QUOTES/PORTFOLIO TRACKERS
Yahoo! Finance http://quote.yahoo.com
The basic portfolio is a no-brainer to set up, and it's rock solid.

Wall Street City http://www.wallstreetcity.com
Great for free real-time quotes, with loads of information sites. Get ready to register.

BridgeChannel http://www.bridge.com You get nasdaq Level II quotes that deliver the bid-and-ask action straight to your browser for that cockpit feeling. E*Trade offers the pricey monthly service free to active traders, but you can also get the special quotes through PCQuote http://www.pcquote.com and dtniq http://www.dtniq.com.

Dreyfus http://www.tradepbs.com/pbscgi/hstqtetd)
The big D's good for historical quotes if you need to know where aol closed sometime last year. Yahoo's starting to do this too.

DLJdirect http://www.dljdirect.com
Free quotes on options, even for noncustomers. A handy backup if your portfolio tracker chokes on the symbols for stock derivatives.

Getting New Investment Ideas
The facts may sometimes get fudged in the flow of chatter, but all these sources can light a fire under an overlooked Net play or throw cold water on an overextended run-up.

ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
Yahoo! Finance http://quote.yahoo.com
More messages than any other online stock forum--but that's not always a good thing. This past April a bogus buyout message caused shares in PairGain briefly to trade up 31%.

Silicon Investor http://www.siliconinvestor.com
SI is the monster message board for stocks on the Web. Lurk for free, but pay to post. This is the real thing--insider info has prompted sec investigations.

Motley Fool http://www.motleyfool.com
The Fool is the original online-investing hangout, started on aol before there was an Internet millionaire in sight. They're still talking up Iomega stock.

Raging Bull http://www.ragingbull.com
Another gathering place, as the name none too subtly suggests, for wild wild Web traders. Special thanks for the "ignore member" feature.

ClearStation http://www.clearstation.com
This is the place for devotees of technical investing to debate the patterns of stock movements. Many posts take the form of annotated charts.

NEWS
CBS MarketWatch http://cbs.marketwatch.com
This Web-only service really boogies on Web and tech stocks. Hype here can move Net stocks.

TheStreet.com http://thestreet.com
The Street's news staff members round out colorful intraday dispatches from trader (and site co-founder) Jim Cramer.

Briefing.com http://www.briefing.com
Market commentary throughout the day. "In Play," a widely distributed feature, can trigger movements that it's supposed to be tracking. ($6.95/month)

Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com
Capitalism's paper of record breaks lots of stories first on its website. Meta-News Services The top three: Yahoo! Finance, MSN Investor and DailyStocks.com. They've all got great news indexes that link to online stories.