You know what you need. Now how do you get there—without hiring a pricey consultant? Here's how to leverage the latest technology to solve common business problems.
E-Mail from Anywhere
I don't always want to lug my notebook PC around to check e-mail when I'm traveling. Can I get my messages some other way?
Ditch that brick you're lugging around, and use one of the new services that let you listen to your e-mail over the telephone. These services convert your text e-mails to voice messages, then read them back to you. They also let you respond to messages by converting your voice mails into e-mail. MyTalk is free, though you'll have to put up with advertising over the phone and on the company's Web site. Sign up for the service and you're given a toll-free phone number, then copies of your messages are forwarded to your MyTalk e-mail account from your regular account. You can also set up MyTalk to page you when an important message comes in.
Planetary Motion CoolMail is a similar free service. Orchestrate starts at $19.95 a month (though you can try it free for 30 days) and requires you have e-mail sent directly to your Orchestrate e-mail account. From there you can forward messages to your regular account. If you don't want to rely on an outside service, try CenturionSoft Mercury Mobile, a $60 program that works with your existing e-mail account and does the same thing.
Another option: Set up a free Web-based e-mail account so you can retrieve your mail from any PC with a Web browser. Most airports and hotel business centers have Internet terminals or PCs that you can use for free. You can choose from among hundreds of free e-mail services. To see how they compare, check out the Free E-Mail Address Directory.
Portable Connections
All my company's meetings take place in our conference room, but I often need to get to files that are stored on our network. How do I quickly connect my portable PC to the LAN?
If you mostly use your notebook for traveling—not as your everyday system—it's probably set to dial into your network over a modem connection. But if your conference room has a LAN connection, you can tap into it by installing a network interface card (NIC)—and the right software protocols—on your notebook. Swap your existing PC Card modem for a combination modem and NIC PC Card, such as our A-List pick, the Xircom RealPort CardBus Ethernet 10/100+Modem 56. Once you've inserted the new PC Card, right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon, then on Properties. In the configuration panel, select the card, and Windows will walk you through setup.
If your conference room lacks a network connection, invest in a wireless access point that works with your existing LAN. You'll also need to add a wireless PC Card adapter to your notebook. A wireless access point is essentially a stationary antenna that directs traffic from the notebook's PC Card to your existing network. Going this route isn't cheap: The top-notch Nortel BayStack 600 access point starts at $1,499, while Nortel notebook adapters start at $499.
Easy Access
My company recently purchased a half-dozen computers with Office 2000, including Access 2000. The trouble is, our current databases are in Access 97. How do we get the two versions of Access to talk to each other and exchange files?
Microsoft changed the file format in Access 2000, making backward compatibility with Access 97 nearly impossible. But if you're willing to forgo the many new features in Access 2000, you can safely share data between the two versions. Keep all your data in Access 97's older MDB file format and simply link to the tables from within Access 2000. From Access 2000, select Get External Data from the File menu. Click on the Link Tables option from the cascading menu, then select your Access 97 MDB file. You'll see the tables in that file; select those you want to attach to. As long as you keep your data in the older format you can avoid problems.
Painless Backup
A colleague's notebook was recently mangled in an airplane's overhead bin. He lost all of his sales contact information—and he had no backups. I've learned from his experience, but I need a hassle-free way to safeguard files or I just won't do it.
You can use a Web service or create the backups yourself. A Web service such as @Backup is the easiest. For $99 a year, you get 100MB of secure storage space. Each day, simply copy the files you want to back up. The other benefit? You can get to those files from any PC with a Web browser. Web storage is a good option for backing up current files. But for older files that you just want to copy, it's better to archive. Use a program like Veritas Backup Exec and copy your files to a Zip or CD-RW drive. For help making a painless backup strategy that you'll stick to, see "System Savers" in our Windows Superguide.
Thwart Hackers
I've got a DSL connection for my SOHO business. An always-on Internet connection is ideal, but I know it leaves me vulnerable to security attacks.
An always-on Internet connection, especially one with a static IP address, makes you a target for Internet hackers. To protect yourself, install a firewall, a program that controls the information flowing in and out of your connection. The firewall won't send through a request unless it is authenticated. If your DSL provider doesn't offer a firewall, you can easily add one. Personal firewalls like AtGuard or ConSeal Private Desktop are easy to set up and give you full control over your connection.
Also, install the most recent security patches for Windows and for your browser. Windows 98 users can do this easily by running the Windows Update. To do this, select Start, Settings, Windows Update. If you don't need to share files, turn off the file- and printer-sharing service. Do this from the Control Panel by selecting Networks, then File and Print Sharing.
Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee publish The Naked PC, a free electronic newsletter covering PC and Internet tips.
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Need Some Answers?
You've got plenty to do running your business without sorting through all your technology choices. Let us do it for you. Do you have a business problem that you're trying to solve? Send it to our experts in the PC Computing Business Labs at pcchelp@zd.com. Or maybe you do have the answers. Tell us how your business has used technology creatively to solve a problem. Let us know at pcccasestudy@zd.com.
