Classes for the Month of Aug

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1 Volume 17, Number 8 Aug 2017 Classes for the Month of Aug To enroll in any of the classes, first log in to our website at In the upper left hand Navigation Box, click on Class Calendar. Find the class you want and then select it. Click on the green Enroll Me box. If you need to cancel your enrollment, please log back in, select the class again and click on Drop Me. This will make it available to others who may want to take the class and are on the waiting list. If you are on the waiting list, show up for the class to see if someone enrolled did not show up and you may be bumped into the class. All classes are geared for beginners unless otherwise indicated. IMPORTANT: You must have your SCA Resident ID with you to check-in at the Monitor desk AND AGAIN in the front of the Classroom to ensure you are enrolled. Checkin will begin 15 minutes before the scheduled class time. If you show up late, you may be bumped from the class by someone on the waiting list. Buying a Computer: Are you considering buying a new computer for yourself or as a gift? Should you buy a desktop, a laptop or a tablet? What are the differences between them? Should you buy a Mac or a PC? Should you buy it from Best Buy, Costco, Fry's, Amazon or??? Will it be used for , to watch movies, organize your photos, write a book, etc.? Have your questions answered before you buy. If you ve recently joined our Club we encourage you to attend the New Member Orientation class to familiarize yourself with our Club s activities. Learn how to sign up for classes, schedule a house call, volunteer to be a monitor and more. Current members who are not familiar with all of the benefits offered by our Computer Club are also encouraged to take this Orientation as a refresher. Photoshop Elements: Do you have a digital camera? Learn how to organize and edit your pictures. This hands-on class for both Mac and Windows users gives a basic introduction to Adobe Photoshop Elements. After taking this introductory class to this powerful photo-editing program, we recommend continuing with the Photoshop Elements SIG, where different tools, projects, and techniques are highlighted each month. Prerequisites: Must be comfortable using either the Windows or Mac operating system. Monitor Refresher Training: Refresher course for current Monitors. All monitors are required to take the refresher course annually to stay abreast of policy and operational changes in our Club. This is offered five times during If you haven t already taken it, please do so to remain qualified. Your Computer Club s Board will meet on Thursday, Aug 31 in the Computer 1:30-3:30 PM. The Board consists of your Club s Officers and Directors as voted on by you, the membership. Each Board meeting will discuss our Club s operations, policies and general business. A member comment period will be allowed at the end of each meeting. Learn how your Club functions and offer your feedback, recommendations and/or comments at the Board meeting. New members are encouraged to attend.

2 SIG... What is it? A SIG is a special interest group that meets on a weekly or monthly basis. SIGs are open to any member in good standing and provides a forum for open discussions among club members regarding a specific product/application (of the SIG). We invite ANY Computer Club member who is interested in learning more about a specific product/application to join the discussions. All SIGs meet in the computer classroom. Participants ask questions and discuss various topics at each session. If you are an Apple user, join our Apple USER SIG. We meet monthly to investigate Apple products. Did you recently buy a Mac, an ipad or MacBook Air? Do you have questions regarding specific Apple products or applications? Sit in on this month s meeting on Saturday, Aug 12 from 10 AM noon in the Computer Classroom and see if this is the group you have been looking to join. The Photoshop Elements SIG will meet on Friday, Aug 25 from 9:30 11:30 AM. Enhance your skills working with digital photos. Every month we cover topics that build upon skills learned in the basic Photoshop Elements class and participants can get help with Photoshop Elements related problems. Prerequisites: basic Photoshop Elements class or some experience using Photoshop Elements. Computer Talk meets from 9 10 AM every Thursday and is designed as a question and answer session. Can t figure out how to do something? Anyone can ask anything computer Navigating our Website: take the time to look around our Club website at when you have a few extra minutes. There is a wealth of information right at your fingertips. Have you ever wanted to find past copies of our Newsletter? Click on Newsletters in the horizontal menu and you will find old copies from years past. Missed a Board Meeting and want to read the minutes? Go to Documents> Minutes and find them. Want more information about your Club? Check out Club Information. Here you will find who your Directors are, Opportunities to get more involved, Club hours of operation, what scanning resources we offer for your use and who can help you get started and a whole lot more. Check it out. And don t forget to use Contact Us to let us know how we are doing or if you have questions about our Club, classes, newsletter, etc.

