This will be an informal meeting of the Oregon Computer Consultants Association. No presentation is planned. We'll have plenty of time for Gadget Minute, Stump the Geek, extended discussion of what's new in the computing field, and other matters of interest to computer consultants. 

Visitors are welcome. 

There is no cost to attend, but the brewpub would appreciate your business :-) 

Preventing attacks
What do we do to prevent attacks from occurring in the first place?

1. Adjusting Windows settings
Default Windows settings we change

• Basic Settings for Windows Security
• Privacy Settings
• DNS settings

2. Browsers

• Which ones
• Extensions
• Browser Passwords

3. Passwords
4. User training
5. Updates, both Windows and all other programs

Dealing with attacks
If something gets in, what do we do?

• Antivirus
• Other mitigations, like startup control
• Backups, images?

If there's time, other important setup tools

This will be a general discussion where we share how we run our businesses and how we tackle a  range of issues such as these.

• Contracts
• Insurance
• Pricing 
• Business structure (Corp, LLP, Sole Proprietor) 
• Requirements for clients
• How we educate clients
• Any other business issues

Please join us for this group discussion.

We will have a general Q&A Session, otherwise known as Stump-the-Geek. Bring your technical questions and we'll try to solve them collectively.

There are various approaches to designing and building websites both for ourselves and for clients. There is no definitive right answer, but there are pros and cons to each approach and to how each approach is implemented. These are the kinds of strategic decisions a consultant is most important for.

Concerns include:

1. What is the initial impression? Does it look professional?
2. Cost
3. Security
4. Site maintenance
5. Search optimization
6. How adaptable is it to various devices (phones, tablets, computers?)

Broad Approaches include:

1. Custom coding using your own SQL database design, CSS and HTML. Possible Perl and Javascript. These are expensive to design, but can be secure and customized perfectly. Where is custom coding the best answer? What problems will you face?
2. Using a content management system like WordPress or Drupal. These allow you to produce a site much faster and less expensively, but tend to have many security issues and may not be as a perfectly suited to you if you have special needs. Where are these the best answers? What issues will you face. Both Wordpress and Drupal are open source and can be hosted anywhere.  Where should these be hosted? What are the pros and cons? 
3. Hosted websites with their own custom proprietary tools like Weebly, Squarespace, Wix and Homestead. These offer very fast development and they take care of the security issues, but limit your flexibility. When is this is good answer. What experience do we have with these and how has it worked out?

We will discuss our use and experience with these systems and approaches. Hopefully everyone will participate and share.

System configuration

• What CPU, drives, memory are you choosing?
• When are you using AMD processors?
• What vendors and brands do you recommend?
• Laptops, desktops, lightweight systems, smaller tower systems?
• Which series from Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. are you recommending for business?
• What size and features are you recommending in laptops for business users?
• When and where are you recommending Macs?
• Are you recommending Windows 10 or 11?  If 10, are you ensuring you new system can run Windows 11?
• Local or Microsoft accounts?
• Configuring laptops and desktops.
  • How do you setup computers for clients?
  • What default options do you change?
  • What programs do you normally add?
  • What programs do you normally remove?

Instead of a speaker, we'll have a general discussion and question session. The topic is the sorts of things we tried in 2021 that worked well or didn't. Then we'll discuss what we'll be doing differently or trying in 2022. What questions we have about what we should do next year. There might even be predictions.

The general meeting will include an annual meeting with election of some board members and any questions members have of the board. That meeting will be followed by  a general open discussion. Members and guests can come and share information they think could be of interest to the group and ask any question they'd like to know the answer to and we'll see if someone can help them with  the answer. Essentially, just a very extended Stump the Geek and Sharing.

On October 5th Microsoft released Windows 11 to the world and is now starting to offer it to eligible computers through automatic updates.

• What computers are compatible with Windows 11 and can I install Windows 11 even if my system isn’t compatible?
• What’s new and different about Windows 11?
• Is Windows 11 ready for prime-time?
• And if it’s not, how can I stop Microsoft from automatically updating my client’s PCs to Windows 11?

Join us on Tuesday, October 26th at Cooper Mountain Ale Works Public House in Tigard for answers to these questions (and more) as we do a deep-dive into Windows 11 Professional. Justin will provide a first-look at Windows 11 LIVE at the meeting and will present on his knowledge and experience with this latest version of Microsoft Windows.  

Attendees are encouraged to bring their Windows 11 questions and personal experiences (if any) to the meeting.  After the initial demonstration and presentation, Justin will moderate a group Q&A and discussion on everyone’s experiences with Windows 11 up until now.

IT providers have become a target for hackers. The software we use to remotely manage client computers and networks adds an attack vector. Losing control of one of these tools would allow remote access not only to our systems, but all client systems we service.

We will discuss:

• What network and system access levels are appropriate for service providers.
• Who is responsible for security and operations when outsourcing IT services.
• What are we doing to reduce the risk to our clients.
• As this issue comes to the attention of our clients, how do we discuss it with them?