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A lot of Beepen and Tooten But No Booten?

By Stephen Bucaro

You start your computer and all you get is a blank screen
and some beeping noise. You panic because you think you
have some very serious computer problems. Actually, your
concern is justified. The reason your computer is beeping
is because it has a serious problem that prevents it from
communicating via its standard output, the screen. But
don’t lose hope, here are some troubleshooting steps you
can take.

The beeps coming from your computer are most likely not
coming from your sound board or on-board sound circuitry.
They are coming from a tiny PC speaker mounted inside the
computer case for the specific purpose of communicating
with humans when it can’t communicate via the screen.

You may have noticed that every time you start your
computer the beeps come in the same pattern. They are not
random beeps. The computer is sending a special beep code.
Beep codes are programmed into the computers BIOS (Basic
Input Output System). Unfortunately, there is no standard
for beep codes. Each BIOS manufacturer has their own
patterns. They are not even standard by manufacturer. They
vary by the BIOS version, the motherboard, and computer
manufacturer.

Your first step is to look in the information that came
with your computer for the meaning of beep codes or for
the identity of your BIOS. If you didn’t get that
information, try to find it at the web site of the
manufacturer of your computer. If you can’t find it at
there, you’ll need to open the case of your computer and
read the manufacturer’s name and BIOS version off the BIOS
chip.

Although there are thousands of different computer and
motherboard manufacturers, fortunately there are only a few
BIOS manufacturers. Below is a list of the major BIOS
manufacturers websites.

AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) www.megatrends.com
Phoenix Technologies www.ptltd.com
IBM www.us.pc.ibm.com

If you can’t find useful information about your computer’s
beep codes at the computer manufacturer’s or BIOS
manufacturer’s web site, you’ll need to troubleshoot by
process of elimination.

A single beep when your computer starts is not an error.
It’s to test the PC speaker. If you don’t hear a single
beep, either your computer’s power supply, motherboard,
or PC speaker is bad.

It’s unlikely that you have a bad keyboard, but a bad
keyboard can cause a computer to emit beep codes, and
changing out the keyboard is cheap and easy.

Open your the case of your computer and perform a close
inspection of the motherboard with a magnifying glass. It’s
unlikely but possible that something like a staple has been
sucked into the case and is causing a short.

A common cause of beep codes is a problem with RAM. Make
sure the memory modules are installed correctly by gently
but firmly pushing down on each module. If that doesn’t
fix it, remove all but one memory module. Usually a single
memory module must be installed in the first bank. If that
doesn’t fix it, swap out that module with the next one.
You may need to identify the type of memory your computer
uses and try a brand new memory module.

The reason your computer is emitting beep codes may be
because the video circuitry is bad. If your motherboard
has on-board video, try disabling it and installing a video
adapter card. If your computer uses a video adapter card,
try replacing it or removing it and enabling on-board video.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, try removing any expansion
cards (except the video adapter card) and disabling any
I/O circuitry such as USB ports. If that doesn’t work, try
replacing the power supply.

If your computer still has a blank screen and is emitting
beep codes, the only posibility left is a bad component on
the motherboard. It could be a CPU failure, but replacing
the CPU is usually expensive - if the type your motherboard
uses is still available.

Replacing a motherboard involves almost totally
isassembling the computer and may require reinstalling
and/or reactivating the operating system, and replacing
some drivers. Hopefully, you will find information about
the meaning of the beep codes, and they will indicate a
problem easier to fix than replacing the motherboard.

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Resource Box:
Copyright(C) 2005 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain
your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web
site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com
To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit
http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp
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About the Author

Copyright(C) 2005 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web
site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit
http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

According to a new survey carried out by Alliance & where ID_NUM=9270;
Leicester, one in five small business owners view tax as
their greatest concern. The Chancellor has announced in his
last budget that companies with profits below œ10,000 will
not have to pay any corporation tax with effect from 1 April
2002. The question to be asked is: does that announcement
make incorporation a more attractive option compared to
being a sole trader?

The answer is that from a tax point of view, it is
advantageous to trade through a limited company as long
as the income is drawn from the company by the owners as
dividends from their shares and the amount of dividends
drawn is restricted below the 40% band rate (i.e. œ31,063
for tax year 2002/03). That way, the owners have no further
personal tax (”income tax”) to pay. Moreover, dividends are
not subject to national insurance contributions. This is
excellent news of course. But, if dividend income falls
within the higher rate bracket of income tax (i.e. above
œ34,515), they will be taxed at 22.5% on the excess, which
of course will increase the tax burden. The company profits
are subject to corporation tax rates. Those are lower than
income tax rates.

