Minutes of C&C Meeting 22 September 1998 Co-ordinator John welcomed 41 members, including newcomers John, who has just joined PCUG, and Rod, who has been a PCUG member since 1985. He also welcomed back Terry, just returned from his sea voyage, and Merv. John congratulated Peter on the minutes of the last meeting, taken at such short notice, and thanked Elizabeth for the chocolate biscuits from her daughter. John circulated a card from Derrick's family saying how much Derrick always enjoyed our meetings. Wolf noted that the Group is $619.12 in funds. Emil reminded members that the PCUG AGM is on 28 September. Subjects discussed were: 1. Reptile freeware 2. Netscape freeware 3. Report on experiences as outback volunteer trainers: John and Rod 4. Difficulties in connecting to the Internet using various modems 5. Speed of connection to Internet through TIP 6. Problems accessing webpages 7. Millenium Bug problem 8. Copying videotapes using a PC 9. Books on IE4; installing IE5 1. Reptile freeware Ted noted that Reptile freeware (for backgrounds) obtained through 2Cows, had been very useful in setting up his own webpage. 2. Netscape freeware Gloria noted that Netscape v.4.05 obtained from PC Magazine, ceases to operate on 16 October. We expect a new version to be offered soon by the magazine. 3. Report on experiences as outback volunteer trainers: John and Rod John and Rod both volunteered to help outback communities connect to the Internet. John's sojourn in the flooded areas of north-west NSW was very rewarding and provided plenty of excitement. He saw the first emu chicks of the season, many water birds. The mozzies were vicious, and he took precautions against Ross River fever. John was able to connect all farms and all but one school. Three schools had MACs and a complicated system. The Dept of Education uses a strict filter, Cyber Patrol, which does not allow connection to newsgroups. Interaction between the filter, MACs and the telephone lines caused problems. Other users had PCs with IE (various versions) which he upgraded to IE4. Some schools had NS3 but alas no discs to allow reinstallation. The last school will be connected after October when the local telephone line is to be converted to optic fibre. Rod was able to connect 13 families in north-west Queensland at Mitchell and Quilpie. The ISPs were either BigPond or TPG (formerly a CSIRO provider). The 13 families all had different problems, with the worst taking three days to connect, due to the time it takes in the bush to get a Telstra technician to change the switch at the Mitchell Exchange. All users were operating W95 or W98. Most TPG clients had new machines, all of which caused more trouble than the machines linked to BigPond. Costs of connection and for calls are high. 4. Difficulties in connecting to the Internet using various modems Members have had some difficulties with Maestro and Companion modems. The solution is to add certain data to the initialisation stream (in "advanced properties"). Refer to Owen for the magic symbols. Geoff complained that connection to TIP this last month had been very noisy. He will contact Telstra. 5. Speed of connection to Internet through TIP Why do we get differing connection speeds to TIP? The programming has changed following installation of the new router, but in theory inwards transmission can be up to 56KB. Allan said we should note whether the speed was for current transmission or for connection. Emil thinks NetMedic may diagnose transmit and receive speeds. 6. Problems accessing webpages At www.catscan.com you get a medical page. At www.cat/scan.com you get scans of pussy-cats. We thought this seemed logical. Elizabeth wanted to know why search engines look different if using for example Inference on NS. She was advised to use one browser and get the options just how she wants them. Difficulties in connecting to webpages, especially at the weekend, could be due to restructuring or to people switching off the computer where the site is located because of thunderstorms. Gloria, using NS and Javascript, has had to click on OK 18 times before the page came up. Emil noted that you require a 32 bit connection to run NS. 7. Millenium Bug Is it true, as some retailers claim, that by adjusting your machine to "1972" in December 1999, you can avoid Y2K Bug problems? We decided that unless you are running an accounting system where the date is important you should not worry about the Millenium Bug. We were advised to change the date now to 2 January 2000 and see if it works. Anne noted that Money software claim their date system is good up to 2027, by which time her computer may have fallen apart. 8. Copying videotapes using a PC Colin is seeking a PC system that will copy videotapes better than a video recorder is able to do. Chess said that by copying onto a computer then back to the VCR, you lose two generations. Emil said that you can perhaps gain advantages when editing, if you create a master on the PC. Mike thought you could improve the synch, get rid of noise. Allan noted that there is a website with all the test patterns worldwide, against which videos can be tested. 9. Books on IE4; installing IE5 Members feel that there are no good books on IE4 (or indeed on other browsers); "Help" pages are best. Chess has successfully installed IE5 (which he finds very stable) over the top of IE4. PC User Magazine for September offers IE5 beta version. John noted both versions deleted files from the cache in random order. He recommends CacheSentry for orderly deletion of cache files. The address for this program is available from 2Cows. JL 26/9/98 950 ********************************************************** Coffee & Chat Page, including archives of past meetings http://www.pcug.org.au/~rcook/c&c.htm These Archives are now searchable. ***********************************************************
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