News & Views

 

NEWS UPDATE (July 09) So another Skittles battle is over and which ever team won can be smug if they like but it was a close run thing was'nt it! On behalf of all the members a big thankyou to the committee members who organised it and a reminder that there are two recent additional pages on the web site,thanks to John Holt for his very useful page of links to help on various subjects covered on recent club nights and my webmasters page where I will be developing ideas for a new web site design and I will be pleased to get emails from members on their comments and suggestions are welcome. See you all in September.Happy hols!!!

 

NEWS UPDATE (June 09) We have recently taken steps to speed up our internet connection by purchasing a new Modem/Router and found that some desktops needed new Adapter cards as well, to get the full benefit of the "N" technology.(Just out of interest these were purchased through Amazon at a good price. Four were ordered but only 3 arrived and these were used successfully last week 15th June. The fourth one has now arrived after some 5 emails to Amazon & the supplier..... much to my relief). It is interesting that the Vista PC's did not need new adapter cards, only XP machines and all laptops Vista and XP worked well. Another addition to  WEB SITE is John Holt's Page.This is a page for John H to place files that can be used on club nights I.E. Links to helpful Web Sites,hand outs and learning material.

EVEN LATER NEWS (Oct.08) We have SOooooo many members now we have had to buy 2 more computers so that there is no more than 3 people to share each machine.Thanks to everyone who helps in setting up and breaking down each week which is now, no mean task.(The cupboards are bursting!).Just to remind you,all machines will be placed on the tables ready for connection by the attending members......................It's a tough life aint it!!

Very LATEST NEWS (Feb.08) We are spending our money on purchasing 2 new Motherboards to upgrade a couple of our older machines to accomodate Vista.We are also able to add 2 new multifunction printers to our Inventary which will be networked so all machines will be connected to a printer.

LATEST NEWS (Jan.08) We have a new Chairmen Barry Friendship a new Inventary controller Terry Hansford and a new secretary June Morley. On behalf of the members may I welcome these brave souls and say thankyou to them and a big hearty thankyou to Maurice Grange,July Munro and Bryan Sivyour who stand down.Because of your dedication we continue to prosper. Our first evening got off to a brilliant start and covered Ipods and Iplayer (BBC's latest introduction which allows you to see missed TV programs).More info on this in Tip of the month.

NEW NEWS (2007) Our recent good fortune in winning a substantial grant (Well done June!) has given us a boost and now the club has additional updated Desktop PC's and further purchases include an EXTERNAL Hard Disc which provide us with the ability to do much needed backup.

OLD NEWS The new news is "SUCCESS" we have wireless networking up and running!!!!Last night Monday 9th Oct.2006 John Holt worked magic and 5 computers plus at least one laptop achieved what was becoming a lost cause:- "WIRELESS NETWORKING".Well done John and a big thankyou from all of us for all the hours of hard work and patience it must have taken.We all enjoyed accessing the internet and sharing funnies and one of which was a cartoon drunk singing happy birthday for one of our youngest members Mollie We even had a brief look at file sharing and webcam using NETMEETING which I am sure we will all want to learn more about in the near future. Now that major barrier is is out the way I would like to ask if any member is thinking of changing from"dial up" to broadband or changing their broadband ISP and would like to consider the same ISP as the club has chosen i.e. ECLIPSE; the club has a referral code which will benefit the club and you can save the club some money by entering this referral code when you sign up.The code is "ACONEUS1".Anyone needing help with this major change can get it from myself John Tetzner or John Holt I'm sure would help also.My recent experience with 2 friends has made me aware of some unforeseen problems with windows 98 and USB 1.1 and telephone extension leads.

FURTHER OLD NEWS The news is that we now have 4 desktop PC's with all the same version Operating systems and basic office software.Some have working networks so that we can share resources i.e.Printer,Scanner and Internet connection.Last week(17.7.06) we had an extraordinary meeting (our first ever) to discuss the subject and vote for going BROADBAND.The meeting was well attended and the decision was carried in favour and will be paid for by increasing the weekly subscription fee to £3.00 which will include 50p raffle tickets.The ISP choice is still to be finalised but VIRGIN and MADASAFISH are the main front runners at the moment.MADASAFISH offers the cheapest and fastest connection but carries a years contract.VIRGIN is only slightly more expensive but compared to MADASAFISH's 6Mb/s speed is way behind with 512 kbs/s.JOHN HOLT is in favour of going wireless but this would cost in the region of £150 to set it up.More discussion will no doubt be debated in the last few remaining weeks left before the summer break. Latest news is we have just received £200 grant from the council which will pay for the wireless network we need for the broadband set up cost.So this means a major leap in our activities for the September resumption after the summer break.Happy holidays! Okay.... further news following on from the above.We have a good broadband connection.Hooray! BUT could we get the network working.Oh no!!...Why?We are still trying to work this out.It would seem that either the new modem is faulty or we have purchased the wrong kit!!One thing I have learned and it is good advice to anyone proposing to go wireless and broadband at the same time is:- DON'T BUY SEPERATE MODEM AND ROUTER. Instead buy a combined MODEM/ROUTER and in fact in hindsight it is obvious and it is cheaper.Before you buy.Ask an expert!

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