One of the problems of discussing dot com or internet shares is the weak get mixed up with the strong.

People talk of the internet bubble. Like all bubbles it was bound to burst, wasn't it?

Sure enough, last March there was a shakeout at the Nasdaq, the U.S. technology share market, and it reverberated through New York and the techMark in London.

In that month, Lastminute. com lost half its share price after critics pointed out that despite millions of visits, it was generating turnover from commission of just £190,000 - having been valued at £1 billion.

In May, sports fashion retailer Boo.com became the highest profile casualty so far.

In July, the natural health website Clickmango announced it was to close in September, although it may be reprieved for a while.

The point about all these companies is they are aimed at consumers.

I don't want to sound wise after the event but I have always disliked the idea of e-consumer sites, in the UK at least. I will tell you why.

Many years ago I asked a colleague on a newspaper why mail-order had never taken off in the UK.

"Obvious, innit, you dummy," came the reply.

"The UK is a small overcrowded country with one time zone. Unlike the U.S., no one lives in the middle of nowhere and needs to mail-order goods."

Similar arguments apply to buying over the net.

With weekly shopping, people will want to go to Tesco's and Safeways to feel the quality of the carrots.

Although there are various figures for retail commerce on the net, the highest I've seen is just 11 per cent of shoppers are now doing their weekly shop via the internet.

There is a great difference between these e-consumer sites and genuine technology companies who make things or are involved in IT.

These high-tech stocks are volatile but are actively traded. The underlying trend is upwards.

Let's look at the Sussex high-tech sector quoted on the FTSE. The shares have been up and down because they are also active.

But Spirent, which used to be Bowthorpe, has been 189p in the past 12 months but is now 497.5p and riding high.

Trifast, which makes fasteners for computers, saw a 12-month low of 615p but was recently quoted at 1,335p.

Macro4 is also well off its peak but at 825p is better than its year low of 597.5p.

Even Network Technology, which nearly disappeared some months back, is off the floor of 7.5p and trading at 14p.

Best of all is Epic Group, involved in training and education. Its shares have been 41p this year and are now 368p.

These are the sectors to back.