APCUG Reports
April-June 2010

Our club, the Fox Valley PC Association (www.fvpca.org), has been challenged for years to connect to the Internet. Some clubs may take their Internet access for granted. We have not been so fortunate. Consider the non-Internet option: without Internet access our club had to rely on screen captures to simulate an Internet connection during our programs. Programs get pretty dull without a real time interactive connection. We needed to get online to add some zip to our demonstrations!

We unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a connection with the host for our meetings, the Oswegoland Park District (OPD). In 2005 we were told politely to, “look elsewhere.” So off we went to test out various other locations which offered WiFi Internet access at several local libraries and rented a meeting room at a motel. Attendance suffered at those locations, but members who did make the trip appreciated the ability to see live Internet access demonstrations during some of our meetings. Several members would bring along their laptops and share their discoveries, which was an interesting dimension never experienced previously. With this ability to access the Internet our meetings began to develop a more dynamic character. We recognized that we needed to get connected regularly in order to add some vitality to all of our meetings.

In order to try and get something going back at our usual meeting place, our web master, Bob Tuftee, approached the OPD again during 2007. Finally, in October, 2007 we were able to get online during our meetings. This was a 133 kbps DSL wireless connection that was provided to us at no cost to us by our host, the OPD. Sadly, Bob passed away shortly thereafter and never experienced the connection that he worked so hard to get for our club.

In addition to providing more interactive content during our programs, Internet access also allowed us to begin a regular live “Q & A” segment. Members could submit a question via our web site and we would be able to research a solution for the next monthly meeting. During the meeting we could actively “Google” other issues to better help members with solutions to problems presented. Of course we could go directly to links to help with various demonstrations. Although only 133 kbps, it was better than nothing.

As we began to present programs with greater bandwidth demands (remote access, VOIP, video conferencing via Skype, etc.) we once again approached the OPD for a faster solution. We also began to consider one of the benefits of our APCUG membership: the option to use LiveMeeting to conduct “webinars” for members who would be unable to attend meetings, and/or the ability to provide a recording of the program for viewing at a convenient time.

During our deliberations with the OPD we learned that the contract for the 133 kbps connection would expire in September, 2009. Like many municipalities, the OPD was seeking ways to trim their budget. They discovered that the 133 kbps connection cost them $110 a month! The OPD administration approved the FVPCA to proceed with research of additional solutions, as they did not want to renew the contract as a cost saving maneuver. Essentially, we were faced with losing Internet access when the DSL contract expired. We learned that AT&T DSL would cost $75 a month and Comcast $60. The OPD was not going to pay for either option. It was hard to justify such an expense for a 3 hour meeting once a month, so we looked into other possible solutions.

3G wireless plans from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint were explored. The plans were still expensive and involved long term contracts. At about this time Virgin Mobile came out with a USB 3G device and a “pay as you go” plan. For $149.99 (now $99.99) we picked up the Novatel MC760 at Best Buy, and purchased a “TopUp” card for $20 that allows 250MB or 30 days of use. (Now 300 MB/30days for $20!) We are in a coverage area, and our speed has been better with this arrangement, approaching 700 kbps download and 110 kbps upload. One of our members has a Sprint 3G/4G U301 for his business laptop. That has only been able to access at 3G speeds at our present meeting location, but seems to have better speed than the VMobile connection. What is also compelling is that we are not tied down to one location, but can conduct a meeting anywhere there is 3G coverage for either device.

Our Live Meeting project requires some way to share the Internet access for two presenters: one presenter would administer the actual program, and the second would field any questions. An early attempt to set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) via an older XP laptop and a regular wireless router was unsuccessful. I was told by a Virgin Mobile tech person that it was not possible to share the MC760. He said that it had to be connected directly to a computer. Not true!

I was able to purchase a CradlePoint CTR-350 3G wireless router at Best Buy. (www.cradlepoint.com) After updating the firmware, the Virgin Mobile MC760 was able to connect via the USB port on the CTR-350, and then allowed access to the Internet via a WiFi connection for meeting participants. The SSID was the default “CTR-f39”. Since the Sprint U301 was not compatible with this device, we have just upgraded to a CradlePoint MBR-1000, which will after a firmware upgrade.

There was recent success at a recent general meeting with the set up of a WiFi access point “CTR-f39” for a program on the free remote access application, TeamViewer. (Check out TeamViewer, an outstanding solution for remote access!) There was enough bandwidth on the MC760 for our presentation, and several members were able to access the Internet via the “CTR-f39” access point. Fortunately, we are in a Virgin Mobile coverage area. (Clear.com is pushing out our way, but not available yet.)

