Latest Broadband Information

As the iPhone 3G is linked exclusively to O2 Broadband, there are huge advantages to owning one – not least that you’ll put yourself in line for arguably the best broadband deals currently available.

Here’s three reasons why bagging an iPhone 3G could be the best broadband decision you ever make:

1. Being an O2 mobile customers means you can get REALLY cheap O2 broadband
Owning an iPhone, whether on contract or Pay As You Go, entitles you to a sizeable discount on an O2 Broadband package, in addition to exceptionally fast and unlimited broadband at home and unlimited internet usage.
O2 Broadband’s enviable high-speed broadband packages (and we’re talking up to 20Mb here!0, when taken with O2 mobile contracts, ensure that you pay at least £60 a year less than you would pay for O2 broadband on its own through another mobile phone provider.

2. O2 broadband has a REALLY good reputation
O2 Broadband is one of the fastest broadband providers in the UK, besides being one of the cheapest, and considering the generous discount on broadband that O2 gives its mobile customers, it is streets ahead of its competitors – really no contest.
O2 Broadband’s packages comprise Standard 8Mb, Premium 16Mb and Ultimate 20Mb options and cost O2 mobile customers as little as £7.50, £10, and £15 a month respectively.
These packages really do offer amazingly good value when compared with other current favourites.

3. O2 Broadband offers LOTS of extras
O2 Broadband’s packages are all unlimited and also have a more generous fair use policy than most other providers.
This cuts out the possibility of having your connection throttled at the busiest times, and allows you to download music and movies for your iPhone pretty much at will.
Customer service is free and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For a limited time the connection charge is also free.
Believe it or not, there is a free wireless router thrown in with the O2 broadband package and by using the phone’s WiFi capabilities you are able to surf the internet on your iPhone, whenever you stumble across a wi-fi zone.
Generously, O2 Broadband comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, should you decide it is not for you. This lets you try it out for a reasonable time without any financial risk at all.

Considering the quality of the connection, we’re unsure anyway has ever had to cash in on this!

Conclusion
The O2 Broadband/iPhone 3G combination package, with its bargain prices, shouldn’t be missed by anyone who may be at the end of their current contract and is looking for a great broadband deal.

It would also suit anyone who wants to make full use of the unlimited internet usage to surf at home or on the move – as well as having a gorgeous gadget in your pocket!

ONLINE BANKING

Introduction:

The concept of online banking was first brought in when the Governor, Reserve Bank of India appointed a Committee under Shri W.S.Saraf, Executive Director to look into technological issues relating to payment system and to make recommendations for widening the use of modern technology in the banking industry. The Saraf Committee recommended institution of Electronic Funds Transfer Systems in India. It also reviewed the telecommunication system like use of BANKNET and optimum utilization of SWIFT by the banks in India. The Shere Committee in 1995 had recommended framing of RBI (EFT System) Regulations under Section 58 of the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 (RBI Act), amendments to the RBI Act and to the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act,
1891 as short term measures and enacting of a few new Acts such as the
Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Computer Misuse and Data Protection
Act.

Impact of the Information and Technology Act, 2000:

The information and technology act is an act to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic
communication commonly referred to as “electronic commerce”.

Reasons for adopting the online banking:

The growth of online banking has been fuelled by broadband availability as well as secures connections over the Internet. Many banks now offer some form of online banking activity, whether it is checking bank balance, paying bills online or even simple cash transfer transactions. As customers gain more confidence in carrying out secure transactions over the Internet, vulnerabilities are present and can be exploited by cyber criminals to obtain a user’s personal banking details. In one of the latest developments, FSecure, a leading security provider for Internet and mobile networks, has issued a warning against computer users of an upsurge in attacks against banking sites, targeting personal user data. It started with software that was capable of retrieving the data typed into the computer keyboard and then more complex mechanisms arrived on the scene such as Phishing and pharming. .

