For this month's IT Clinic, in which a panel of experts answers our readers' IT difficulties, we look to Luke Roberts of south London IT support agency SupportPlan; Andy Wooles, managing director UK, FutureSoft; Allan Poot, european sales director, Ipswitch and Terry Doherty, CEO of Doherty IT Solutions. We're always keen to hear from readers with IT woes - send them to the address at the end of this article and we will put them to our volunteer experts who offer independent, jargon-free advice.

· I've been thinking about equipping my staff with hand-held computers but am concerned they might get viruses and our virus checker doesn't seem to cope with PDA systems - at least it doesn't say so and I don't want to take the risk. What's on the market to help?

LR: Although your virus checker may not run on your hand-held computer it will probably be able to detect and remove viruses from your email system or PC before they can get onto the hand-held computer. If you do not receive files "beamed" from other hand-held computers or connect to the internet directly from the hand-held your existing virus checker is probably all you need. If you plan to use hand-held computers with a wireless internet connection then you should either ensure that email is only collected from an email system with virus protection or purchase one of the hand-held specific virus checkers. These include: F-Secure Anti-Virus (Pocket PC and Nokia Communicator), KasperSky Security (Pocket PC and Palm OS), McAffee VirusScan (Palm, Pocket PC and EPOC), Symantec Antivirus (Pocket PC and Palm OS), Trend Micro PC-cillin (Pocket PC, Palm OS and EPOC).

· I run a recruitment agency and have become concerned with how my employees are using the email server at work and am thinking about banning its use. But is this wise? I allow personal use of the phone and am getting a little confused.

AW: The recent Phones 4 U case has certainly brought to the foreground the importance of email usage policies in the current climate. However, what must be remembered is that there is not just one quick fix. Rather than simply shutting down the email servers, organisations must implement a usage policy to its specific circumstances and business processes.

Content is king and information is power, therefore organisations in market sectors such as healthcare, finance and government in particular require stricter usage policy guidelines. Implementing an additional email monitoring tool is imperative to ensure that they adhere to external responsibilities.

In the current climate it would be a case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face" by banning the use of email altogether as, I would presume, most of your customers and partners rely on it as a communication avenue.

· I run a publishing house and have seen a lot written about the use of instant messaging in a business environment, but feel that implementing a system could open a security risk. Are my fears founded? And if so, should I get a corporate IM solution or stick with Yahoo?

AP: While many companies and business users have recognised the benefits of instant messaging (IM), not all are aware of its potential shortcomings. For business use, consumer IM services provide too much information where they should not - because the communication through these systems is not secure. At the same time, they provide not enough information where they should - because communications are not logged, and users can never be sure of who they are communicating with. Specific corporate instant messaging such as our own eliminates these drawbacks, and makes instant messaging a viable, and valuable, business tool.

Many organisations are already using such solutions effectively for a wide range of common business uses, including customer service, technical support, and product development. Others are finding that it provides them with a competitive advantage as they use it to address the specialised requirements such as communicating with your colleagues when working to tight deadlines and drafting the perfect headline.

· I run a small business with a five user network and have got a web storage account which we use for backup but I have been told that it may not be enough. Is this right?

TD: Web storage and backup are fundamentally different. Web storage safeguards important documents. They're easily accessible online and protected from computer crashes. However, as the number of computers and applications used grows, web storage doesn't provide the backup businesses require.

With crashes, you'll still have your documents. However, if burgled, you'll need to rebuild the entire system including your contact database, email and accounts. In this case, you'll need backup files to access all your network information. Backup software conducts scheduled backups - usually nightly when the system's unused. This copies all data, programs and network information: user names, logins, printer configurations, etc to magnetic tapes. These should be cycled daily and stored offsite.

Backup solutions aren't expensive. The Windows 2000 server includes it. Then you just need suitable devices (a 24 GB DAT costs £350) and tapes. You must change the tapes and take them home, but if you arrive Monday to find empty offices, there's a reasonable chance that your company's "back up" by Tuesday.

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