3 The Mysteries of Wi-Fi By Brian Corr Recently I have encountered several members who had problems with their Wi-Fi (related to printing). The two problems had the common thread of not understanding the multiple networks built into wireless routers. The next paragraph will be a rather technical discussion of the history of wireless routers, leading to our current crop of routers. Feel free to skip the next paragraphs if you only want the practical knowledge for setting up you own router and connecting your devices. So what is Wi-Fi? It is simply the protocol that enables one to connect to the Internet using a radio frequency signal instead of wires (hence a wireless connection). It is convenient because it allows one to move around one s home and use their mobile devices (e.g. computer, smart phone, laptop, tablet, ipad, etc.) without losing their connection (as long as the device is within the signal range). In addition, multiple devices such as computers, laptops, tablets, and ipads can use one printer without a directly wired connection. Wi-Fi development over the years Over the past 10 years or so there have been numerous improvements in the speed and versatility of home wireless routers. The standard that drives the speed and range of routers has gone through iterations with standards that start with (which was the designation of the engineering group that was charged with creating the standards). The initial standard was created in 1997 and allowed speeds up to only 2 Mbps (megabits per second) using an unregulated 2.4Ghz (gigahertz) frequency prone to interference from other appliances and electronic equipment. In 1999, two new standards were created; a and b with the a standard being based on a new and regulated frequency of 5 Ghz. The b standard provided for speeds up to 22 Mbps and the a standard provided speeds for up to 54 Mbps but because it used the new frequency it was not compatible with the 2.4 Mhz networks. So some of the manufacturers created a/b routers, which incorporated both frequencies and hence created a single network that could be accessed by devices using either frequency. In 2002, a new standard based on the unregulated 2.4 Ghz frequency was created that increased the speed up to the 54Mbps speed of a but with the better range of the b standard. In 2009, a new standard designated as n, but generally referred to as Wireless N, utilizing the 2.4 Ghz frequency but also utilizing multiple transmission streams to increase speed to 300 Mbps. The most recent version of is designated ac and provides the multiple stream technology on both frequencies with bandwidths up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 Ghz frequency and up to 450 Mbps on the 2.4Ghz frequency. Practical Knowledge Now the practical, when you purchase a new router usually n or ac versions, it comes with default settings that are probably suitable for the typical home user. It supports both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz

4 The Mysteries of Wi-Fi (continued) frequencies and by default has encryption turned on with a password that usually is printed on the bottom (or back) of the router. All you need to do is connect your modem to the port designated as WAN and plug in power (and in some cases turn on the router). Now you need to connect all your devices to the router. Some printers (and older equipment) may only be able to connect with the 2.4 Ghz frequency while some devices will be able to connect to either frequency. You will usually see a network designated with the manufacturer s name and a number (sometimes a portion of the serial number) like Netgear1234 for instance. You may see one with the 5G designation on the end, indicating that is the 5 Ghz network and the other will be the 2.4 Ghz network but it is immaterial which one you connect to as they are functionally one network and can share all resources. You may also see wireless networks with the same basic names followed by Guest. These unencrypted networks only allow access to the Internet, but not the other devices on your network (like printers for example). You will be asked to enter the password printed on the router when connecting your devices. Once you have entered it, the devices should remember the password for future connections. So if this is all so simple, what can go wrong? Most of the problems I have encountered with members setting up their routers relate to connecting printers and making changes to the router settings. Everything I have presented here can be changed from the defaults (e.g. like renaming the networks, changing the password, enabling or disabling the guest networks and creating passwords for using the guest networks). There are also some settings to allow (or not allow) connections from designated devices and even the ability to isolate the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz networks so they are completely independent and can t share devices across the two networks. As you can imagine some of these settings can render the networks unusable. Remember what I stated about guest networks only allowing internet connection? If you connect your computer to the guest network and then connect your printer to the guest network, you will still not be able to print because of the restrictions on the guest network. My recommendation is to leave customizing the router to the experts and follow carefully the instructions for connecting your printer to the Wi-Fi network. Windows and listening in ON THE AIR Microsoft started releasing its newest update to its Windows 10 service in April 2017 and it is called the Creator s Update. We told you a little about it in previous newsletters and now it seems that many of you are actually receiving this newest update. If you do not have it yet, do not worry. It may be coming soon as part of your normal updates. How do you know if you have it or not? To tell whether or not your computer has the new Creator s Update (also referred to as Build Version 1703), go to Settings> System> About. Here you will see which version your computer, laptop or tablet is running. Want to create a shortcut on your desktop to quickly see About? It is easy to do. First minimize any applications you have open, so that you are at your desktop screen.

