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WNCC Meeting Minutes
February 11, 2002 Meeting
Held in the library meeting room, 28 in attendance (24 members & 4 - 1st
timers). Called to order at 9:30AM Monday 2/11/02 by V.P. Jack Harrigan, approval of
January minutes as read. Meeting announcements with regard to the clubs special interest
groups (SIG): Genealogy-Wednesday 2/13 @10:00AM, Digital Photography-Friday 2/22 @ 9AM
(Speaker James Clark/Ritz Camera), Fundamentals-Monday 2/25 & 9:30AM. All three SIG's
in the library meeting room. Inquiry/question from a member in regard to the WEB page
SIG,is it active? Original idea was to conduct it via E-mail, but a member complaint about
excess/too much E-mail has lead to some uncertainty as to the SIG's
current status. Jack Harrigan to investigate and attempt to resolve.
Today's speaker, Larry Michalec, V.P. High Speed Data Services for Time Warner Cable, his topic: "Brave New World of Broadband". Broadband,what is it? Defined as greatly increased capacity to transmit data of all kinds, using the internet. Broadband provides almost instant space on the internet,it opens up the the pipe,increased capacity with speed that increases the space. Fiber optic cable and cable modems are the tools of this new technology. Analogy: Advancing from a coffee stirrer to a 3ft diameter tube. Starts with a TV cable line to the home. Alternatives, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), a line provided by your local phone company in conjunction with their cable TV service. Again , benefits are both high speed and increased capacity. Wireless is another alternative that is available in some areas; it is still being developed, could be the service of the future. Benefits/Features of all forms of broadband, no phone line, its always connected to the internet cable modem and is self checking for intrusions so you do not need a firewall and also local service for questions and tech support. Virus protection still requires software such as McAfee or Norton.
Future trends--All digital services under a single wire to the home that would provide local phone service, home security monitoring, play music, download music, watch video, listen to radio and on line banking. Bottom line is that broadband saves time for the user.
General information - for safety against power surges and ground lightning strikes, use a quality surge protector and if leaving home for an extended period of time, disconnect the cable modem or the phone line to your PC.
Question from a member, answered by Mr Michalec - 1st edition of Windows 98 operating system software had problems that Microsoft corrected with a revised or 2nd edition version of 98.
Useful WEB site offered by member: Protonic.com--for tech support &
questions. A tech is assigned to each inquiry to work with you until problem is resolved,
it's free. Next meeting :Monday March 11,2002 library meeting room.
Submitted 2/12/2002 Skip Burnside.
This page was last updated on 08/22/02