Free for All - replacing office equipment and services with free equivalents - Industry Trend or Event

Home Office Computing, May, 2000 by Amee Abel

RELATED ARTICLE: See How They Run

A look at how free products work (or don't) in the real world

[thumbs down] Computers/Paid ISP Deals Prepare to be disappointed. these computers aren't free, but instead are included in the pricing when you commit to anywhere from one to three years of paid Internet service. In truth, they're underpowered and overpriced.

[thumbs down] E-Commerce and Web Hosting Select a free Web and e-commerce host with care. You'll have to put up with its advertisers on your site; but for a small business, those ads can sometimes make your site look more professional. Pop-up ad windows, however, are a major annoyance. Stick with a site that has ad banners instead. Most important: Be sure you register your own domain name, rather than using a hosted URL, such as www.mystore. theirsite.com. That way, you're free to switch hosts whenever it's beneficial without losing customers because they can't find your new address.

[thumbs up] E-Mail Everyone needs at least two free e-mail accounts. Use one as your spare collector and the other as your traveling mailbox--an address you never give out, but simply use to sweep up messages from your local e-mail account when you can't dial in. These services are generally reliable.

[thumbs down] Internet Access Free ISPs are certainly tempting, but the connections are temperamental at best. You'll need to keep a couple of accounts available at all times to ensure Web connectivity. You may be happier with a paid ISP.

[thumbs down] Peripherals A few sites offer free peripherals such as printers and scanners. However, this equipment is usually available only to a select group of respondents. Getting equipment this way is like counting on winning the lottery to pay your rent. However, you might want to check out Xerox (www. freecolorprinters.com), which is giving away free color printers to high-volume users; and BroadScape (www. broadscape.com), which is giving away 100,000 monitors.

[thumbs down] Phones and Faxes Keep paying those phone bills and wait for voice over IP to ripen. However, including a myTalk phone number and extension on your business card is a fine idea. And adding iPing to your mix of phone tools is like hiring a personal assistant.

[thumbs up] Tech Support Bookmark PCSupport.com and PC Show and Tell. They have a lot to offer anyone who wants to work better.