Used NeoVest/1st Alert at Bright for almost 2 years. NOT impressed. Their technical support is good, but, shouldn't be needed so much. From a technical perspective, it appears to be an old, tired 'main-frame' product 'Rube-Goldberged' for the PC/Satellite environment. It goes 'down' alot, sometimes long delays, charts are tough to build and NOT at all intuitive. Sorry to be so blunt, but I 'dumped' it when I went remote.
I trade remote and I am using the newest internet version. I love it. In terms of a complete package; Quotes/data, charts, filtering capabilities, order entry system, and automation nothing compares to it. (and i have tried alot of them) The new version is hardly an "old tired main-frame product". On the contrary the new version is a streamlined efficient program. I have heard other Bright traders complain about First Alert (I don't trade at Bright). I think it may have to do with the way they connect to the servers. Not sure. But with my cable internet connection I have had no problems. A lot of my ideas comes from filtering so I could not trade without it as there is no product currently that has the filtering capabilities of First Alert. I would give this new vesion a shot. I think you will be happily surprised. PS - I have no affiliation with Neovest.
Glad to hear the 'newest' version is much better. My last experience using the version I described above, was in early summer of 2002. I know NeoVest has 'blamed' some of Bright's issues (in the past) on the connection, but, Bright was using the connection they recommended (at least at the offices I used - Phoenix and Vegas). It was just not that solid a software package, then. Glad to hear it's working much better now and for you. Good-Luck.
The above is grossly inaccurate. The version that almost everyone is using TODAY rarely ever goes down. It has gone down on me maybe 5 minutes out of the last 100 hours I have used it over the last month as an example. The older "full" version went down about as much as redi+ or any other execution platform did and when it did the data maintance was a real mess for an average trader to fix. In otherwords if you lost data you might be screwed for that entire day or until you could download the data again and recalculate all the user fields and such. That version is still in use by Firms such as Heartland which maintain the data themselves however most firms and clients have migrated to the thin client or a hybrid where you hook in with a direct feed to FA's server's and screen off the entire universe of stocks instead of about 500 or so in the thin. The thin client running with the direct feed and the exchange provisons or whatever they are called cost way more than any remote trader would likely want to pay unless they are knocking out a few grand a month consistently however the thin client is an extremely viable option. With the thin version that almost all firms run today First Alert handles the data and maintains it. That version is limited compared with the full version and I and others have griped about it here however and there are ways around many of those limitations. The first alert data can be brought in through a t1, satellite or over the internet. The charts are EXTREMELY intutive. I have no idea why any poster would suggest otherwise. I have used a lot of charting programs and it's smiliar to most of them. They are also extremely easy to use. For traders that rely on filtering, this is the best thing your going to find for under 300 bucks a month that I know of.