A new concept of cell phone banking has taken over the Indians. A classic example of this is that the Harsh Vihar slum may not have banks, but it does have cell phone coverage. And that has made its residents ideal candidates for a novel experiment in combining microfinance and mobile banking. Basix, an organization that specializes in bringing micro loans and other financial services to India’s poor, has teamed up with Axis, an Indian commercial bank, to begin offering accounts to workers in Delhi’s slums. Its approach relies on a combination of high technology and old-fashioned shoe leather.

The main risk of online banking is the security concerns. For this the IT Act has a provision, Section 3(2) which, provides for a particular asymmetric crypto system and function as a means of authenticating electronic record. Any other method used by banks for authentication should be recognized as a source of legal risk.

The provisions for the offences committed:

Under the chapter IX Section 43 , the punishments for the offences so caused are defined. By this act under chapter X, Section 48 defines the establishment of a cyber appellate tribunal. . But there is one fundamental difficulty in punishing the cyber criminals. It is the matter of jurisdiction . This is because any person who possesses a computer and an internet can commit this crime and it is practically impossible to trace the person out. Even if the person can be traced, there is no geographical border to bring him under the jurisdiction of a particular country. However the banking regulatory body, RBI has issued a guideline dated 14th June, 2001, which discusses issues pertaining to his territorial jurisdiction within which the internet banking products can be made
available.

Benefits of Online Banking:

Internet-only deals have cornered the best-buy savings market. Rates are, on average, 0.2 percentage points higher than on traditional accounts. For instance, Bradford & Bingley pays 6.4 per cent on its Internet Saver account but only 6.2 per cent on its My Time Postal Saver.
The online savings trend has also allowed lesser-known banks into the market. For instance, ICICI Bank, the second-largest bank in India, offers an internet account paying a competitive 6.41 per cent. There are no restrictions on withdrawals, a low minimum of £ 1 and a guarantee that it will pay 0.3 points above the Bank of England base rate until December 31, 2011.

The display of the phone is a 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution in a brushed steel formation. The dimensions of the HTC touch diamond is 102 mm x 51 mm x 11.5 mm and is very light weight at 110 g.

The battery is rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer or Lithium-ion battery 900 mAh, it has a talk time of up to 270 minutes for WCDMA and a standby time of up to 396 hours for WCDMA. The phone has a video call time of up to 145 minutes for WCDMA it also has a memory of 256 MB and an internal storage capacity of 4GB.

The phone supports the Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent) technology with HSDPA/WCDMA network: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz with Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds.

The HSDPA internet connectivity is very fast and the users can access Wikipedia, Google, YouTube and any other website as freely as one can with a broadband connection.

With the TouchFLO 3D device control, the users can access their contacts, favourite music, videos, photos, album artwork, video stills and snapshots. The users can also download videos, photos and games and can send, receive and edit files videos and photos.

The HTC mobile phones has a built in GPS and A-GPS system for the users to find the direction quickly and efficiently. The HTC touch diamond supports the Bluetooth technology 2.0 version with EDR and Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g. The operating system runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. The processor of the phone is a Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 MHz, the device also supports the HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one).

The HTC touch diamond has a powerful built in 3.2 megapixels colour camera with auto focus for adjusting photos and videos according to the need and requirement. The camera is user friendly with high quality feature, the user can take still photo or record video clips. The phone also has a second VGA CMOS colour camera.

The phone also has a built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS, the user can enjoy listening to their favourite radio stations and have the access of news, information and other areas of interest. The HTC touch diamond has a great music feature and supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV and AMR-NB ringtones. It has a 40 polyphonic and Standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI.

It also has an AC Adapter with voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC and 50/60 Hz and the DC output of the phone is 5V and 1A. The organiser of the phone include USB sync cable, stereo wired headset, user manual, quick start guide and software CD.

The HTC touch Diamond phone is a users delight and has all the features to catch the eye of present days users’ with its sophisticated and sleek design.