The most catastrophic scenario is when the director takes
his reward from the company as salary. Then his/her salary
is taxed at income tax rates (like a sole trader’s income).
That is because, unlike sole traders, the tax system treats
companies as separate from their owners because a company is
a separate legal entity. The problem is that the income
taxes are higher than corporation tax rates. On top of
that, they will be subject to employee and employer national
insurance contributions, which of course increase the tax
burden and render his position worse than even an
unincorporated business (”sole trader”), because NIC Class 1
on payroll are higher than NIC Class 2 paid by self
employed.

In contrast, a self employed person (”sole trader”) is taxed
at income tax rates on the profits from his business, which
are added to his other sources of income. As it has already
been mentioned, income tax rates are overall higher than
corporation tax rates. On top of income tax, national
insurance contributions class 4 are payable on the business
profits within a specified band (7% on profits between
œ4,615and œ30,420). National insurance contributions Class 2
are also paid by self-employed people, although those are
lower than those payable by company directors on their
salaries.

To illustrate the above, let’s take a simple example. We
have a limited company and a sole trader. They both make
œ60,000 profits each in the tax year 2002/03. We assume that
the company director takes a salary equal to the amount of
his personal allowances (untaxed income) of œ4,615 and the
balance as dividends. The company will pay corporation tax
at 19% equal to œ10,523 and nothing else. The sole trader
will pay income tax œ16,542, National insurance Class 2 œ104
and National insurance Class 4 œ1,806. Total œ18,452. The
bottom line is that the person that has incorporated his
business into a limited company will make a tax saving of
œ7,929 compared to a sole trader! Isn’t that fantastic?

Somebody might be wondering: why is this entire happening?
The official explanation is that, this government, to help
the economy grow, encourages people to leave as much profits
within their businesses to be reinvested, instead of being
taken out and spent.

The “unofficial line” is that, as a matter of fact, for
years the Inland Revenue has tried to reclassify the
self-employed. The 1% in NIC hike on staff salaries above
the NIC threshold from next April adds to both the
employees’ and employers’ tax burden and may more than
offset the saving from the corporation tax zero rate on the
first œ10,000 of profits.

Aren’t there any other matters to consider in deciding
whether to incorporate or not?

Higher administration costs to comply with company law,
payroll and bookkeeping is one factor. Another issue is
pension planning. Extracting profits out of the company as
dividends rather than salary means that there will be no
“net relevant earnings” and therefore pension contributions
can’t be made. But the advent of stakeholder pension plans
has meant that contributions up to œ3,600 per year can be
made without the need for any earnings. If a person does not
wish to transfer funds in existing plans into stakeholder
because of high charges, there is a way out: the best net
relevant earnings (i.e. salary) in five consecutive years
can be used for making contributions for the next five
years, even if there were no salaries in the remainder four
years. It is comforting to know that entitlement to basic
state pension is not affected by taking a salary from the
company at the level of a person’s personal allowances i.e.
œ4,615.

Furthermore, an individual may decide not to bother with
pension plans and instead invest in ISA. Often, these can be
more efficient than pensions but that’s beside the scope of
this article. If that option is taken, no salary is
necessary.

Another factor is business motoring. It might be tax
advantageous for an unincorporated business that owns many
cars not to incorporate because if these cars have some
private use there will be benefits in kind taxed on the
users. These are generally higher than the straight
apportionment between private and business for all car
running costs in the case of sole traders.

The conclusion is that there can be considerable tax savings
waiting the sole trader who decides to go down the
road to incorporation. But, one needs to proceed with
caution and careful planning. And don’t forget the biggest
advantage of incorporation, which is Protection
from Personal Liability. Incorporating is one of the best
ways to protect a business owner from personal liability.
Shareholders of a company are generally not liable for the
obligations of the company. Creditors of a company may seek
payment from its assets, but not the assets of the
shareholders. This means that business owners may engage in
business without risking their homes or other personal
property.

Thank you for taking the time to read this Article. I hope
you’ve found it useful. If you have, please drop me an email
and let me know what you think.