5 Windows and listening in (continued) Now right- click on any open space on your desktop. Select New> Shortcut. A dialog box will appear like the one here. Next type in ms-settings:about without the quotes, then click next. Lastly give your shortcut a name, (e.g. System About, or About) and then click finish. The shortcut will appear on your desktop and all you have to do is double-click it and it will now open directly to the About page where you can see which version of Windows 10 you are running (as well as your processor, product ID, etc.). Now, not all computers will be able to update to this newest build. These are primarily hybrid PCs and small tablets that were sold in 2013 and 2014 when Windows 8 first appeared. They have the following processors: Intel Atom Z2520, Z2560, Z2580, or Z2760 and are Clover Trail-based devices currently running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, version Unfortunately, they will not be able to upgrade to the latest version: Creators Update, version They will however continue to receive reliability and security fixes (until Jan 2023) in what Microsoft calls "quality updates," which are delivered on the second Tuesday of every month. Useful things you may want to know, or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we made up ourselves Q. My 10-year old granddaughter wants her own cell phone but her parents think she is too young. Of course my granddaughter says she knows all about smart phones and all her friends have one. She visits often and I have never let her use my Android phone because I think she really does know all about them and don t want her accessing any of my files on my phone. I want to let her try my phone to go to the Internet and look up movie schedules or activities while she is here but that s about it. How do I do this? A. Kids growing up these days use technology more than ever. They play video games, surf the web, text messages and friends, and many even use computers daily in their classrooms. Since you have an Android phone, you can enable the Android Guest Mode feature by pulling down from the top of your menu. Touch your user icon in the upper right-hand corner, then tap it again to access the User screen. You should see your own profile along with the option to Add guest. Click on that and the phone will switch into Guest Mode. The Guest Mode allows the user access to just the basic phone functions, like the Chrome browser, but hides your contacts, internet history, and personal data. You can switch back to your regular profile through the same method you used to turn on Guest Mode. Q. OK, I got my first smart phone and have started taking selfies to show my grandkids some of the places I visit on my hikes with the Hiking Club. But sometimes it is hard to hold my arm out and still push the button on the screen to take the picture. Any suggestions? A. Well, yes. Have you heard of a selfie stick? A selfie stick is an extendable stick which usually has a clamp of some sort at one end in which the phone is placed and at the other end (which you hold) is a button or switch in which to take the picture. Typically these sticks extend further than one s arm can reach and have become popular, however their use has been banned in many tourists spots and amusement

6 Useful things you may want to know, or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that we made up ourselves (continued) parks due to safety concerns. But another option for you to try (if you didn t want to buy a selfie stick) is instead of trying to push the button on your screen, push your Volume control bottom (on either the top or side of your phone) because it acts like a shutter when in camera mode. That just may be a little easier to do when holding your phone in your outstretched arm. Q. We were at the store the other day and I was trying to read the ingredients on the label of a can of soup. A younger woman saw me squinting and asked if she could help me. I told her I was trying to read the ingredients, but the print was so small I couldn t make it out. She then took out her cell phone and read the ingredients to me. I thanked her but wondered how she did that. Any ideas? A. It is possible that she used her phone like a magnifier. It really comes in handy when trying to read those labels. There are apps for magnifiers, but one can access a phone s built in magnifier without a special app. For ios devices, open up your settings and go to General and then Accessibility. Click the Magnifier setting listed under Vision, then turn on the toggle switch for the magnifier. You can now quickly trigger this feature by pointing the camera at what you want to read and triple-clicking the home button. When the magnifier is open, you can adjust the magnification, turn on the flash to see better, or change the brightness or colors. For Android phones, one option is to go to your settings and choose Accessibility. Turn on magnification gestures. A triple-tap on the screen will enlarge anything on the screen, whether it s an app or your camera view. Q. My son set up my new laptop to accept a PIN, as well as a password. He thought it would be easier for me to just put in numbers than remember a long password. It worked great until it didn t anymore. Any suggestions on how to fix? A. Kids these days. Always trying to be helpful, right? Well you can try this: remove and then add pin again. Follow these steps (and if they work) let us know. On your login screen, click sign-in options and then login with either your Microsoft account or local account password. Now go to your account settings (e.g. Windows icon (bottom left corner of taskbar), click on your name (or icon), then select Change account settings ). Select sign-in options. Scroll down until you see Pin and look for Remove and click on it. You will be asked to confirm this action. Select Remove. A login box should appear asking you to re-enter your password. Do so and then click OK. Now you will be back at the Sign-in Options page where you can Add a PIN once again. Enter a new PIN and confirm it, then click OK. Lastly, be sure to restart your computer and sign in with your new PIN to confirm it reset correctly.