How To Setup Virtual Classrooms Using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04
How to setup virtual classrooms using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04. Jitsi is a web based video conferencing application that is free and open source
It comes with features such as improved video and audio quality, privacy settings for secure connections, and encryption. All in all, Jitsi is compatible with Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, and it can be used both independently and as part of a web application.
You can share your desktop and presentations with Jitsi Meet, invite people to a meeting, or setup a virtual class with a single URL. Jitsi Meet supports multi point video conferencing, allowing users to have multiple people in a class, conference, or open meeting.
This tutorial will cover the Jitsi Meet video conferencing server installation process and the setup of virtual classroom with Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04.
What is Jitsi Meet
Primarily speaking, Jitsi Meet is a full featured video conferencing service that lets you setup and host virtual classes, multi-party conferences, group chats, and group calls from your desktop, laptop, or mobile device.
It’s perfect for setting up virtual classrooms and conference calls and offers a wealth of features for meeting everyone from business associates, to family members and friends.
The Jitsi Meet desktop app has been designed to be easy to use and integrate into your virtual classrooms and working environment.
It allows you to connect with your friends, family, classmates, or colleagues via video chat and share your screen with others. The only requirement for using Jitsi Meet is the presence of Firefox or Google Chrome on any device with an internet connection.
Jitsi Meet is mainly based on WebRTC, which enables audio and video communication over the Internet. It also provides an API for developers to build their applications using its open standards-based technology.
SIP, XMPP/Jabber, ICQ/AIM, Yahoo!, GTalk/Hangouts extensions, and ZRTP are just a few of the protocols that Jitsi Meet Audio/Video Chat supports. It is also fully encrypted.
It gives you everything you need to build and run meetings that work on web browsers, traditional desktop clients (like Skype), phones, and mobile devices.
Features of Jitsi Meet
There are a lot of features available in Jitsi Meet, and more are continually being added. The following are some of the most important ones:
- During a video call, you can automatically see the person who is talking or choose any other attendee to see their video.
- Chatting through text (web only).
- Screen sharing.
- Social media support (YouTube) is available.
- Interactive document for writing based on Etherpad.
- Raise or lower your hand to indicate that you want attention.
- Jitsi takes time, data, and statistics from participants.
- Moderate with push-to-talk buttons
- Play a video from YouTube for everyone who is on the call.
- The audio-only option is available to participants.
- Incorporation of several additional applications and websites.
- Chat history and replay of past conversations
- Voice over IP (VoIP) voice calling
Advantages of Jitsi Meet
Here are some of the key advantages of using Jitsi over other video conferencing solutions.
- Free and open source (GPL): The code of this project is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This means that anyone can use and customize it free of charge. The code is also well documented, so you won’t have problems getting started with it.
- It is cross-platform and available across all mediums, such as PCs and Macs using Microsoft Windows, Linux, Android, or Apple macOS operating systems.
- Jitsi is built on top of WebRTC, which is the standard for real-time communication between browsers without plugins. It’s built into most modern browsers today and makes it easy for users to chat online from any device with just one click.
- Jitsi is easy to use and integrate.
- Jitsi Meet can support online classes or meetings with a large number of participants and allows a certain amount of recording time per participant.
- It is a highly interactive platform. With Jitsi Meet, you can talk with your participants in real time, share files with them, and ask questions from your screen by pressing a button on your keyboard. This is called “talking back.” The chat can be recorded and saved as a file for later viewing or processing by other means, such as using third-party apps.
Follow this post to learn how to install Jitsi Meet and set up a virtual classroom using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04.Â
How To Setup Virtual Classrooms Using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04
Prerequisites
You will need:
- Ubuntu 20.04 system.
- One Ubuntu 20.04 server with a non-root sudo-enabled user.
- A domain name configured to point to your server. The sample domain name example.com is used throughout this article.
Resolve DependenciesÂ
Run the following commands to install dependencies:
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
sudo apt-get install nginx
Set Hostname to Match Domain NameÂ
As a first step, you will need to update the system hostname so that it matches the domain name that you are using for your Jitsi Meet instance. During the installation process and configuration file generation, Jitsi Meet makes use of these parameters.
You can run the following systemd command to update your hostname.
