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Windsor PC Users Group Past Meetings

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Our Most Recent Meeting Was

(Thank You To WPCUG Member Con Bach For Taking Notes)

October 15th, 2009

Network - Bridge

Mike Celotto, the President of the WPCUG demonstrated how he was ableto provide internet connection to the room that we hold our meeting in. This large meeting room is in the basement of the credit union that has reinforced walls that will not allow a wireless signal to be received in. Mike found an area on the stairwell leading to the basement where he could obtain a signal from a Cogeco internet tower located close to the credit union building. He connected his laptop to receive the Cogeco internet signal. His computer acted as the bridge and was connected to a router from which a cable was strung into the basement meeting room where the montly WPCUG meeting was being held.  A second laptop provide by Bod Hedrick was connected to the router by a cable and this laptop was able to access the internet.  Bob checked the speed of the network and found it was quite high. Details on the network bridge can be found the Googling “Network – Bridge” or by connecting to Microsoft at:

 http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/hnw_understanding_bridge.mspx?mfr=true

Info on creating a network bridge here

Making cable connection to jacks and ports

Mike Celotto showed how to connect the 8 wires in a computer cable to jacks and ports. To make a connection to a port, Mike used a port that allowed the 8 wires to be put into colour coded slots to match each of the 8 coloured wires in the cable. Then he used a special punch down tool that stripped the wires and crimped the wire in each of the slots in one easy motion. To make a cable connection to a jack, each of the 8 wires had to be stripped and put into the correct order before the wires were pushed into the jack and crimped. Most of the group found this to be a rather difficult operation to keep the wires in the correct order before the wires were pushed into the jack.

After the connections were made at both ends of a cable, Mike showed a cable connector  tester that would verify if the 8 wires in the cable were properly connected to the jacks and ports. This cable connector tester can be obtained at Factory Direct for $20 and this includes a cutting and crimping tool.
 

Remote Access and Sharing

Bob Hedrick described how he is using Mionet to communicated information between computers. Mionet is a program that allows remote access and sharing of data beteen computers. The program can be tested free for a 30 day trial period. It may be obtained for a monthly subscription cost of $7.99 or a yearly subscription cost of $79.99. More information can be obtained at:

http://minonet.com/


Google and Bing Maps

Bob Pagot demonstrated how Google and Bing maps were identical. Some of our members pointed out that there is one provider of these maps so they should look alike. Bob also showed 3-dimensions maps that are more descriptive than the 2 dimensional maps.


May 21st, 2009

Scanning of Computers

Mike recommended to our group that we use Avast 4.8 home for scanning our computers. This program can be obtained free at this site.

http://www.freewarefiles.com/downloads_counter.php?programid=2165

If an enhanced version is desired it can be obtained for a nominal cost.  The free home edition does detect some scripts as viruses. The scanning can be scheduled. At boot time the scan will take out viruses before the program is installed. When the computer goes into screen saver, Avast will start scanning the computer.

Defragging of Computers

Mike recommended that computers should be defragmented at least every 3 months. He said to defrag more frequently will not do any harm. He recommended that we use Smart Defrag that is a free program that can be downloaded at:

http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

The defrag program can be run on either

  • Starting after a definite time
  • Auto defrag
  • Scheduled Defrag

Virtual Machines

Mike described how he made his computer able to run  separate operating programs to his normal computer system.  In this way he was able to install other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Linux amd Mac OSX and test new programs on these operating systems without effecting his regular computer system.  Details on Virtual Machines can be obtained by referring to Wikipedia at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware

VMwareThin App

Mike said that he has a need to be able to run a program on another computer without going through the process of installing the program on the computer.  This can be done by using Thin App software. This soft ware will convert a program in a format that can be saved on a portable storage device that can be plugged into a UBS port.  He demonstrated how he saved a defrag program on his virtual machine using Windows  and then with the Thin App program converted the defrag program so that he could save it on a portable storage device. Then this defrag program can be run on another computer.

The Thin App program can be downloaded at:

http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/?fr=chr-esupport&pstart=1&b=21

It can be used for 60 days free. To continue using the program after this a charge would be from $6000 to $8000 will have to be paid depending on the number of computers the program is installed on.


April 16th, 2009

Presentations

WINDOWS  7

Larry Ruston said that he has been testing a beta copy of WINDOWS 7 for 3 weeks.  He found the WINDOWS 7 has a fair share of problem but is much better than VISTA.  Copying works much better on WINDOWS 7 than on VISTA.  WINDOWS 7 takes about 7 gig of space as opposed to XP that takes 4 ½ gig.  The task bar is greatly improved on WINDOWS 7. However WINDOWS 7 does not recognize at times the USB ports and Card Reader will disappear. AVG will not run on WINDOWS 7. Nor will his copy of NERO.