The outlook of the HTC touch diamond phone is very refreshing and the phone is one of the thinnest in the same category. The style is well combined with ample of loaded features to elate the users. It is no doubt, one of the best phones in recent times and a very tough competitor to the other touch series phones.

Further, because expectations have been raised to such a high level, in particular regarding the mobility aspect of WiMAX, there is a tendency to compare WiMAX with 3G-based cellular technologies and reach the conclusion that WiMAX will compete with 3G or even replace it. The reality of WiMAX is somewhat different, although the technology can still fulfill a valuable role in the wireless ecosystem.

WiMAX is a credible solution to a number of problems that have plagued the fixed wireless industry since its inception – namely, the lack of an open standard and the absence of major silicon vendors and equipment suppliers. Once WiMAX certified equipment is available from a number of suppliers, increased competition can occur, and with volumes of units shipped, more attractive price points can be reached.

If WiMAX continues to gain more support from the industry, it can also provide broadband access in remote regions and developing parts of the world where basic voice or broadband access using fixed line service is not economically feasible. Additionally, WiMAX can potentially be used to provide backhaul in cellular networks or it can be used to significantly enhance the performance of public Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) hot spots by increasing the throughput in the backhaul network and by making it easier and more economical to deploy Wi-Fi access points. WiMAX is also developing a “mobile” standard which is not compatible with the fixed-based solution. The “mobile” standard theoretically means that WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access in a vehicular environment. While technically this feature can be achieved [with some very important caveats that are further detailed in this paper], the business case for such a service offering is more challenging, while it will only have marginal impact, at best, on the growth and usage of 3G services. Publicly accessible Wi-Fi spots are already widely available, especially in highly desirable locations such as hotels, airports and college campuses. Wi-Fi hot spots are also increasingly available for free to consumers as a service differentiator from restaurants and coffee shops and as a free public service from local municipalities. Additionally, by the time the mobile version of WiMAX is available in user equipment in high volumes from a number of suppliers, advanced 3G data networks using 1xEV-DO and HSDPA will be available extensively from a well-established ecosystem. In order for WiMAX to successfully compete in the mobile environment, it will need to offer something more compelling than the 3G/Wi-Fi combination can offer and/or it will need to offer the same level of service for a more attractive price.

Due to technology agnostic factors, such as site acquisition and preparation costs, not to mention power requirements, both RF and electrical, the cost to deploy a carrier grade WiMAX radio access network is approximately on par with that of a 3G radio access network [exclusive of the already sunk spectrum costs] and far more expensive than a typical Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi coverage, of course, would be much more limited while WiMAX will be able to take advantage of the cost efficiencies associated with an all-IP core network – the part of the network “behind” the base stations. Further, Wi-Fi data cards or embedded Wi-Fi solutions are already reaching extremely attractive prices while 3G solutions are falling rapidly in price and likely to become far more attractively priced in the next two years.

Major notebook computer suppliers also recognize that they can only fit a limited number of RF (radio frequency) solutions in their notebooks. In order for a notebook computer to contain an embedded WiMAX solution it will have to replace an already existing and familiar wireless technology. Embedded 3G solutions are already available and more solutions should be available by the end of the year; Wi-Fi solutions are nearly ubiquitous now, and are expected to continue evolving as IEEE 802 completes its work on 802.11n.

WiMAX has yet to fully address the services layer, and in the absence of compelling content and services unique to WiMAX, consumers who already utilize 3G and Wi-Fi services will have less incentive to adopt WiMAX. Those that do make the switch will likely continue using their cellular service provider, which at best indicates that WiMAX complements 3G while trying to compete with already inexpensive Wi-Fi services and both complementing and/or competing with traditional wireline broadband services.

Operators, representing a good cross-section of potential WiMAX providers, which were interviewed as part of this study, concur that WiMAX can potentially provide a role in their overall service offering. Unlike Wi-Fi, the initial adoption of WiMAX andthe subsequent trend toward attractive price points and more widespread usage is heavily dependent upon the success of the operator business model.

