The Hoc 100 - Buyers Guide

Home Office Computing, Dec, 2000

... Security/Anti-Virus Solution

Gold: ZoneAlarm

(Free for personal, $20 for business use; 800-210-5517, www.zonelabs.com)

Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm is a near-perfect guardian for your Internet connection. This simple, effective desktop firewall doesn't hog disk space or Windows resources, even as it protects you from both snoops and malicious e-mail scripts. Best of all, it's free--though it's well worth coughing up $20 for business registration or even $40 for the more customizable ZoneAlarm Pro.

Silver: Norton Internet Security 2001

($70; 800-497-6180, www.symantec.com)

When you hear the Norton name, you think of a well-chosen bundle of utilities--and Symantec's combination of the outstanding Norton AntiVirus with an anti-hacker firewall and Web surfer's privacy package (able to block banner ads and cookies) is no exception. Another $10 gets you a Family Edition that keeps your kids from inappropriate sites.

Bronze: BlackIce Defender

($40; 800-656-5443, www.networkice.com)

BlackIce Defender has long been a favorite of cable and DSL modem owners who need to protect themselves from Internet intrusions. The program is continually updated and fully configurable, so you can tweak your firewall settings to match your security needs.

... Messaging/Voice-Mail Solution

Gold: Office Domain MessageASAP

(Free; 512-499-1560, www.officedomain.com)

Even in the swarm of cool unified messaging services on the Web, MessageASAP stands out: It's free to sign up; you don't have to change your e-mail address or business phone number; and you can check and respond to all your e-mail, faxes, and voice mail in one place. Options like AnswerASAP, FaxASAP, and VirusFreeASAP are reasonably priced and let you customize the service to match your needs.

Silver: CallWave Internet Answering Machine

(Free; www.callwave.com)

Install the Internet Answering Machine on your Windows PC and save money on a second phone line. Working with your phone company's "call forward on busy" option, the onscreen window alerts you every time you get a call while online; you can pick it up or let the software take a message. The ad-supported service is free, and so is unlimited tech support.

Bronze: j2 Global Communications jConnect lite

($4.95 per month, $10 sign-up; 888-718-2000, www.j2.com)

This upgrade from the free fax and voice-mail reception center formerly known as JFax gives you the power of other unified messaging services plus pay-in-advance conference calling and the ability to respond to messages via single or broadcast fax (even sending faxes from a Palm VII PDA).

... Contact Management/PIM Solution

Gold: AnyTime Deluxe 7.0

($50; 800-822-3522, www.individualsoftware.com)

For a simple, instantly familiar way to manage all your contacts, dates, and to-dos, Individual Software's personal information manager is our favorite replacement for a paper organizer--it's inexpensive, synchronizes with Palm PDAs, and can be shared by two users over a home office network,

Silver: HotOffice

(Free with ads or $12.95 per user per month; 561-995-2220, www.hotoffice.com)