Asp file

We put Web-based software to the test to find what can--and can't--replace PC programs in your home office

EVERYONE AGREES THE INTERNET CHANGES EVERYTHING; it's just that no one's sure what that includes. You've heard predictions, for instance, that info from the Web delivered to your computer screen will replace your newspaper, TV, and radio. But could it replace your computer itself?

That's the conundrum behind today's hottest computing concept--tapping an application service provider (ASP) to access programs and data from any device, instead of applications on a PC. You don't have to worry about installing, maintaining, and upgrading software. You "rent" programs on the ASP's servers, which keep your files and data in a private, password-secure area.

Now you can get work done with any Web browser, from laptop to public library. Colleagues can access shared information--they can synchronize calendars or collaborate on a report. Instead of paying for a powerful PC and software suite, you can use an older system or Web access device and pay low monthly fees--or, if you don't mind banner ads, enjoy dozens of services for free.

When you think about the potential for any home office worker to grab business tools once found only on costly corporate servers, the ASP idea sounds great. When you think about the last time your Internet service provider (ISP) took two minutes to load a Web page and then dumped you offline, it sounds awful--and even worse when you count the ASP casualties among the dot-bomb bubble burst of recent months. We spent a month sampling a variety of the ASPs available, from bare-bones online calendars to full-strength Microsoft Office programs. The first thing to say is that we used a cable modem--even ASP vendors will admit that all but the simplest services demand broadband instead of 56Kbps-or-slower dial-up connections. And we found a vast variety of services. Some were clumsy disappointments, but some were pleasant surprises.

STARTING SIMPLY

Chances are, you subscribe to at least one ASP--a free Web-based e-mail provider such as Mail.com, MSN Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), or one of many small freemailers (like www.care2.com, which contributes to environmental causes).

All but a few services (like vJungle.com) append an advertising tag line to each message that detracts from your businesslike image, but the ability to send, receive, and reply to e-mail from any browser makes a free account a handy backup to your regular ISP mail. Most let you maintain a one-click contact list or address book; the best can also consolidate or fetch e-mail from several accounts (though typically not AOL's proprietary mail system).

Another popular consumer ASP is calendaring--logging onto a Web site to check, add, or edit appointments and to-do list items. Compared to a PC-based personal information manager (PIM), a free service like Yahoo Calendar (calendar.yahoo.com) or Excite Planner (planner.excite.com) feels sluggish; switching from a daily to weekly view, for example, can take 10 seconds instead of an instant.

But it's convenient, especially when able (as most are) to synchronize with a desktop PIM like Microsoft Outlook or a handheld PDA--indeed, the excellent AnyDay.com has been purchased by Palm Inc. and reborn as MyPalm, with special features for owners of wireless Palm VII organizers. And it's even more convenient when you and coworkers can set up a group calendar, checking each other's availability and e-mailing invitations to meetings. When.com offers separate personal and group calendars; ScheduleOnline.com emphasizes the latter.

Almost as ubiquitous, in both personal and team versions, are ASPs offering online file storage--a place to upload or save documents which you can access from any computer, without having to carry disks around. Designating files or folders for shared access lets you and others take turns updating a contact list, collaborate on a proposal in progress, or swap digital photos. About the only thing these sites can't do is speed up the tedium of transferring large files over a slow modem.

Most free sites offer 10MB to 25MB of online storage, with more available for a modest fee. Storage specialists like Driveway (www.driveway.com), SwapDrive (www.swapdrive.com), and Xdrive Express (www.xdrive.com) offer a choice of browser-based upload/download menus or client software that puts your virtual drive on your Windows desktop for drag-and-drop transfers. (Note: Many ASPs, including storage, are designed to work better with Windows and Microsoft's Internet Explorer than the Mac OS or Netscape browser, though plenty support the latter, and Apple's iDisk is a virtual storage site just for Mac users.)

THE SWEET SPOT(S)

Combine the above tools--e-mail, address book, calendar and to-do management, and online storage space--and you've got today's quintessential ASP offering: a Web-based desktop, often designed to be your browser startup page or Internet portal, that aims to keep you organized and ready to work wherever you go.

You'll find plenty of mainstream sites to choose from, most free (supported by onscreen ads and opt-out e-mail marketing), and each with a different combination of extra functions or frills to tempt users. Excite's combination of Planner and Inbox, for example, gives you free voice mail---callers can dial a toll-free number, then a 10-digit number, and leave up to 60 voice messages per month, which you hear in your e-mail inbox via RealAudio. Alas, while Planner screens popped into view promptly, Inbox was occasionally balky or inaccessible even with our cable modem.

BlueTie (www.bluetie.com) throws in secure, encrypted document transfer and free PC-to-phone Internet telephony, along with--like Yahoo and several other ASPs--instant messaging. Visto.com (www.visto.com) boasts extensive access via Web phones, as well as full-size browsers, but its speedy, simple screens (with goof-proof, easily navigable OK and Cancel buttons) did even more to make it our favorite, although we wish it would show to-do and calendar items on the same page.

If you take the above-mentioned e-mail, contact, calendar, and storage functions and add extras for workgroups--such as real-time conferencing and application or document sharing--you create another key category: sites that let far-flung "virtual teams" collaborate on projects, view presentations, and keep in touch with one another. These ASPs--usually paid rather than free--give even tiny companies the efficiency of corporate groupware solutions. Indeed, corporate favorite Lotus Notes is moving swiftly into this space with QuickPlace and iNotes (www.lotus.com).

Unfortunately, the Web-team arena has also seen one of the biggest ASP failures to date: the dot-com scythe downed the popular, pioneering HotOffice even as the service appeared in our December 2000 issue's HOC 100 Awards. The company urged its customers to switch to Intranets.com (www.intranets.com), and other services like WebEx (www.webex.com) and Evoke Communications (www.evoke.com) continue to compete.

APPS ON TAP

The word "applications" makes most folks think of full-featured desktop software. The final frontier for ASPs is to challenge mainstream, conventional programs, and early results have been mixed at best: some success in replacing applications installed on corporate network servers, very little in replacing programs on CD-ROMs or PC hard disks.

Why? Not even the fastest broadband connection can load a program as quickly as the slowest hard disk. That means--although cable ISPs are working with ASPs like PlayNow (www.playnow.com) to offer games and other programs for monthly rental--waiting for a remote server to deliver bulky applications like Microsoft Word or Excel to your screen is sheer torture. (It also means Microsoft's ballyhoo about future .Net versions of Office is mostly smoke and mirrors.)

Still, several ASPs offer "thin client" or browser plug-in solutions that do a tolerable job of running Microsoft Office via remote control. An ambitious example is Personable.com, which puts a Windows 2000 desktop into your Windows 95/98 or Mac browser. The software stays on the company's servers; only screen display data and keyboard and mouse input travel over your Internet connection, just as in PC-to-PC remote-access solutions like Symantec's pcAnywhere.

If you don't mind the cards lagging behind the mouse, you can play Solitaire (or play with Paint and WordPad and save files to a virtual folder) for free. For a monthly fee, you can pepper your Win 2000 desktop with full-featured programs from Microsoft Access to IMSI TurboProject and FrontRange Solutions' GoldMine.