The views expressed by several of the potential service providers suggest that when WiMAX becomes commercially available, the underlying economics, combined with some very important qualifications regarding features and performance, will make it challenging for the technology to achieve widespread success, especially within the next couple of years.

Broadband – Advanced telecommunications capability is any infrastructure capable of delivering data at a speed of 200 kbps per second in both direction. To be considered a broadband service, the transmission would have to support 200 kbps in both directions . Broadband technology is the high speed transmission of digital data. Additionally, broadband connections are always on. With broadband there is no need for dial-up because the connection is constant. The broadband services are so good at low prices.

Types of Broadband Services

1.Cable modems

2.DSL (digital subscriber line)/ADSL(asymmetric digital subscriber line)

3.Satellite

The actual cable modem is simply a piece of equipment that converts the data transmissions. The modem connects to the cable television and the computer. The transmission of both upstream and downstream data on the cable television system requires two types of equipment: a cable modem on the customer end and a Cable-Modem Termination System (CMTS) at the cable provider’s end.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies that provide digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. The download speed of consumer DSL services ranges from 256 kbps to 24,000 kbps, depending on DSL technology, line conditions and service level implemented.

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide.

Satellite broadband is a most effective way of transmitting all types of data such as fax, video, audio and the Internet. You can also use Satellite broadband to make low-cost telephone calls using VOIP.

Let’s face it; getting young people to take an interest in politics these days can be very difficult. With voter apathy present in general elections, many more young people are more prepared to vote in reality television shows and online polls rather than to elect a new candidate or Prime Minister.

However, groups such as Rock The Vote are helping to raise awareness of politics amongst youngsters by targeting one of their most common interests – the wide world of internet gaming – in time for the upcoming US presidential elections. And if the pilot scheme is successful, soon we could see politicians making use of social networking sites, video sharing sites and online gaming communities in order to reach out to apathetic voters.

We live in a digital age, with a wide variety of broadband providers vying for our business, and the world of online gaming has seen a rise in interest as a result. MMORPGs have become worldwide successes. Console gaming has seen a resurgence in popularity, with many consoles giving gamers access to a multitude of services – including the opportunity to play against opponents from around the world and communicate with each other.

And now, it seems that the world of politics could soon be moving into the world of broadband gaming in an attempt to garner the interest of many who would normally shy away from the subject. By utilising online polls on the subjects that matter through the services they play on, opinion can be gathered, analysed and then put into place in future.

Some politicians have already made use of video sharing websites – with Conservative leader David Cameron making use of video blogs in order to reach out to voters who are more comfortable in front of a computer than a voting booth. Indeed, with an increase in digital participation – through broadband and television – the opportunity to reach voters and allow them to cast a vote with a click of their mouse or a press of their red button could allow the chance to increase participation in general elections by giving voters another outlet through which to make their voices heard.

With millions of broadband users around the world, the idea of voting using a click of your mouse or a press of a key on your game controller may sound far-fetched at first, but could prove to be vital for government figures. By gathering ideas and opinion through the medium of broadband participation, politicians have the opportunity to find out the views and opinions of many ‘hidden voters’ and help to reduce voter apathy.

I’m on the board of directors at our broker’s office and we recently had a meeting about open houses. Our office usually has between 60 and 70 open houses sat each month. However, last month we only had 37 sat. There were a couple of reasons for this.

The first reason is that our broker decided to start cutting down on newspaper ads and promote everything at our company website. Now instead of advertising open houses 4 times per month in the local paper, we only advertise 2 (and eventually none). This has a lot of the “old timer” agents upset and they refuse to sit at an open house that isn’t advertised in the paper. On one hand I can see their point, but on the other hand, based on my experience, only about 1 out of every 50 people that come to open houses say they found out about it through the newspaper. Most say they saw an ad online or they simply saw the directional signs I put up.

Now, as one of the board of directors, I’m in charge of boosting moral and try to get agents to sit at open houses with or without local paper ads. This is what prompted me to writing this article.