Coincidentally, we just discovered that there is a way to create a “hot spot” access point for free! This is done by using an exciting new program, Connectify, which will turn your laptop into a WiFi hot spot (www.connectify.me). There are some basic requirements: it must be run in Windows 7, the laptop/desktop must have the latest WiFi card/adapter and there must be an existing Internet connection. (It could be a 3G device connected to the computer, an Ethernet connection, a WiFi connection, etc.) What is amazing is that the Wifi card can act as the Internet receiver and simultaneously act as an access point!

There may be a way to “do it yourself” and set up ICS within Windows 7, but the ease of Connectify makes that seem like a waste of time. I was able to install Windows 7 RC1 on an old laptop, installed Connectify, connect to the Internet via the MC760 and then create an access point via a DLink N USB adapter (a DWA-140, one of the listed devices compatible with Connectify. The existing WiFi card in the laptop and an older ASUS USB WiFi adapter were too old to work.) Connectify appears to still be under development. The Sprint U301 does not appear to work with Connectify yet. It appears that it is expected to in a future release of Connectify. One blog suggested that this app may be in beta and eventually go retail. If so, I suggest you get it now while it is free!

We had read about Live Meeting being offered to user groups who were members of APCUG. Our goal in the FVPCA Live Meeting project is to get remote members to join us on the third Saturday each month via “webinars.” We have a rather small membership of about 40, and only 15-20 attend meetings each month. Many live too far away, some may have health issues, it could be bad weather, or any number of other reasons why they do not show up regularly in person. LiveMeeting would offer them a chance to attend a virtual meeting and interact, asking questions. There is an option to record a program, and that would allow us to post it on our web site. However, that method would allow for viewing only, without the ability to ask questions. To promote LiveMeeting, we encouraged members to participate in the training sessions for “attendees” and then “presenters” that are scheduled on the APCUG web site.

To determine the desirability of having a Live Meeting (LM) option, we included some questions about LM on a recent survey of our membership. Although there were only 17 respondents, 6 would use LM, 9 preferred downloading a program for viewing at their convenience. Only 2 would not be interested in either (these 2 were regular meeting attendees.) More details of the survey are posted on our web site: www.fvpca.org.

From the survey results we saw that this would be a worthwhile project, so we decided we needed to test our Internet Virgin Mobile connection to see if LM would work. There is a third phase of LM training offered by APCUG, which is to set up a special LM session just for the “movers and shakers” where a test drive can be conducted. We held such a meeting on 2/25/2010 before a regular Executive Board meeting. Don Singleton joined us and helped with commentary.

The first step was to contact Don Singleton at APCUG. (I have been in contact with Don before, having seen him for the first time during the MWUG conference in September, 2008 over the Internet as he was the remote presenter from Tulsa, OK!) Don replied promptly and sent me an e-mail with the details needed to conduct our scheduled LM which included a list of links and the needed codes. I shared this information with the other board members. I encouraged everyone to download the latest LM client onto their laptop and test that it worked before coming to the meeting.

We assembled together for the meeting, equipped with 6 laptops. We simulated remote attendee access via the household WiFi connection: a Netgear access point (WG602 v2) connected via Cat 5 to the switch on the AT&T Residential Gateway (3800HGV-B). The SSID on this connection was “JACKSPLACE”. Three laptops attempted to use the “JACKSPLACE” network and one member used his Sprint 3G connection to connect to LM. Don Singleton connected to LM via his household WiFi connection in Tulsa, OK.

To simulate the connection for presenters at the general monthly meeting, we attempted to connect two of the laptops to the CradlePoint CTR-350 access point “CTR-f39” which was linked to the Internet via the Virgin Mobile 3G device.

There were some unforeseen issues. As the “JACKSPLACE” access point went through the AT&T residential gateway, the laptops brought by some of the members had to navigate through the AT&T firewall. Some special settings were needed to facilitate that. One member was unsuccessful in connecting his laptop to either WiFi connection. As it was his business laptop, and there was some confusion on how to enable the WiFi on it, we removed it from our sampling. For some reason, we were only able to connect one laptop to “CTR-f39”. In the interest of moving ahead, we decided to proceed with the one “presenter” on the CTR-350 and connected the other to “JACKSPLACE”.

