|
Our September meeting found us back on the road to visit Quiknet, Inc. at its Roseville and Fair Oaks sites. We had an excellent turnout to listen to William Lawver, CEO, President and Bob Ney, Manager tell us about the complexity of Internet communications. Quiknet has been a leading ISP in the area and is now available nationwide, with over 600 local dial-up access numbers.
William and Bob delivered a well-paced discussion about the current and future trends in Internet connections. They explained that their usually very fast connections were due to use of fiber optics and an ample supply of dedicated modems. To have a complete fiber optics connection from Roseville to Fair Oaks, the line is routed through Rancho Cordova. This routing avoids wire connections on the system so the resulting fast signal is available much closer to your home or office.
Our usual Q & A session concentrated on the future of dial-up networks, including systems such as XSspeed!, DSL and microwave-based service providers. Availability, speed, and total costs of the various systems were discussed, revealing significant differences in startup costs for necessary modems and/or receivers.
|
An interesting point was made about Internet connections in Europe. There is no ISP connection charge, but customers pay about two cents per minute while connected. Monthly bills can be very high at $1.20 per hour if one spends much time online.
The next meeting of the Roseville Chapter SPCUG will be 7 p.m. October 7 at Placer Savings Bank. The speaker will be Bill NcCuiston, who will discuss many unique features of the money-management program Quicken. He will point out some of the advantages and give tips to get the most fromthe program.
Let our VP, Guy Manwaring, know if you have specific programs or hardware items that you want to learn more about. He will try to arrange a demonstration or presentation by a qualified person to meet your needs.
—
Bob Kromney
|