I’ve talked to a lot of agents in our office and there isn’t one that actually likes to sit an open house. Sure, they’ll do it, but they don’t like it. The main reasoning is because they feel that nobody will show up and it’s a complete waste of time. Although it may be true that nobody will show up, it doesn’t have to be a waste of time.

For instance, I’m sitting at an open house right now as I’m writing this article. So for me, this isn’t a “waste” of time. I’m actually using the time in a productive manner. And that’s what I think everyone needs to realize. Think of it as 3 or 4 hours where you can do something productive for your business instead of agonizing over having to just sit there.

Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve done while waiting for a customer to show up at an open house.

1. Write my blog articles
2. Fold and label mailers
3. Practice taking listing photos
4. Research listings for current customers
5. Update my website
6. Enhance my listing photos in Photoshop
7. Write thank you notes
8. Design upcoming postcards

These are just the few that I can think of right now. I’m sure there are other things I did (or can do) in that timeframe.

Ok. But what happens when you do get the customer to arrive. How can you latch on to them (if they don’t already have an agent) instead of the other open house sitter? I have a couple of weapons in my arsenal that seem to work well and have gotten me clients.

First I have my Homebuyers Kit. This kit consists of brochures, flyers, and my Home Buyers Survival Guide. I give it to any customer that I feel could become a client. When speaking to them, I watch their body language and I also ask them questions to get a feel if they are true buyers or just shopping around. If they seem like true buyers, then I’ll give them my kit. They are usually surprised with it mainly because none of the agents at the last 5 or 6 open houses gave them anything but their business cards.

My second weapon is my laptop and my cell phone. These two things allow me to access the internet and the MLS. Sometimes I’m lucky and the home has wireless internet access which I can hook in to. If not, my Treo cell phone gives me access since I have the broadband data plan. I just plug it into my laptop and I’m ready to go. It’s similar to the air-cards that you can purchase, but saves me money since I can just use my phone instead.

So a typical scenario would be a customer comes through the home. Kinda likes it but it doesn’t fit their needs. So I tell them, no problem. Let me look up some others for you right now. I jump on the MLS and put in their search criteria. We look at what comes up and if something is nearby, I’ll either set up the appointment to see it after the open house, or set it up to see it at the client’s convenience. I’ll then hand them my homebuyers kit and away they go. Happy and confident that they just found an agent that cares about them.

So basically, yes, open houses can be a pain, especially when it’s gorgeous outside and you’re stuck inside. But with the right attitude and the right tools, you can make them productive and possibly get new clients….which is why you’re there in the first place.