You can email me at…

constantinesavva@accamail.com

Alternatively, you can visit our website at
http://www.tax-accounting-london.info and read a series of
other full length articles that present the complete picture
on a variety of interesting topics.

If you would like to know how to save tax and make sure that
more of your hard earned cash stays with you to expand your
business and increase your profits, we have a Free Special
Report addressed to small businesses either starting up or
already in business. This Exclusive Free Special Report is
available automatically when you subscribe to our regular
series of Free Newsletters on finance advice and tax
planning by visiting our subscription area on our website
www.tax-accounting- london.info. It is complied from real
life situations dealing with small business tax affairs for
over 10 years and it is loaded with down-to-earth advice and
practical, understandable examples.

LEGAL NOTICE
Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this
article, the author cannot accept responsibility for any
errors or omissions. Proper professional advice should be
taken at all times.

We retain copyright for the contents of this article. Any
unauthorized copying or onward distributions are prohibited
without our consent.

About the Author

A.T.Rendon is an entrepreneur and published writer.
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If you are not sure exactly what you should be doing online, don’t worry! In this article I’m going to show you some of the best ways to make money online in the year 2003.

Become an affiliate:

This is probably the easiest and the hardest way to make money online. It’s easy as it cost’s you nothing to join an affiliate program, but it’s hard because so many affiliates fails. The stats are 95% of all affiliates never make a cent, but there is help. With the following resources, you will be a step ahead of the rest.

Allan Gardyne’s Free Associateprograms.com is a brilliant site to start with. His newsletter is the best in the business.

Phil Wiley’s Free Ozemedia.com and newsletter is great, if you can, I would buy his book straight away.

Rob’s Free Profitpuppy.com is a hard hitting guide to affiliate programs, straight from the trenches

Create Your Own Software:

This could probably be a bit over your head if you are just starting, but software is selling like hotcakes online. A few examples of what I mean would be, Headergenerator.com and Ecovergenerator.com. These basically just allow you to create your own graphics for your website with out having to hire it out to others.

You can learn more about software and programming from the following resources.

Ben Praters Softwaresecretsrevealed.com is a great guide from someone who is actually making his fortune with software.

Ryan Deiss’s Deadsoftware.com is another great site to learn about using pre existing software for your own profits.

Create Your Own Ebooks:

This is the easiest to get up from the ground as you don’t need a lot of expensive resources or knowledge. While it seems every man and his dog are creating ebooks and selling them online, it’s still a very viable business, and very profitable if you can come up with a topic for your book that is in great demand.

There are only 2 resources you should be checking out if you are new online, (there’s a lot more later on down the track).

One is Terry Deans Netbreakthroughs.com which is the ultimate marketing site online. It doesn’t matter what you are creating or selling online, you need this site. He shows you exactly what to do with real life examples. This is the most highly recommended site on the Internet to my liking.

The other is Bill Myers Bmyers.com. This site is great for coming up with product ideas but I’m still a little dubious on his online marketing tactics he suggests. Either way, the cost of his membership site is nothing to the amount of ideas you will get for potential killer products.

Create A Members Site:

This is becoming the most popular method of making money online now. Membersites that pay you monthly is where the money is at. Why work your butt off to write a book that’s only going to pay you once, when you can write content that will pay you month after month.

The best place to learn about membersites is Paidmembersites.com run by Terry Dean and a few other marketing experts.

Sell On Ebay:

I can not see selling on Ebay ever fading to the point where it’s unprofitable to do so. While it may seem everyman and his dog are selling on Ebay, and it’s true, it’s still very profitable. All you have to do is find a target niche market and give them everything they need. Don’t even think about trying to sell electronic goods on Ebay unless you can get them at super cheap prices and have a large quantity to sell constantly.

The best way to learn about Ebay is to get a few products together and sell them. There are plenty of guides on selling on Ebay, most of them you can get from Ebay itself. I also recommend, if you are going to sell on Ebay, that you have another look at Bmyers.com. He talks quite a lot about Ebay, and it’s good information.

Well, there you have. Those are probably the most profitable businesses on the Internet right now.

Good luck!

Roger Mayne is the owner of how to get 100 customers virtually overnight. It describes exactly how to get as many leads and customers as possible in the quickest time for your product or service. Sign up for his free course on article writing at http://www.cyberprofitsecrets.com

roger@cyberprofitsecrets.com

Getting people to post in your forum is probably the hardest thing to do. First, not all of your readers will post messages. In fact, only a small percentage will post regularly, and most will never post at all. Second, nobody want to be the first person to post a message. In fact, topic starters (people that start new topic of discussion) will be a small percentage of your posters; the rest will simply reply to topics that have been started.

