or 3-D. If, for example, your workplace has a lot of legacy clients, RDP will still be available as a failsafe to your meetings and conversations. Skype for Business Server uses internal logic to decide which of the two methods (VbSS or traditional screen-sharing) to apply when clients connect. RDP can, and will, be substituted for VbSS when the situation calls for it, so that your viewing experience won't be interrupted.

Planning

VbSS pros and cons

Switching to VbSS aims to make three key improvements:

  1. Make screen-sharing (up to 5%) more reliable compared to RDP alone.

  2. Make the session setup and video experience faster compared to RDP alone (setup in half the time, with a 6:1 improvement in frames-per-second).

  3. Works much better than RDP in low bandwidth conditions, even when sharing high motion content, such as 3-D graphics.

Please keep in mind that these numbers rely on the health and proper performance tuning of your network, and may involve networks external to your own, if your clients are on mobile devices.

You should also be aware that some fidelity/crispness of your shared content has been traded for reliability, speed, and efficiency. In most cases this will not be readily visible to users.

Ports and protocols

Required server ports

Server roleService namePort or port rangeProtocolNotes
Front End Servers
Skype for Business Server Application Sharing service
5065
TCP
Used for incoming SIP listening requests for application sharing.
Front End Servers
Skype for Business Server Application Sharing service
49152-65535
TCP/UDP
Media port range used for application sharing.

Disable Vbss Skype For Business Mac Os 10

Required client ports

ComponentPort rangeProtocolNotes
Clients
1024-65535
TCP/UDP
Application sharing.

If QoS is enabled for the following media ports and VbSS is also enabled, during a conference that includes desktop sharing the AS MCU will use the video port settings shown in bold below for the screen share traffic.

Important

These settings are a special case, and these exact settings must be used when implementing both of these features. This overrides other recommended settings in the documentation for QoS. For application sharing you will also need to specify ASMCUSVC.exe in the QoS GPO in addition to defining these port values.

Application Server QoS/VbSS required settings

PropertyPort valueProtocol
AudioPortStart
49152
UDP
AudioPortCount
8348
UDP
VideoPortStart
57501
UDP
VideoPortCount
8034
UDP
AppSharingPortStart
40803
TCP
AppSharingPortCount
8348
TCP

Capacity planning

Each Front End Server running Skype for Business Server 2015 Cumulative Update 2 (CU2) or later supports up to 375 participants for screen sharing using RDP (though only 250 per meeting). This capacity doesn't change post-CU3, when VbSS is introduced and used.

That being said, we've done performance and stress testing in our lab, and the following measurements should also be considered with regard to your own deployment (depending on usage, of course).

Assuming:

  • You're using Skype for Business Server 2015 CU2 or later in your deployment.

  • All the users in your Skype for Business Server environment have screen resolutions higher than 1920x1080.

At full capacity (which as noted above, is 375 screen sharing participants per Front End Server in total, though only 250 per meeting), your Front End Server may be utilizing ~89% of the 1 Gigabit of network card. This is because the existing screen sharing technology in Skype for Business Server CU2 (RDP) transmits the on-screen content at the native resolution of the presenter's PC. So with higher screen resolutions factored in, you may already be experiencing network bottlenecks for screen sharing with Skype for Business Server 2015 CU2.

To mitigate this, one or more of the following options may be helpful:

  • Upgrade your Front End Server from a 1 Gigabit network card to a 10 Gigabit Ethernet card.

  • Increase the number of Front End Servers to load-balance traffic. Virtual box for mac mojave 10.14.

  • Limit the bandwidth (bitrate) used for VbSS and RDP by putting a cap on the maximum bandwidth used by either channels.

The numbers in this table are influenced by individual networks and by the content being shared. Please test to establish baselines for your network or networks.

1080p ContentRDP AverageRDP PeakVbSS AverageVbSS Peak
PPT
200kbps
12mbps
100kbps
3mbps
CAD
3mbps
7mbps
1mbps
3mbps
Video
5mbps
7mbps
1.3mbps
2.2mbps

Network bandwidth requirements for media traffic

The VbSS bandwidth is:

Video codecResolution and aspect ratioMaximum video payload bit rate (Kbps)Minimum video payload bit rate (Kbps)
H.264
1920x1080 (16:9)
(The aspect ratio depends on the sharer's monitor resolution, and will not always be 16:9)
4000
1500

Clients and servers support

Video-based Screen Sharing requires Skype for Business Server 2015 CU3 or later, and a current version of the supporting clients listed in Mobile client feature comparison for Skype for Business and Meetings support.

Disable Vbss Skype For Business Macos

There are situations where screen-sharing will transition to RDP, like these:

  • If your account is hosted in an environment where the ASMCU doesn't meet the minimum build that supports VbSS.
  • If someone who uses an older version of the Skype for Business client joins your session, for example anyone using any Windows client version that is lower than 16.0.6330.1000, Skype for Business Room System Devices, or Skype for Business Mobile Apps.
  • If a user is sharing from the Skype for Business Web App.
  • If someone is using Skype for Business on Mac and not is homed on Skype for Business Online or Skype for Business Server 2015 with the July, 2018 cumulative update (or later).
  • If someone starts any Program/Windows Sharing.
  • If someone starts recording the session.
  • If someone invokes Remote Screen Control during the session.
  • Meetings with more than 250 participants (where VbSS is not currently supported).

Be aware that once the session transitions to RDP it will not transition back to VbSS. Again, the transition from VbSS is meant to be seamless, and, with hope, will not be easy to detect in most situations.

Note

It's not supported to block, or attempt to block, transition from VbSS to RDP in Skype for Business screen-sharing.

Enabling, disabling, and configuring VbSS

The great thing is, once you've installed the Skype for Business Server 2015 Cumulative Update 3 (CU3) or later, all your users will be enabled for 1-to-1 and multi-party VbSS by default. This may be problematic for you if you have a reason to not have this functionality enabled for all your users. In that case, you're able to use these steps to disable users (the enable users steps will follow):

How to disable users from using VbSS

  • You can assign a user policy that doesn't allow VbSS to any users who shouldn't be using VbSS by running this cmdlet in the Skype for Business Management Console (replace [PolicyName] with the policy you're doing this for):

  • You also can update the global conferencing policy, which will affect all users without an assigned policy:

    For more information on this command, see Set-CsConferencingPolicy.

  • If you need to turn VbSS off completely, you can run this command:

    For more information on this command, see Set-CsMediaConfiguration.

Note

How Do I Get Skype For Business Mac

In a multiparty Skype for Business meeting, all client endpoints will respect the policy setting for the meeting organizer.

How to enable users to use VbSS

  • You can assign a specific user policy that allows VbSS to any users who need to be using VbSS by running this cmdlet in the Skype for Business Management Console (replace [PolicyName] with the policy you're doing this for):

  • You also can update the global conferencing policy, which will affect all users without an assigned policy:

    For more information on this command, see Set-CsConferencingPolicy.

  • If you need to turn VbSS back on after turning it off (it's on by default), you can run this command:

    For more information on this command, see Set-CsMediaConfiguration.

Note

Disable Vbss Skype For Business Macos Update

In a multi-party Skype for Business meeting, all client endpoints will respect the policy setting for the meeting organizer.

See also