THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF INTERNET USAGE
Strong company policies that spell out the dos and don'ts of Internet and e-mail use may offer the best solution for curbing the misuse of the Internet on company time. But key to a policy's success is a company's ability to enlist employees' support to create the right Internet usage culture. So, here are some do's and don'ts offered by expressitpeople.com that employees can consider as part of their own efforts at self-monitoring.

DO

• Plan your Internet sessions. Be specific in using the Internet. (Unplanned sessions lead to exploration and consume bandwidth meant for official work).

• If you download documents that are of interest to other employees, make them available on servers that are accessible across the organization.

• Restrict your Internet usage to visiting sites that are related to official work and/or work-related professional interests.

• Close your Internet sessions immediately after you use them.

• Pay attention to all security-related messages that pop up while using the Internet. If you're not sure about the meaning of a message, don't proceed. Instead, get in touch with a system administrator.

DON'T

• Use banned, controversial sites.

• Download and distribute controversial, obscene material.

• Make large downloads without prior permission.

• Visit unsecured pages while ignoring warnings.

• Participate in or initiate opinion polls and forums.