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname example.com
Run the following command to verify the changes:
hostname
Output:
example.com
Map Your Hostname to LocalHost
The domain name of your Jitsi Meet server must be mapped locally to the IP address 127.0.0.1. This is because your Jitsi Meet server employs several networked processes, all of which accept local connections on the 127.0.0.1 IP address from one another.
To do that, open the /etc/hosts file in the text editor.Â
sudo nano /etc/hosts
Add the following line to the file:
127.0.0.1 example.com
Save and close the file.
Configure Firewall
Open the TCP ports 80, 443, and 4443 and the UDP port 1000 for the different communication protocols used by Jitsi.Â
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 4443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 10000/udp
Verify the results by checking the firewall status.
sudo ufw status
Output:
Status: active
To             Action   From
-- Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ------Â Â Â ----
80/tcp           ALLOW    Anywhere                 Â
443/tcp          ALLOW    Anywhere                 Â
4443/tcp          ALLOW    Anywhere                 Â
10000/udp         ALLOW    Anywhere                 Â
80/tcp (v6)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ALLOW Â Â Â Anywhere (v6)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
443/tcp (v6) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ALLOW Â Â Â Anywhere (v6)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
4443/tcp (v6)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ALLOW Â Â Â Anywhere (v6)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
10000/udp (v6) Â Â Â Â Â Â ALLOW Â Â Â Anywhere (v6)Â Â
Install Jitsi Meet
Now, you can download the Jitsi stable repository to your server and install the latest stable Jitsi Meet package from this repository.
To do this, download the Jitsi GPG key.
wget https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key
Output:
--2022-08-27 00:42:09--Â https://download.jitsi.org/jitsi-key.gpg.key
Resolving download.jitsi.org (download.jitsi.org)... 34.209.97.49, 35.161.96.31, 2600:1f14:5eb:f802:6249:523c:855f:83f0, ...
Connecting to download.jitsi.org (download.jitsi.org)|34.209.97.49|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3114 (3.0K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘jitsi-key.gpg.key’
      jitsi  0%    0 --.-KB/s   jitsi-key.g 100%  3.04K --.-KB/s  in 0s     Â
2022-08-27 00:42:11 (170 MB/s) - ‘jitsi-key.gpg.key’ saved [3114/3114]
Add the Jitsi GPG key to the apt keyring with the following command:
sudo apt-key add jitsi-key.gpg.key
Once you are done with this step, you can delete the GPG key with the following command:
sudo rm jitsi-key.gpg.key
Next, create and open a new source file with the following command:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jitsi-stable.list
Add the following line to the file.
deb https://download.jitsi.org stable/
Save and exit the file. This step will save the Jitsi repository to your server.
Update the system with the following command.
sudo apt update
Finally, you can install Jitsi using the following command:
sudo apt install jitsi-meet
Enter your domain name, when prompted during installation.
You will also need to configure your TLS certificate during installation. You can pick “create a new self-signed certificate” so you can install a trustworthy Let’s Encrypt certificate later. If you already have a signed TLS certificate, choose “I wish to use my own certificate.”
Install Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates
This is optional, but if you want encrypted communications, run the following commands to request a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
sudo apt install certbot
sudo /usr/share/jitsi-meet/scripts/install-letsencrypt-cert.sh
Setup Virtual Classroom with Jitsi on Ubuntu
Now that you are done with the installation of the Jitsi Meet, you can set up a virtual classroom by opening the URL with the domain name in your browser.
You will be redirected to the following page. Enter the unique meeting name and click on Start Meeting.
Share this meeting invitation with the participants, and you are all set for the virtual classroom.
That’s it for How to setup virtual classrooms using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04. We shall conclude.Â
How To Setup Virtual Classrooms Using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04 Conclusion
Now that you have learned how to install and set up a virtual classroom using Jitsi on Ubuntu 20.04, you can use it for your conferences, and classes or video call your friends, colleagues, and relatives across the globe.
Jitsi is a comprehensive and user-friendly platform for organizing online events such as meetings, conferences, and other gatherings. You may use it to communicate with the other participants, share files, and watch the live video feed all at the same time.
Explore our video conferencing section to learn more about other such solutions.
