in this issue Views From the Top From The Font Upcoming Meeting Topics Getting Ready for Broadband Special Interest Group (SIG) October Board Minutes AOL Email Replying Tip Web Potpourri

Our speaker is:
Indika Boteju from Microsoft He will bring us a much needed review of the many issues surrounding the SP2 update. Indy, as he is known, is an acknowledged expert on this subject and an excellent speaker as well
We will also have an open Q&A session to deal with PC problems. Club members, their guests and the public are welcome.

Views From the Top

Richard Kinkel, President

This month I have three very important announcements to make, so pay attention.

1) We are lucky enough to get a Microsoft representative to do the program this month on SP2. This will be the most important program of the year, and possibly the most interesting. You need to tell all of your friends about it and we need your attendance. If we have a poor showing, we won't be getting anyone from Microsoft to do future programs. Plan on attending and you'll be in for a treat.

2) Our Christmas party is rapidly approaching, and we will be selling tickets at this months meeting, so if you plan on going to the party, buy your tickets now and help us out. The Christmas Party in a fun event; help us by buying your tickets early.

3) Starting in January of 2005, we are changing the meeting format. Here's the plan: We are moving the Digital Camera SIG to the second Thursday of the month, since it's the most popular, and it will replace the General Meeting at PNG. We won't entirely eliminate the general meeting. We plan on having about three special programs during the year instead of the Digital Camera SIG depending on interest and content. The remaining SIGs will still be meeting at CompUSA but will be spread out more evenly during the month. This way we won't have four SIGs during a week, and we will possibly boost attendance.

The board thought it was necessary to make these changes since attendance at the general meeting has been declining, and most people show up for only the SIGs. We are focusing on our strong points. We want your input on this matter. Please give us your comments. You can contact the entire PCCC board by sending an email to: board@pc3.org we really want your input.

See you at the next meeting.

Go to the PC Club's Website

	From The Font
Keith Wales, Sr. Time has run out on me this month. As Richard said REMEMBER MICROSOFT is coming to the November meeting. This will also be your only chance to get Christmas Party tickets first hand. After the meeting you will have to send checks to: Pam Wales 15214 Millview Trace Lane Mint Hill, NC 28227 Hope to see everyone and yor freinds at the November Meeting Editor Bytes & Bits »

	Upcoming Meeting Topics
December Christmas Party at St. Gabriel's January Digital Photography SIG will move to the General Meeting Night February Digital Photography SIG will move to the General Meeting Night

	Getting Ready for Broadband
Bill Barnes, PCCC When you get broadband, you MUST have a hardware router as your first line of defense against hackers. You can find some real deals on wired only routers (<$20 net), but wireless is the coming thing. For a home user I recommend getting a wireless router, even if you don't have any wireless computers now. Wireless routers generally also have connections for 4 wired computers as well as the radio and can be had for <$50 net with careful shopping. Wireless comes in 3 standards (as of 2004) designated as IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. 802.11a wireless was a little-used standard with a relatively short range and can be immediately discarded from consideration. The other two may be promoted as "B", "G", or merely "Wi-Fi". "G" is the newest standard and is backwardly compatible with "B" so any "B" equipment will work on a "G" network and vice versa -- at the slower "B" capabilities. "B" and "G" both have a nominal range of 100 m, depending on the walls and interference it encounters. "B" and compatible "G" work in the 2.4 GHz radio band that is shared with many other devices such as cordless phones. "B" has a nominal communications rate of 11 Mbs while "G" can theoretically attain up to 54 Mbs. Given the network overhead and other considerations, good-conditions data transfer would typically be half the ratings and may fall back to as slow as a modem in bad conditions. In addition, the available bandwidth is shared by all the wireless users using that radio channel (multiple channels can be configured for large, heavy-use areas). By comparison, a wired network has a data transfer rate of 100 Mbs for each user. For the rest of this article go to the link at the bottom of this article The Rest of the Story »

	Special Interest Group (SIG)
Special Interest Group Next week will be our SIG week and we will have several during that week. The schedule is as follows: Office SIG Monday, November15, 2004, 7:00pm CompUSA, South Boulevard and I-485 The Topic is Macros (Part 3) . Digital Camera SIG Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 7:00pm CompUSA, South Boulevard and I-485 The Topic is Fantasy Web Design Wednesday, November 17, 2004, 7:00pm CompUSA, South Boulevard and I-485 The Topic is See PC3 Web Site Internet SIG Thursday, November 18, 2004, 7:00pm CompUSA, South Boulevard and I-485 The Topic is See PC3 Web Site SIG Calendar »

	October Board Minutes
Pat Rogers, Secretary IN ATTENDANCE Richard Kinkel President Pat Rogers Paul Reiss Pam Wales Bill Barnes Keith Wales Bob Carraway Jim McClanahan Galen Bolen Regular Business President Richard Kinkel, call to order the meeting at 5:40PM 1) Keith Wales motion to approve minutes, Paul Reiss second the motion 2) President's Report: Topic for November General Meeting SP2, presented by a MICROSOFT. Because the Digital SIG is very well attended, a larger facility for meeting was proposed, further study will be done. Barnes motion to accept Reiss 2nd. 3) Publicity Report: None 4) Treasury Report: See Below 5) Membership Report: As of 10/25/04 48 paid members 6) Newsletter Editor Report: Send in all articles etc. by 10/29/04 (Friday) 7) Web Master Report: Dewey, unable to make meeting, no report at this time. OTHER BUSINESS 1) The Board will be discussing how to best spread the SIG's meeting, After meeting with CompUSA for availability of training room. 2) The December meeting (Holiday Party) is set for 12/09/04 At Saint Gabriel Catholic Church. 3016 Providence Rd. (near Sharon Amity) Ticket price $15.00, members can bring several guests each guest ticket will be the same $15.00 Keith Wales motion to accept Galen 2nd. 3) Board added a new member Mr. Jim McClanahan,, Jim will be assisting Bob Carraway with membership. Welcome Aboard. 4) Next Executive Board Meeting (Monday 11/22/04) Gus's Sir Beef Restaurant, located at 4101 Monroe Rd. Charlotte, NC (Tel. 704-377-3210) 5) McClanahan motion to adjourn Pam Wales 2nd September Treasurers Report Beginning Balance...................$2870.27 Current Balance......................$2973.42 Submitted By Pam Wales Join the Forum! »

	AOL Email Replying Tip
Bob Carraway When Replying to an email from another AOL user there can be problems: The problem is that when you send your reply, the person receiving the reply may not know to which email subject you are replying. The solution is to highlight some of the text in the original email first, then click the Reply button and write your reply message. By highlighting the text, it will be automatically placed at the top in your reply email. The recipient will then be able to relate to your response subject.

	Web Potpourri
Keith Wales, Sr., PCCC Now that Fall is here and Winter is not too far behind we will undoubtedly be spending more time in front of our computers an also our TV's. So, if your "significant other" can get you out of the house to go to a movie or rent a video the following sites might just be of interest to you. Internet Database is a database of everything about every movie you can think of. http://imdb.com/ Box Office MoJo is also a listing of movies but also more on the actors and the status of current and upcoming movies. http://boxofficemojo.com/ TVTome is a site that not only tells you what Hots and what's not but it tell about the in the planning stage shows as well. http://tvtome.com/ Try these out on a Cold Winter evening Send me your favorite sites and you to could be in the spotlight next month. Editor Bytes & Bits »

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