Meeting Notes: 8/10/98

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

As part of my wish to keep everyone on this mailing list informed as to what
is going on at our meetings, I offer theses meeting notes.  In the future,
I shall ask someone present to take notes. In lieu of a REcording Secretary
of a desinee, we can at least provide a minimal level of service until 
someone steps forward to fill this role.

August 10th, 1998
  The meeting was brought to order at 6:25 PM. A quorum of 9 members 
was present.  The only order of business brought up was a vote on the
motion made on August 2nd, 1998. After some discussion, the motion was
called to vote and defeated, 9-0.
  The members present were sympathetic with the spirit of the motion, 
and there is some desire to see some of the useful ideas employed in
future practices. 

Our Speaker: Adam Williams
             A Domain of Your Own

Adam walked us through the steps required to become the owner of an 
Domain on the Internet. He outlined the advantages and responsibilities
af domain owners, and took us through a few of the pitfalls of some of
the things one sees on the 'net with regard to domain naming, such as 
Service Providers who offer you the domain name of your choice for a few
dollars a month. Look closely at this; they actually retain the ownership
of the domain while permitting you to use it, but try changing ISP's!

This was an encore presentation, Adam gave this presentation to a somewhat
smaller group in April, and things have changed a bit since. The price of 
one's own domain has gone down slightly, but the fees paid to INTERNIC
(stop by and see them at http://www.internic.net) are the smaller part of
what's needed for domain ownership. Usually, a dedicated line and fixed
IP address (avaialble from ISPs everywhere) is needed, but it is possible
to make arrangements that are similar to conventional dialup.

Take a look at Adma's slides that lay out many of the details, whther 
they are reasons for getting you own domain, or restrinctions. They're
on our website (http://klug.armintl.com/presentations), then look for
the talk title.... "A Domain of Your Own"


Kevin Mitchell from Iserve in Grand Rapids traveled Tuesday down to
Kalamazoo with a friend, in fact, a square blue friend known as the "Colbalt
Cube"  Kevin did an excellent presentation on some of the functions and
specs of the cube even while he was under the weather.  
Some specs of the Cube:  *Of the one Kevin Brought, there are others*
	146 mg Risk Processor
	16 mg Ram
	2.1 Gig Hard Drive
	Linux OS- Some version of Red Hat he thought.
>>>>    * I think it was 3 Partitions from a conversation that took place
later Bob... and I don't remember the specs of the 3 partitions.  One
Partition was a 100 meg Swap to off set the low Ram.
	
When the Cube arrived at Iserve, it took less than 5 minutes to get up and
running.  
	In the back of the cube is an LCD Display that gives you prompts

	It asked 3 questions:
		1.  IP Addy
		2.  Sub Net Messanger?  *not sure about this Bob..*
		3.  Gateway

They found 2 ways to make it crash:
	1.  Write to the LCD Panel
	2.  Play with the big glowing green light in the front.

This is the first dedicated distributor of Linux.  No other OS is available
on the Cube.

Drawback:  The warranty included with the cube is void if you play with the
kernel

Features / Uses:
	1.  Very Easy to set up and run for beginners
	2.  All the linux OS stability in easy to understand prompts.
	3.  Would be good for a first time network administrator
	4.  Portable and compact.
	5.  Good Server for companies who may want to store their server at
their providers residence. 
		It's easy to maintain from the company while located
somewhere else.


Special Thanks to Brenda Smith, our new Program Director, for helping me 
with these notes by sharing some of her jottings, and scheduling both of
the speakers for the above meetings. The number of meetings we have plan-
ned is attributable to her efforts... when she comes to recruit you to
speak, please help all of us by sharing what you have to offer.