In order to get the forum to a point where it is self-sustaining, you will have to do a lot of work. Here are some tips that you can use to get your forum rolling:

If nobody will start a post, start it yourself
Register yourself as several members (you with multiple identities) and talk to yourself. (Note that this will not work in forum with logged IP). This will create enough “seed” posts to get people to read and perhaps add replies of their own.

Find topics that interest people
If you get a mental block and cannot find anything interesting to talk to yourself about, then go to other web sites and see what people in those communities are talking about in their forums. You can also look at usenet newsgroups. Digest these ideas and regurgitate them using your various identities.

Advertise your forums relentlessly
Make sure your forum is accessible from every page of your site, particularly the index page. Make the link highly visible, or outright talk about it on the home page. Add a link to your web site and forum as part of your email, usenet and forum signature. Frequent other forums and mention your site and forum from time to time (be careful to comply to their rules and not to spam).

Use your forums to support your web site
You can ask your visitors “What do you think about this article?” (or tool, tutorial, etc.) and ask them to post their comments in the forums. Additionally, use it as part of your customer support program. For instance, I use our web site forums to support our free PHP scripts.

Use your forums to annouce new changes to your site
This is a great way to make announcement because people can write their thoughts about the new feature (or article) you’ve just added.

Find allies
There are many webmasters that have the exact same delimas as yours. Look for sites with empty or low traffic forums and email these webmasters. Offers to join their forums and post a few messages, then ask them if they can return you the same favor. If they want to know why you are bothering them, ask them to read this article.

Barter
Even if they don’t have a forum, offer to write about their web site or add a link to their site in exchange for some posts.

Recruit moderators
As your member population grows, find a few good posters (the ones that post high-quality messages and replies) and ask them if they want to help you moderate the forum. Give them more rights than other users so that they can edit and/or delete other people posts at their descretion. They will help you keep the forum in order, make sure all the rules are followed and help you answers questions. Many people are happy to take on this challenge.

Do email follow up with your members
Send email to members that registered, but have not returned in a long time. Tell them what has change since their last visit and why it may be worthwhile for them to return to your site. Try to do this about once every quarter, but do not do this more than once a month. Be sure to respect their rights by including appropriate unsubscribe information and take their name off the mailing list at their request.

Offer incentives
Some forums like this one offers incentives for forum members to make posts. For instance, I offer free text-link advertisement in exchange for posts.

Hire a Professional
This would be my last option, but it may work for you. There are professional message posters out there that will participate in your forums by starting threads and posting replies. This is a good solution if you are really stuck and need someone else to help you get the forums going.

Some other things to keep in mind is that you should start your forums small with perhaps 3-4 categories, then slowly expand and create more categories. This way, the forums does not look so empty. Additionally, some forums software has polling features. Use these to your advantage. Controversial polls and topics can create flurries of activity.

As a final note, please tell me what you think about this article in our webmaster forums (did you get the idea?).

About the Author

Pinyo Bhulipongsanon is the owner of GreatNexus.com Webmaster Resources offering visitors with features such as webmaster forums, webmaster directory, webmaster dictionary, programming scripts, and webmaster articles.

Visit his web site for more Articles for Webmasters, or to submit your article.

If you own a cell phone then you are probably familiar with the term ringtones. A ringtone is the sound or music your cell phone plays to alert you that you have an incoming call.

There are several types of ringtones available - polyphonic and monophonic. Monophonic ringtones are tunes that are comprised of a single tone. Polyphonic ringtones are the most popular and consist of a tune that is comprised of multiple tones, thus producing a more full sound. Both polyphonic and monophonic ringtones can be downloaded from ringtone shops on the internet or downloaded directly from your cellular service provider. Some ringtones are free while others may cost you anywhere from .50cents to $2.00 per tune. There are also some ringtone sites that will allow you to download either a set number or an unlimited number of ringtones per month for a flat monthly fee. This type of fee arrangement may be the most cost effective if you wish to download ringtones on a frequent basis.

Ringtones are a cheap and fun way to personalize your cell phone. Depending on your musical taste you will be hip hopping, waltzing or be-bopping to the beat everytime you get a call!