Mike

1. Mostly telephone sales calls are made by legitimate businesses promoting legitimate products or services. But where honest firms look for new customers, so do scammers. Phone fraud is a multi-billion dollar business involving the sale of everything from bad or nonexistent investments to the selling misrepresented products and services. If you have a telephone you are a prospect, becoming a victim is largely up to you.
2. There is no way to determine positively if a sales call is legitimate simply by talking to someone on the phone. No matter what or how many questions you ask, skilled scammers have practiced answers. That’s why sales calls should be treated with caution. People or companies that are unknown to you should be checked out before you buy or invest. Legitimate callers have nothing to hide.
3. Phone scammers are likely to know more about you than you realise. Depending on where they got your name in the first place, they may know your age and income, health and hobbies, occupation and marital status, education, the home you live in, what magazines you read, and whether you’ve bought by phone in the past. Even if your name came from the phone book, telephone con men (and women) assume that, like most people, you would be interested in having more income, that you’re receptive to a bargain, that you are basically sympathetic to people in need, and that you are reluctant to be discourteous to someone on the phone. As admirable as such characteristics may be, they help make the scammer’s job easier. Scammers also exploit less admirable characteristics, such as greed.
4. Fraudulent telemarketers have one thing in common: They are skilled liars and experts at the verbal ‘snow job’. Their success depends on it. Many are coached to “say whatever it takes” by operators of the “boiler rooms” where they work at rows of phone desks making hundreds of repetitious calls, hour after hour. The first words uttered by most victims of phone fraud are, “the caller sounded so believable…”
5. Perpetrators of phone fraud are extremely good at sounding as though they represent legitimate businesses. They offer investments, sell subscriptions, provide products for homes and offices, promote travel and vacation plans, describe employment opportunities, solicit donations,and the list goes on. Never assume you’ll “know a phone scare when you hear one.” Even if you’ve read stories of the kinds of schemes most commonly practiced, innovative scammers constantly devise new ones.
6. The motto of telemarketer scammers is, “just give us a few good ‘mooches,’” one of the terms they use to describe their victims. Even though most victims are normally intelligent and prudent people, even the scammers express amazement at how many people “seem to keep their cheque books by the phone!” Sadly, some families part with savings they worked years to accumulate on the basis of little more than a 15-minute phone conversation — less time than they’d spend considering the purchase of a household appliance.
7. The person who “initiates” the phone call may be you. It’s not uncommon for phone crooks to use direct mailings and advertise in reputable publications to encourage prospects to make the initial contact. It’s another way swindlers imitate the perfectly acceptable marketing practices of legitimate businesses. Thus, just because you may have written or phoned for “additional information” about an investment, product, or service doesn’t mean you should be any less cautious about buying by phone from someone you don’t know.
8. Victims of a phone scam almost never get their money back — or, at best, no more than a few cents on the dollar. Despite efforts of law enforcement and regulatory agencies to provide what help they can to victims, scammers generally do the same thing other people do when they get money — they spend it!
9. Before you call any number back you can do a quick reverse phone number lookup and have more information about the telemarketer than they have on you.

With broadband internet services and our cordless telephones, it is actually possible to run a background check with a reverse phone number lookup while the swindlers are still on the telephone to you.

Whether you are fresh out of school or a 15-year veteran in the industry, there are certain things you simply must know about a company before you just jump in and sign on the dotted line. I have found that, by and large, the transcription services are run by dedicated, hard-working folks who try their utmost to be fair and above board.

But. You still need to watch out for Number One, no matter how nice people seem. Here are some questions you should ask every potential transcription employer:

1. What do they base compensation on? Hourly Rate? Character lines? If so, how many characters per line? What counts as a character? Do headers and footers count? What about signature lines and salutations? If gross lines, do they pay for headers footers, signature lines or other boilerplate text? If it is minutes, then what extra work beyond straight typing, such as formatting, extra correspondence and copying from one system to another would be required?. Especially with regard to minutes, you can spend a LOT of time doing things that are not really earning you money, like cleaning up the format of the report, or typing letters that aren’t specifically dictated. Just be sure you know going in what you will be paid for, and what you will not.
2. Do they have a mandatory probation or QA period? If so, how long is it? For Newbies, QA is a stressful period, and it’s good to have a light at the end of the tunnel. Experienced pros probably don’t need to worry about this too much.
3. What are the standards that must be met in order to advance out of QA? You need to know what the standards are, absolutely. Again, the experienced folks probably aren’t too worried about this.
4. When can you expect to see a raise in your per line or per minute rate? Is it production-based, or time-based (as in longevity with the company)?
5. Is the employee or contractor expected to provide his or her own equipment? What kind of technical support is available if there is a problem? If you’re not working at home, this isn’t an issue, but if you are, you need to be assured that the company has a good IT staff to help you out when (not if) you have a problem. Some companies still ship computers and everything to the employee or contractor, and they expect you to use that for you work.
6. If this is a work-from-home position, does the company expect the employee or contractor to have broadband Internet service? If so, will the company reimburse for the expense?
7. What are the expected working hours? Does the company have a “third” shift (i.e., midnight to eight AM)? Do they pay an incentive bonus for working that shift if so? Some companies just have an expected turnaround time, and others expect you to work set hours. What works for you? Working at midnight might be great if there is incentive pay involved and you can stand to be typing at 3AM…
8. Does the company provide health benefits for employees? Will they provide specifics on the plans they offer?
9. Does the company provide a 401(k) for employees? If so, do they match contributions, and how much?
10. How does time off work? Is there paid vacation for employees? How much and how does it accrue? How does time off work for contractors? If you are working from home and you need to take a day off for some reason, how much notice do you need to give?

