Meeting Preview: At the May meeting, Phil Humphrey and David Parsley of Waldec-IKON Technology Services will present Microsoft and Internet related products. In addition we will have several better than usual door prizes—the best being Microsoft Office 97 Professional donated by a member of our group.

By William LaMartin, Editor, Tampa PC Users Group

I think it has been a sufficient length of time since I last mentioned the word, so I will say it again—NetMeeting. If you don’t have it, get it. I am talking about Microsoft NetMeeting, one of the programs in the large Internet Explorer 4.0 package. If you downloaded the small IE package, you didn’t get it; however, it is also available as a separate download from Microsoft. The file is 2.09 MB and takes 58 seconds to download........with a cable modem, according to Merle Nicholson.

For those not familiar with the program, NetMeeting is an Internet conferencing program which allows two people to use audio and video to communicate over an Internet connection. While they converse, they can transfer files, use a white board, display one computer’s running program on the other computer's screen—even allowing the other individual to collaborate in using that program. More than two people can simultaneously use NetMeeting, but the audio and video are restricted to only two of the participants. The program is much better behaved now than in its first version, and it works surprisingly well with 28,800 modems. However, when you add video and sharing of programs the audio is sometimes degraded.

What prompts me to mention this is that my son, who is away at college and is about to graduate and take a job, and I recently had a NetMeeting which demonstrates how useful this program can be. While we spoke into our microphones and listened to our computer’s speakers, just like with a regular phone conversation, he shared with me a listing on his computer of apartment rentals in a potential job city while I shared a Street Atlas USA map of that city from my computer with him. I could move around the apartment list on his computer and he could manipulate the map on mine. I was familiar with the city and could orient him by moving my cursor on the map. And all the while we were carrying on our "phone" conversation. It was quite productive. And with Merle’s cable modem, I am sure it would have been even more productive. u