©copyright2004 Levetta Rivera, Cell Phone Ringtones. All rights reserved.

The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) National Weather Service is responsible for monitoring the weather throughout the country. They track weather and climate trends as well as current conditions. There are a series of NOAA weather radars that help them do their job.

NOAA weather radars use NEXRAD or Next Generation Radar to gather data that will help us understand current and future weather conditions. There are four types of images that come about because of this technology. These are base reflectivity, composite reflectivity, one-hour precipitation and storm total precipitation.

Base reflectivity measures the strength of the signal that is reflected back to the antennae. From this, you can spot any precipitation, understand and measure a storm’s makeup, establish whether or not a hailstorm is possible and better understand the atmosphere. Composite reflectivity is often compared with base reflectivity. This helps us understand a given storm’s general makeup and its strength. One-hour precipitation reports help establish rainfall amount and assess any flash food warnings. Storm-total precipitation is an image that represents how much rainfall or precipitation is determined for a storm.

The National Weather Service has a very comprehensive website that will help you learn more about the NOAA weather radars. The radar images on their site are updated every thirty minutes. The different colors that are visible on the image represent rainfall rates. Since there is such a variety of colors, you will have to find a chart either online or in a textbook that can help you.

The role of the NOAA National Weather Service is to help predict the weather and warn us of any danger such as hurricanes or flash floods. Through the use of the various NOAA weather radars, we are able to stay informed about current and future weather conditions.

One of my very good friends recently unveiled the news that she is having a baby.

I have now known her for a little more than eight years and I really respect her. She is a single mom of two girls and has recently decided to have one last baby.

The other day as we both finished our days in the office and she invited me to have a cup of coffee for me and tea for her, we started talking of how she has been preparing to welcome this new member of the family in.

She has a lot to go through, adjusting, planning to take time of work and especially financially. As we kept talking about the subject, she asked, “what should I name my baby”, and I thought to myself what a big decision to be decided over coffee.

Shouldn’t moms now days give this subject a lot more through thinking and really, think about the huge impact that a good or a bad name can do for a human being?

So I advised her to set a time frame of three months and really do some research. Try some baby books and lots of Internet research.

Choosing a baby name is one of the most important decisions that you will have complete control over, please give it some thought and make it a good name.

We see in the organized world of the Japanese with their transit systems and floating airports and super engineering anti-Tsunami bridges many ideas in the theory of flow, which assists every part of their society and civilizations. They are masters of the flow of transportations and work hard to perfect every aspect and detail of their transportation system.

We can learn a little bit from their ideas in the system of flows and simplicity once the giant infrastructure projects are finally completed. We have some really great borderline world-class transportations systems in the US, but they are not cohesive in all regards, but with a little fine tuning they certainly could be and with all the space we have in this country we have so many possibilities of making it logistically perfect, people friendly, efficient in operation, safe from International Terrorists, redundant without worry of break down and cost effective to increase usage and confidence with the patrons. To do this we must prevent trucking over regulation, which is duplicated in every state and often contradictory. EPA laws have to take into consideration the free-market mechanism to clean the air.

We have seen severe restrictions and deadlines forced on the trucking industry which should have been better planned and more carefully considered prior to their enactment. When large items need to travel down existing roadways and are considered wide loads, long loads or oversized loads they often have different rules for different states, highways, federal and even some counties have their own rules. Making it difficult to get a much needed part to a power plant, military base, infrastructure project, building, government agency or individual. When businesses have to deal with all these different, often redundant rules and regulations they cannot use the existing transportation system and when these things happens it hurts the flow of products and services to the over all people that it was built to serve. In addition to this every permit, fee, fine or rule imposed causes and increase in cost and an over all tax on society. When we slow any form of transportation, increase regulations these costs are passed on. Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Is debt consolidation the perfect financial solution for me? Now that we’re in a recession (according to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club Autumn forecast), there’s a real need for individuals with debt problems to understand what is different between consolidation loans and the other available financial solutions - and understand which one might be the best solution for their circumstances.

First of all, it hangs on what the future holds. In a recession, it’s more than likely to be bad news - when consumer spending dips and businesses make a loss, many companies are forced to make people redundant just so they can stay afloat. For anyone who has got an idea their company is thinking about laying off staff, debt consolidation may not be the best idea.