We used a free utility called NetWorx to measure bandwidth. From information on the website, ( http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx ) NetWorx is, “a simple and free, yet powerful tool that helps you objectively evaluate your bandwidth situation. You can use it to collect bandwidth usage data and measure the speed of your Internet or any other network connection…”

All of the members installed NetWorx and started the “Usage Statistics” that displays a summary of sent and received data. As it was first time use, sent and received values were already set to zero. (It is possible to reset the results from the NetWorx menus.) We wanted to measure bandwidth consumption as we proceeded through our simulation.

It may have been helpful to examine the real time bandwidth consumption via the “Graph” feature, but this was overlooked.

The group worked through various configurations and two PowerPoint programs were sampled. There were housekeeping issues regarding audio and video settings, as well as the previously mentioned Internet connection challenges. Few of the members had brought microphones or web cams, so we were unable to test bandwidth consumption as related to audio or video feeds with everyone.

One presenter (on “CTR-f39”) used my Plantronics gaming headset. This worked very well. The second presenter (on “JACKSPLACE”) used a Logitech Quickcam Pro for Notebooks. The microphone on that worked well, and video was received. However, with the video turned on, the refresh of the slides in the PowerPoint programs was very slow. Once video was turned off, refresh rates were almost immediate. Another issue was the background noise. Since not all members had headsets, there was feedback from the speakers on their laptops. This would likely not be an issue in real remote environments, as they would be isolated from the presenter’s voice. Don suggested that we use a policy which would allow only the speaker to have his mike enabled. If someone wanted to speak, they would enable their microphone. (Much like “keying” a mic on a radio.)

We enabled the LM recording feature when the meeting began. After 40 minutes we saved the recording and it was rendered to several files in a folder. Total size was 17 MB. We have yet to explore the process for posting the saved program on the web.

Consumption for the 40 minute session was captured:
Attendee on “JACKPLACE” - Dean
65.4 MB Received, 2.23 MB Sent, 67.6 MB Total; some extra surfing suspected.
Attendee on “Sprint 3/4G” - Tom
No data posted: user was doing independent web activity during simulation
Attendee on WiFi in Tulsa - Don
No data posted: user had not cleared out settings which had included prior activity
Presenter on “JACKPLACE” – Jon (used video for a portion of the LM session)
27.2 MB Received, 21.3 MB Sent, 48.5 MB Total
Presenter on “CTR-f39” - Bill
15.8 MB Received, 7.58 MB Sent, 23.3 MB Total
Virgin Mobile Statistics: Approx. 20 MB Total (Start at 212 MB, finishing at 192 MB)

Note: Our policy for VMobile access at meetings discourages downloads of updates which might rapidly consume our 250 MB (now 300 MB) bandwidth cap. A Sprint 3G/4G connection would not have such restrictions.

In conclusion, it appears that the Virgin Mobile connection will support the broadcast of a LM session. The $20 monthly option now allows up to 300 MB of bandwidth consumption. This appears to be more than adequate for a one hour program, with the balance likely to support a WiFi access point for member Internet access during meetings.

The throughput graph was not captured using the NetWorx “Speed Meter” during our simulation. The speed test from Speakeasy.net on the VMobile connection averaged 570/110 kbps (received/sent). According to Jay Ferron, President of APCUG, LM needs 128 kbps with streaming voice for the presenter and attendees can get by with 64 kbps. The “CTR-f39” did meet these minimums. Note that video requires more bandwidth, which has yet to be examined. (This might be determined via the NetWorx “Speed Meter” and “Graph” on the PC broadcasting video.) Additional connection speeds by the Sprint 3G/4G device (U301) have yet to be determined, but may provide the additional bandwidth needed for video, and/or a second presenter. For now we will just use the audio feature for our LM sessions.

Hopefully, this article will help some clubs understand how we have used a wireless 3G connection to create an access point for our club’s general meetings and help them determine if it may be an option for them. The CradlePoint devices do provide a solution for sharing Internet access. Also, the Connectify software does appear to be another potential solution for creating and sharing an Internet connection via a Wifi Zone for meetings.

We look forward to moving ahead with our LiveMeeting “webinars” and are grateful for this benefit of our APCUG membership. Check out the SharePoint link on the APCUG site to look for our yet-to-be-scheduled programs. Visitors will be welcome!

(Jon Jackman, jockojkj@aol.com is President of the Fox Valley PC Association. The motto of the club is “Users helping Users.” The “Fox Tales” is the monthly newsletter which is available at their website: www.fvpca.org. This article may be shared with other user groups, provided credit is given to the author.)