Keep annoying pop-up ads out of your way

Tired of having your work interrupted by pop-up ads every time you use the Web? These time-wasters are not only annoying, but can include inappropriate or offensive content.

Covad is now offering you a way to rid your Web experience of virtually all pop-up and pop-under advertisements with Panicware Pop-Up Stopper. This ad-blocking utility is completely free of charge, and doesn’t require registration to use or download for personal use.

“We’re always looking for ways to enhance our customers’ broadband experiences,” says Justin Spencer, Product Manager at Covad. “Just like the SPAM Blocker and anti-virus protection services included with our Email Hosting Service, Panicware Pop-Up Stopper is another way we can help customers have productive online experiences.”

Why Panicware?
Covad chose to recommend Panicware to our customers because it’s consistently on the top five Internet software download list, and has achieved rave reviews from CNET to The Wall Street Journal.

Not only is Pop-Up Stopper extremely effective, Panicware offers product support for the free version of its software. You’ll find answers to common questions on their support site, or you can email them directly for further assistance.

How it works
Pop-Up Stopper features a powerful, yet easy-to-use interface that allows quick access to its wide variety of features.

Pop-Up Stopper runs in the system tray next to the clock on your PC for instant access. Simply right-click Pop-Up Stopper’s white hand icon and you will be presented with a menu to access preferences, monitor your Privacy Report and identity theft risk assessment and check for product updates. If necessary, you can also easily disable Pop-Up Stopper from the same menu.

The free version of Pop-Up Stopper supports the Windows platform (98 and above) and Internet Explorer and Netscape Web browsers. (If you’re working on a Mac, Panicware offers Pop-Up Zapper for Internet Explorer for a one-time cost of $20.)

To download the free Panicware Pop-Up Stopper, go to Covad’s Online Support Center.

Pop-Up Stopper for business
If you find that Pop-Up Stopper is an indispensable tool, you can upgrade to the professional version for your business.

“Employees and businesses now use the Internet more than ever for research and other tasks. Interruptions caused by pop-up ads can slow productivity and create an undesirable work environment for employees,” says Matina Fresenius, CEO of Panicware. “Pop-up ads waste employee time, and time is money.”

Pop-Up Stopper Professional offers native support for AOL, MSN, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, SBC Yahoo!, CompuServe, WMConnect, Juno, NetZero and Mozilla. There’s a one-time fee to download Pop-Up Stopper Professional, which includes upgrades and product support. Site and enterprise pricing is available for this version of Pop-Up Stopper.

In the months ahead
Covad is continuing to research and develop new tools and services that can improve your broadband experience. “We’re planning to launch web collaboration and instant messaging tools for customers in the next few months,” says Justin. “We want to make it as convenient and easy as possible for customers to get all the Web-based services they need to run a successful business, all under one roof.”

Improving business processes

Discover the value that an Intranet can bring to your organization

In a 2003 survey of business leaders by KPMG, 80% of respondents considered their company’s knowledge a strategic asset, and 78% believed that they would miss out on business opportunities by failing to successfully exploit their company’s available knowledge.

If you’re looking for a low-cost solution to simplify accessing and sharing your company’s information or knowledge, look no further than an intranet. An intranet can help to encourage communication and collaboration between employees, give employees working outside the office easy access to company information and quickly scale up to meet the demands of your growing business.

How it works
An intranet uses the same open communication standards as the public Internet, but is only available to authorized users, such as your company’s employees. In this private space, your employees can organize information, readily access that information, manage documents and collaborate on those documents in a browser-based environment.

With all of your data in a central repository, the most current and up-to-date information is available to any employee that needs it. Add a VPN to the equation, and you can make your intranet available to employees who work from home, at a remote location or while traveling for business.

To help provide the security of external connections, and safeguard your intranet, a firewall and a VPN should be implemented. Firewall and VPN services can help protect your critical business information. Covad offers firewall and VPN services; see our web site for more information on TeleDefend VPN/Firewall.

The value of an intranet
Building a company intranet can offer many benefits to your business. It’s a great tool for eliminating wasted time and effort spent duplicating work or trying to find information, while creating opportunities for improved collaboration and productivity.

Because an intranet uses the same open standards as the Internet, it’s easy to use and highly scaleable to keep up with the growth of your company. Those open standards also mean that you can connect across disparate platforms. If you use a Windows platform at the office but use a Mac at home, you’ll still be able to see your intranet when you’re connecting from home.

An intranet can also help reduce your paper costs, especially if you regularly produce printed sales or marketing materials, employee contact information or pricing lists. By keeping the most up-to-date information on the intranet, employees can view and print what they need, when they need it. It can also help to eliminate the problem of version control of printed materials. It’s pretty clear—if it’s on the intranet, it is the latest.

You may also see a greater return on your IT investments with an intranet. Because an intranet uses a Web-based interface, it’s inexpensive to deploy compared to proprietary software alternatives. And the familiar Web interface requires little or no training to get employees up to speed on how to use your intranet.

These benefits are fueling a massive growth in the use of intranets, even in the smallest companies. It’s estimated that more than 90 percent of U.S. companies, including small businesses, have an intranet in some stage of evolution.

Making use of an intranet
For every business process or function in a company, there’s usually a way to streamline it by using an intranet. Following are some examples of the ways companies are using intranets:

Sales and marketing: Access to accurate information is crucial in the sales process. An intranet for sales and marketing could include:

• Price lists
• Product demonstrations
• Sales forecasts and reports
• Market research
• Press releases
• Competitor research
• Collateral and sales tools

Human resources: Even if you don’t have a dedicated HR department, you can use an intranet to keep employees up-to-date on HR-related information and issues, such as:

• Employee handbook
• Telephone/E-mail directory
• Benefits information
• 401K tracking
• Recruiting/job listings
• Newsletters

Customer service: Use an intranet to ensure that all of your customer service representatives have access to the same relevant and current information. As your company grows, you can extend this information to your Web site and allow customers to interact with your back-end systems (Covad’s SMART Account Manager is a good example of this). Intranet applications could include:

• Customer information entry
• Order entry and tracking
• Trouble ticket entry and tracking

SMART Account Manager Login
http://www.covad.net or call customer support 1-888-64-COVAD

Order New Service
http://www.covad.com or call 1-800-931-9745

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ATTENTION: "Connections" is designed to provide you with information to help you get the most out of your Covad broadband service. Covad makes no representations or warranties regarding the completeness, accuracy, adequacy, currency, or reliability of the above information and shall not be liable for any lack of the foregoing or for any damages arising from use of the above information. Descriptions of, or references to, third-party products, services or publications in this newsletter do not imply endorsement of any product, service or publication.