What they fail to purchase,

however, are the tools that may save their children from

the misery and heartache a late paper or missed deadline

will cause due to full computer labs or unexpected

computer failure.

Before you send your

student off to face another year consider these practical

safeguards against PC frustration:

-Laptop computers. A

handful of colleges around the United States currently

require incoming freshmen to have laptop computers

(including Clayton College and State University). These

notebook universities require a laptop with minimum

features and often have inexpensive rental programs

available to students.

Whether or not your child's

college requires this device, however, laptop computers

are portable which makes trips to the library or just a

quiet place to study simple and hassle free.

Some popular models include

the Chem USA ChemBook 7200, which retails for $1,449; the

Quantex T-1411, which retails for $2,599; the WinBook XL,

which retails for $1,399; and the Gateway Solo 2500 SE,

which retails for $1,999.

- Desktop computers.

While they require a little more than a backpack to

transport, what they don't require is a lot of money.

Some desktop computer

manufacturers, including Emachines of Irvine, Calif.,

have pushed the price tag below $600, making these

computers much more affordable.

- Computer

maintenance. Before your children attack their first term

papers, be sure to remind them of some basic PC

maintenance tips.

In addition to regularly

deleting temporary files and defragmenting the hard

drive, it is essential to make regular backup copies of

work in progress.

Whether your children are

working in a crowded computer lab or on a PC from home,

system crashes can occur at any time for no reason at

all. So be sure to supply them with a generous supply of

floppy disks, or another backup device, to which they can

save their work.

- Data protection.

Families and sharing go hand in hand. And while you

wouldn't want to live without them, they can raise the

risk of computer problems when as many as four or five

people share a computer.

To protect your children

from losing critical papers when a little brother or

sister - or college roommate - inadvertently

hits the delete key or crashes the computer, supply them

with the handy protection offered by GoBack, a new

software application from Wild File Inc.

The unique time travel

technology offered by GoBack allows PC users to take

their computers back in time to recover from problems

such as Y2K glitches, system crashes, virus attacks,

software installation complications and user error

(overwritten or deleted files). For information, visit www.goback.com .

<!--##############