Why? One of debt consolidation’s top benefits is the chance to reduce the monthly amount a person pays in debt repayments. Consolidating debt is most effective when the individuals financial situation is fairly stable: when they are aware how much they are making and how much they’re spending each month, they can work out the number one way of paying back their debt.

So an individual facing the possibility of unemployment could be better off looking into debt management, instead of debt consolidation. Debt management offers a flexible approach to debt: borrowers can ask debt management professionals to get in contact with their creditors on their behalf, asking them to think about allowing reduced monthly payments, waive charges and/or freeze interest.

Individual Voluntary Arrangements need a lot of commitment and can require homeowners to free up some of the equity in their property. Borrowers must be able to commit to making fixed monthly payments for (most of the time) six years, based on the maximum they can afford when they’ve taken their needed expenses into account. Even so, an Individual Voluntary Arrangement can make all the difference - for people whose debts have slowly become out of control, including persons facing a quick fall in their earnings. Granted, IVAs do require a level of financial stability: if the individual doesn’t feel they are able to commit to five years of regular payments, an Individual Voluntary Arrangement might not be the perfect debt solution for them.

Read more about debt consolidation, debt management & IVAs here.

This is the third in a series of articles highlighting reasons why we need a new model for anti-virus and security solutions.

Reason #2: the Desktop Security Software Risks

The risks of placing software on the desktop are such that I will be breaking this article into two parts.

There are many advantages to putting security and anti-virus software on the desktop. They range from efficiency to money. Under previous ways of thinking if I can capture security and virus problems at the desktop I can prevent them from going any farther. That works well in a non-connected environment. In the connected environment it makes more sense to centralize the software and monitor connections in and out. Basically “firewall” all the appliances from each other.

In a previous article we discussed the security risks inherent with desktop software designed to be the protection layer between you and all those bad people out there on the Internet. Here now we will discuss some more mundane issues regarding the risks of putting security software on the desktop: Drag Drag steals clock-cycles from your processes so that it can run in a higher priority mode. Anti-virus software especially places a drag on your computer. Depending on your settings (and the default settings are usually very aggressive), every time you run a program or open a file, real-time file scanning takes place and your files are scanned for viruses. This slows down your processing. Accessing larger files takes longer. You can see a discernible lag time between when you start a program/open a file and when you can actually access it. Compatibility After the obvious issue of “drag” is compatibility. Often security and anti-virus rules get in the way of your doing business on your computer. While you may get away with using older versions of such packages as Word, Sims, Photoshop, etc. on your computer with the new XP operating system, it’s unlikely your security software will be completely compatible. Why? Many packages rely on very low-level functionality to be able to do the tasks they set out to do. Anti-virus packages have to be able to operate at a level closer to the hardware than most packages. They need to do this to prevent virus software from taking precedence from them. While many packages offer backward-compatibility the opposite is not true: forward-compatibility. There are several reasons for this: a package written for Windows 98 will not anticipate all the changes to the operating system that are implemented for Windows XP. While your Win98 anti-virus program may work under XP, it won’t work at its peak performance. It can’t. It’s just another reason for centralizing your security. By siphoning all your traffic through a security screen at your ISP, for instance, you offload the need for updates and staying up-to-date on your security software. This then becomes the job of the service provider. Updates Having the software on your desktop means you are responsible for maintaining that software. In the case of office productivity software or image editing software, if new versions come out with features you’re not interested in, you don’t update. With new viruses appearing on the landscape every day, you can’t afford not to continually update your software. If you don’t update for a month or two, you run severe risks of infection. You also will incur potential long update cycles as your software has to be upgraded to handle all the new threats. This makes the desktop these days a somewhat ineffective solution. Nearly two-thirds of all the PCs that have anti-virus protection installed do not update their definitions regularly. These PCs might as well uninstall the software for all the good it’s doing them. Lost Time As mentioned in the above discussion, you can lose considerable time if you don’t update regularly. Long intervals between updates can translate into long update cycles. If you have a slow connection to a vendor, your down time is much longer as you have to wait for the files to be downloaded and then you have to wait for your software to update itself. Solution The better solution is to move to a centralized solution in which all the software, all the updates are the responsibility of the service provider. You pay for the service of having your email cleaned before you receive it. When email arrives at your service provider’s mailbox, it is checked for malicious tendencies and stripped if bad. You notice no long waiting, no downtime, no drag, no incompatibilities.