Is your online business disaster-proof? Online businesses face a unique set of challenges. Unlike our offline counterparts, we must worry about hackers, credit-card fraud, loss of data, virus attacks, websites going down and more.

The good news? You can fix most of these problems in under ten minutes each!

The freedom of owning your own business comes with a price. That price often means taking care of the ‘little things’ that were provided us in our ‘employee’ days.

One challenge we face is being ultimately responsible for everything. If we miss doing a task, it goes undone. That can spell danger when it comes to those important, yet not urgent, tasks that protect us when things go wrong.

To help you, I’ve developed a small-business peace of mind checklist. Taking even one afternoon to tend to these tasks can pay off in big dividends should disaster strike.

Whether you own your own business or just use the Internet for email, everyone who uses a computer will benefit from these three simple steps.

1. Keep Your Virus Scan Up to Date

The stories are legion. We simply intended to download a tool that would help us be more productive and ended up with the ‘worm of the month’. Now our tech friends tell us that a hard-drive format is the only cure and we will lose all our data.

In today’s online environment, it has never been easier to become infected. Email, file downloads, always-on high-speed connections and more expose us to the unfortunate truth that very bad people are out there waiting to steal and destroy our data.

The good news is that it has never been easier to protect yourself than it is today. Open up your favorite search engine and type in ‘free virus scan’ and you will find a buffet of safety at your fingertips. Three clicks later and your entire computer is protected.

INSIDER TIP: Once you install your virus scanner, be sure to set up the automatic options to allow it to download new virus ‘signatures’ as often as they are available. These ‘signatures’ or ‘definitions’ are the files your scanner will use to recognize the bugs that attack your data.

2. Make Regular Backups

This is one we all know we should do. I’ve never spoken to a person who did not understand the importance of regularly backing up important data. Equally true, only 10 percent of the people I speak with have backed up anything in the last 30 days! Have you?

In this area too there is very good news. While backing up your important files used to be a tedious and cumbersome job, today’s technology makes it easier than ever. Almost every newer computer comes with a CD burner. Today, CDs are cheap and hold about 650 MB of data. These are great for backup.

INSIDER TIP: Although CDs are convenient; it’s vital that you have an offsite backup plan in place. What this means is that you must store your backup files in a location away from your computer. The last thing you want is to make great backups only to have them destroyed by the same fire or flood that wipes out you PC.

The good news here is that you can get a secure, online backup solution for literally pennies a day. The advantage is that with one download you can restore an entire computer no matter where you are physically located. Cheap and convenient, this is the wave of the future in backup.

3. Install a Firewall

Long thought to be only for geeks, firewalls have become a must- have for computer users everywhere. Firewalls are simply programs that stand as a guard between you and those who would try to invade your computer through your Internet connection.

As with backups, firewalls can be online services or software you install on your computer.

As people get what are called ‘broadband‘ connections (DSL, satellite and cable connections to the Internet) we see more computers being left on all the time or connected to the Net while idle for long periods of time. It is during these idle times that your computer is particularly vulnerable.

Online thieves today not only want to sneak a peek at your computer files (do you use Quicken by chance?) but also can actually use your computer to send unwanted messages or put a virus on your computer. A firewall will protect you from these evildoers.

Today’s computing environment is fast and fun. You can make it safe with very little effort. In one afternoon, you can complete our peace-of-mind checklist and be safe and secure.

If you work at home, or run a business using your computer, it is especially important to protect your files from theft or loss due to unforeseen events.

A little time invested on our checklist today will mean years of happy, worry free computing for you and your family. Make time today to ensure that you have the peace of mind that comes from knowing you are safe when you surf.

*****