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Below
is a list of dates for 2006, these dates have been confirmed.
25th
October 2006
22nd November 2006
20th December 2006
Photographic
Competition 2006
Don’t
forget the competition in December, below is a list of the categories.
1.
The Four Seasons (any photograph depicting one of the seasons
of the year)
2.
Landscape/Seascape
3.
Nature
4.
Industrial Landscape
5.
Image manipulation (use of any effects to enhance a photograph)
6.
Close-Up
Last Month….
With the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, Alan Danbury introduced
us to the mysteries of Home Networking. Alan explained that the
benefits of a home network were the ability to share a common
Internet connection between local computers and the sharing of
peripherals such as printers or scanners. So anybody with more
than one computer in their home would probably find a home network
extremely useful.
So
how does somebody go about setting up their own network? Alan
explained that the user needed a few items to get started :-
1.
Communication Protocol
This
is the Transmission Control Internet Protocol or TC/IP. This needs
to have a unique address that identifies your system. There are
a maximum of 4 billion unique addresses on the Internet and not
all of these are available. Not nearly enough for all the users
of the web. The unique address is yours only while your system
is on. Every time you establish a new Internet connection a new
address is allocated. This principle was fine until broadband
users started leaving their systems on all the time. However,
a new protocol is being developed that will generate even more
addresses to accommodate everyone (for now).
2. Network Card
These
come in two guises, either a standard wired variety where cables
physically connect the devices or the more recent wireless type
that does away with the physical connection.
3.
Router Or Hub
This
is the little black box that is the gateway into the Internet
and does all the hard work for you, like setting up your unique
address and ensuring the correct transmission of data. It also
acts as a hard firewall – more powerful than the software
firewalls. You will also need various leads to connect the devices.
Alan
then went on to describe the rudiments of setting up the network
system and configuring the router to your system requirements.
This will include usernames/passwords, the shared peripherals
such as printers and external drives, folders and files.
It
is also possible to make the file access read/write or read only.
The individual password levels control permission for file access.
Alan
then touched on Wireless networking. No cables but care needs
to taken when setting up. It is quite possible for external users
to access a wireless network and hence have unsolicited access
to your system and the software on it. It is essential; that an
encryption key is set to ensure others cannot hack into the system.
Alan explained that this is a simple procedure during the configuration
phase; he even showed a program that will generate unique encryption
keys for you. You can find it at www.grc.com/passwords.htm
Finally
he showed us a schematic diagram of a typical home network –
which incidentally was his own system.
Our
thanks to Alan for an excellent informative presentation that
opened up some of the mysteries of Home Networking and May The
Force Be With You.
Dave
Robb
Microsoft
kills off XP SP1 support
Microsoft
has announced that it will no longer support Windows XP Service
Pack 1 and SP1a.
This means that anyone who has not upgraded will have to shift
to Service Pack 2 if they wish to continue to receive upgrades.
SP1
first shipped in September 2002 and so is getting pretty old and
smelly. It was replaced by SP2 in September 2004.
Microsoft has been culling support for several of its elderly
products lately. In July, Microsoft finally got rid of Windows
98 and ME support.
If there are users still using SP1 then chances are the hackers
have the operating system in their sights as we speak.
The smart money is on a Trojan that sniffs out old SP1 machines
and exploits vulnerabilities that will be fixed with SP2.
Microsoft has problems with Patch Tuesday
Microsoft has had a few hitches with Octobers patch Tuesday.
Microsoft wanted to release several patches for its Windows operating
system and Office package, but was stuck when a glitch stuffed
up Windows automatic update.
Although the patches can be downloaded from the Microsoft site,
many home users wait for Windows update to install them.
This batch of patches was fairly important as they include six
critical fixes for both Office and Windows, to tackle 26 flaws.
A
Microsoft spokesperson admitted that there had been problems but
teams at Microsoft were working away around the clock to get it
fixed.
That anti-piracy nonsense on automatic update seems very worthwhile
now.
Club Xmas Meal
After
last years successful Christmas meal Ben has volunteered to organise
a meal again this year. We have booked tables for Wednesday 13th
of December to sit down at 19:30
The menu is listed on the back page of this newsletter, the price
is £ 11.95 for the meal. It has been suggested by Ben that
we all put an extra £ 1.00 per person to cover a tip.
If
you are interested in coming along then please let Ben know as
soon as possible Tel 01664 454888
All menu selections and payments must be made by the next meeting
22nd November.
Cheques to the Club House Restaurant
Xmas
Menu
Chefs
Minestrone Soup with Parsley & White Wine
Or
Prawn Cocktail with Marie Rose Sauce
Or
Lemon & Coriander Salmon Goujons
Or
Breaded Mushrooms with Garlic Dip
Roast Turkey with all the Traditional Trimmings
Or
Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding with all the Traditional Trimmings
Or
Chicken Fillet with Creamy Stilton Sauce
Or
Broccoli and Cream Cheese Bake
Or
Braised Steak with Mushroom Sauce
Or
Stilton and Vegetable Crumble
Selection of Cold Sweets
Or
Cheese and Biscuits
Or
Xmas Pudding with Brandy Sauce
Mince Pie and Coffee
£
11.95 + £ 1.00 ( For tips )
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