The New Bern Computer Users Group (NBCUG) recently conducted an online survey of its membership using a free polling service called Sparklit at http://www.pollit.com. The purpose of the survey was to get a handle on members’ ages, the sort of PC equipment they use and what they think of the club so that it can be improved and meetings made more interesting. Over 30% of members responded to the survey. Final results were posted at http://www4.coastalnet.com/nbcug/results.htm along with the results from earlier surveys.

In 1994, before Internet was available locally, folks chatting on Donnie Benners’ bulletin board system (BBS) started NBCUG by having monthly breakfast meetings at the Berne restaurant. Today there are close to 400 members, 85% of whom are on the club’s e-mail list hosted at Always-Online. NBCUG now meets on the third Saturday of every month at the Knights of Columbus hall and charges $3.00 admission to pay the $150 rent of the hall. The club’s web page is at http://www4.coastalnet.com/nbcug.

It has long been known that seniors dominate NBCUG’s membership. Today 89% of members are over age 55 compared with 91% in 2001. But just because NBCUG’s members are seniors doesn’t mean that they have old PC equipment. Almost a third of the members have PCs that run at 1 gHz (1 billion Hertz) or faster compared to only 11% last year. Many new PCs have been purchased and 52% of the members now have two or more PCs operating in their home. Surprisingly, 23% of respondees have them networked together for exchanging data and sharing resources such as a printer or scanner. But 52% are still chugging along with PCs running between 200 mHZ and 1 gHz - still plenty fast for Internet access.

Talk about speed, some NBCUG members are now running in the fast lane after switching to high-speed DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) by Sprint or TV cable service by Cox. The use of these high-speed services instead of a 56Kbps modem has increased from 18% to 30% in the past year. It started out that TV cable was far more popular than DSL but the latter is catching up.

Most members (82%) use Windows 98 or ME as their operating system. Twenty percent now have Windows XP that comes with all new PCs. Microsoft continues to dominate the browser market with their Internet Explorer which 83% of members use, as well as the mail program that comes with it called Outlook Express, which 66% of members use. Microsoft’s problems with Outlook Express security may be the reason some users (13%) have switched to the #2 mail program called Eudora.

Ninety four percent of members find the Knights of Columbus an acceptable meeting place, up from 85% in 2001. Only 3% of members, the same as last year, think NBCUG should be organized better. Actually it’s not organized at all. There has never been a formal charter or elected officers. Volunteers run NBCUG until they tire of the job. I’ve moderated meetings for over 7 years and manage the club’s web page and e-mail only because nobody else has volunteered.

Members were asked about viruses for the first time in the annual survey. Ninety percent reported using updated antivirus software in their PCs whereas 23% said they had been infected with a virus in the past year. It could be that some of the folks thought they were infected when their antivirus program alerted them that an incoming message had a virus. Generally one becomes infected only by opening an attachment or in some cases by previewing a message (disable preview in your mail program). Since NBCUG moved their e-mail list to Always-Online that scans mail for viruses the club has not had a case of a virus reaching all members. They may receive viruses from other sources but not from mail addressed to NBCUG. The list is also closed, meaning that only members are able to send mail to it and not spammers.

Past PC articles are posted at http://www4.coastalnet.com/nbcug/index.htm.