Harris, Rothenberg Report Shows Increase in Demand for Employee Assistance Programs

A yearly report issued by HRI, this year's trends report differs from those of the past in one critical area: a focus on the economy and personal finance.

Calls to EAPs in the past year have increased in intensity and need. In 2008, HRI witnessed a nearly 10 percent increase in the number of calls coming into EAP counselors. HRI experienced a 13 percent increase in the number of calls for financial services in the past year. Statistics show that there have been increases in 401(k) hardship withdrawals in 2008. See HRI Press Release.

Three Out of Five Employers Maintain 401(k) Match Despite Economic Crisis

A survey of employers released by WorldatWork and the American Benefits Council, found that the financial crisis has not significantly discouraged 401(k) contributions or participation. See WorldAtWork Press Release

Inside Online Investing: A Stockbroker Tells You What You Really Need to Know

From Chapter 2 - How to Be Your Own Tech Support

Uh, Is It Supposed To Do That?

Error messages. Server failures. System lockups. This is what technical support is all about. Like a member of an Indy 500 pit crew, your job is to fix the problems and get underway again in the shortest possible time, because speed can be the difference between success and failure. I've spoken to more than enough people who lost opportunity or lost capital because they did not know how to deal with technical problems. I don't want anything like that happening to you, so I'll do my best here to help you through the technical challenges. It's my job, after all.

Tip: Keep an eye on the status bar in the lower left corner of the browser window. This will keep you informed of what's happening as a Web page downloads to your computer. These status messages can be very useful, to tell you (and a tech support rep, if necessary) exactly what’s happening or at what point you run into technical problems.

Sorry, wrong number.

Computers demand 100% precision. The smallest error on your part will prevent things from working correctly. Same thing with a telephone, if you dial a wrong number you'll either get a recording telling you that the number you dialed is not in service, or you'll end up bugging somebody and apologizing.

Internet domain names and addresses must be completely accurate in order to work. If you want to type "www.yourbroker.com" but instead type "ww.yerbroker,comm" then you’ll get the Internet's equivalent of "this number is not in service".

DNS error:
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and acts like a phone book. You type in a domain name, like yourbroker.com, and DNS computers look it up and connect you to their servers. If you get a DNS error, it means that the DNS computers could not find the domain name you typed in. Here are the most likely reasons you'll get a DNS error:

  1. You typed the domain name wrong. Again, even one letter out of place and you'll get an error message.
  2. You're not actually connected to the Internet. Your browser can't look up a domain name if the phone's not plugged into the wall, or whatever it might be. Don’t laugh, I've seen this happen more than once.
  3. The DNS servers are down. It can happen, though rarely. In this case, ask your broker if they have a backup or second domain name. Charles Schwab, for instance, owns the domains schwab.com, charlesschwab.com and eschwab.com. If one's not working, try another.

404 error:
A 404 error means that the file you are looking for, whether it's a Web page or some other type of file, is not on the server. Clicking a link or typing a Web address means requesting a file from a remote server, and the server comes back and says, "it's not here". These are the most likely reasons you'd get a 404 error:

  1. You typed the domain name right, but misspelled the file name, or the path to that file. The path is the list of directories and sub-directories under which the file is stored. Directory and file names are case sensitive, so you must type the Web address exactly right.
  2. You clicked on a link and got a 404 error. This happens when the Web page you clicked on (called the referring page) is either out of date and links to a file that no longer exists, or it was programmed incorrectly to start with. Even Web page designers can misspell a Web address. Not your fault, this is carelessness on part of the programmers.
  3. On rare occasion you may type the address correctly, or the referring page had the correct address, but the server missed finding the file. You can usually remedy the problem by clicking again. You may have to hold down the shift key while you click (I'll explain later).

C'mon, Hurry It Up!

I'm not sure which is worse: when you can't reach your brokerage's site at all, or you can reach it but it goes so slowly that it takes forever before you can even see something on the screen. Just imagine what it's like as you sit in front of your computer, dying to get an order through because the market is moving against you, and you can't do anything until the order entry screen appears. This is probably the single biggest complaint directed at online brokerages, and has gotten the SEC's attention. But still, what do you do when you have to do something and all you get is an hourglass?

Stop 'n' go. First, I'll tell you what you don't do. When you click on a link, and you don’t get a timely reply, DO NOT keep clicking on the link. Web pages don't load faster just because you keep clicking, just like elevators don't arrive faster just because you keep pressing the call button. In fact, it's counter-productive. Every time you click a link, you make a request of the remote server, and your request is queued up behind everyone else's requests. By clicking a second or third time, you send your request to the back of the queue, and you have to wait your turn all over again.

Instead, if you click a link, and you don't get a timely response (I'll usually give it 20 to 30 seconds), click on the "Stop" button on the browser's toolbar. The Stop button has a picture of a stop sign, a traffic light, or a red letter X depending which browser you use. This cuts your connection with the server. Once your connection is cut, you may click the link again making a fresh request that will not get sent to the back of the queue. Very often, just by clicking stop and retrying the link, your request goes through right away. Why did it get delayed the first time? It could be for any number of reasons - maybe your data packets got lost, maybe your request got routed to Japan and back, or maybe traffic was too much for the brokerage firm's servers to bear. We'll never know the cause, but we do know the remedy.

There may be times where you click on a link and a Web page starts to download, but nothing appears on the screen, except perhaps just the first few lines. Then we have to wait a while for the rest of the information to appear. Sometimes it takes far too long. Again, when you feel more than enough time has passed, click the Stop button. Quite often, the information you've been waiting for suddenly pops right up on screen, as if it had waiting for you to hit the Stop button. This happens when a Web page is formatted into tables. Tables are used to display information in rows and columns, and that's often very useful for balance sheet and transaction information, and it gives a Web page an orderly appearance. However, browsers are programmed to wait until all data is received before it will display the table. That's why we'll often see the first few lines immediately, because that part is not formatted into a table. The rest of it is not displayed until the browser gets the code that indicated where the table formatting ends. If the data flow stops midstream, it never gets the code so it never displays what it has. By cutting the connection, we force it to display whatever data it has received. Often, it has everything except the last little bit, so we have all the information we need to do our job, even if the browser needed a little more.

What the...?

Sometimes a Web page downloads and just looks weird. You might end up with a screen full of garbage characters, or markup tags, or text, images and buttons are out of place, or the page won’t scroll up and down, or whatever, but it's just plain wrong.

Files stored in the disk cache can occasionally get corrupted. At this point, the best thing to do is to erase all those stored Web pages and graphics and start from scratch. Remember, you're not really losing anything; the cache is only a timesaving mechanism. Corrupted files and messed up Web pages only waste your time. So what you'll do is clear the cache, and I'll show you how to do that.

Clearing the cache is like a tune-up for a browser, and I suggest you do it periodically anyway. Once a month is fine for most users, more often for heavy users. It will help you get better performance out of your computer.

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