 The Media Center programs work well on WINDOWS 7 particularly Jet Audio that is good for movies, Notaion Player that shows the lyrics as well as the music, and Mixcraft that allows different musical instruments to be used with music.

Box for making an external hard drive out of a regular hard drive.

Bob Pajot showed a box that he obtained at Factory Outlet to make a regular hard drive into an external hard drive that was connected to the computer via a USB port. The regular hard drive fitted into an aluminum box with a cover that included the USB connection, and a connection to a power supply for operating the regular hard drive. The aluminium box is able to dissipate the heat generated from the hard drive. The box, cover and power supply cost $25.

Wireless Mouse

Bob Henrick demonstrated a wireless mouse that he could hold in his hand away from the table as other wireless mouses normally operate.  He moved anywhere in the room away from the computer and used the mouse to control the computer. This type of mouse had a centering button so that the mouse could be located on the screen. With this mouse it was possible for Bob to operate his computer using only the large image of his monitor that was being projected onto the wall from the video projector. This wireless mouse is particularly useful  for controlling the computer away from the computer when making a presentation using only a projected image of the monitor.

Graphics Tablet for controlling the computer.

Michael Celotto demonstated  a small graphics tablet that enabled him to use the tablet as a mouse and to use it as a drafting pad. This small drafting pad cost only $60 to $70 at Factory Outlet. Michael showed how he could use the tablet as a regular mouse and how he can use is as a drafting pad with PhotoShop. A larger pad can be purchased at a higher cost. This pad enables a person to sign his name to a document. The pen used with the pad operated on three AAA batteries. Software has to be installed to operate this type of drafting pad.

Garage Sale

A garage sale was not conducted as only one person brought items to the meeting.

March 19th , 2009

Presentations

Digital TV Antenna

Bob Pajot showed a digital TV antenna that he had built for $3 for his kitchen TV set. He said that he obtained the design from the internet. The antenna can pick up most of the digital TV stations that are available in his area.

Garage Sale

Larry Ruston said that we have not had a Garage sale for a number of years. He suggested that we hold a garage sale of computer items at the next meeting.

Voice over IP

A discussion was held over the availability of voice over IP services. Bob Hedrick said that he has found the service very useful in his work. However there were some concerns of the Quality Of Service in some areas. A suggestion was made to use Google’s Quality of Service to check the speed of service in specific areas.
http://www.voipreview.org/voipspeedtester.aspx

HP Smart Web Printing

Larry Ruston presented the advantages of using the program HP Smart Web Printing. This program allows a person to store and retrieve numerous items on  a clipboard that have been retrieved from the web. Also the clip board items can be permanently stored in PDF format.
Download Available Here

HP – DX-5150 Computer

Michael Celotto showed his HP- DX-5150 computer that he had purchased for $89 at Factory Direct (http://www.factorydirect.ca/static/index.htm ) in Windsor. Michael had installed MacOSX (Leo4all) on the computer and it was able to do everything that a Mac can do. In addition he had installed:

PC Linux

Windows 7

Windows XP

Ubuntu 8.10

He had not installed Vista as he was concerned that this installation would use up the remaining available capacity of the machine after he had installed the other operating programs that he had installed for testing.

Next Meeting

A garage sale is suggested for the next meeting.

 


 

February 19, 2008

Presentations

Larry Ruston, our past president made a presentation on the features of the Linux system -PCLINX OS. He demonstrated many of the interesting features that have been built into this Linux system. This system operates like Windows. Larry found the names used in the Linux system is different to what he was used to in his Windows system.  It took a little time to get used to these new names.  He has a copy of the Linux system on a thumb drive that he boots up on his computer. The Linux system can be run from a thumb drive, disc or a file that is stored on the hard disc.  When he has finished using the Linux system, it did not leave a footprint on his computer. The PCLINX OS system can be downloaded by going to:

http://distrowatch.com./

Next, Michael Celetto, our President presented a series of software that he stores on a thumb drive that he takes with him when he goes to fix other peoples computers.  Included in this software were:

File Retrieval Program

This program is particularly useful to retrieve files that have be accidently erased such as on a camera flash card. The program can be obtained by going to:

http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1 

Back up of Disk

A very easy program to back up a disk can be found at:

http://www.acronis.com/

Election of Executive Board & Support Personal for 2009

The people serving in these positions in the year 2008 were unanimously reelected  for the year 2009. The only exception was the position of Secretary that is held by Ron Hesman. Unfortunately Ron who is secretary broke his leg recently on a fall on the ice.  In the meantime, Con Bach agreed to act as secretary producing the minutes of the meetings and Scott Turner will continue maintaining the record of the attendees to the meetings.

Next Meeting

Larry Ruston will be presenting a talk on an new way to deal with music files.