Work from home tech thread
Mar 13, 2020, 2:30 am
#46
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I have been saying I wish I could take my office chair (Aeron Size A) home. Not sure it would fit in my car's back seat. My team mate shared a sit stand desk which the local Costco might carry. My desk is an older Ikea desk which works for me as I rarely stand to work. I did bring home a keyboard & mouse wrist rest and made a foot rest with a few old large books and binder. My "laptop stand" is the box it came in but I might see if IT can lend me a slightly taller one for home use.
Just got to make sure I still stand up and move about.
Most importantly, I shouldn't put my laptop on the corner (aka horrible position) and twist to view it as the web cam/second screen.
Just got to make sure I still stand up and move about.
Most importantly, I shouldn't put my laptop on the corner (aka horrible position) and twist to view it as the web cam/second screen.
I switch between standing and sitting while a video is playing for the participants. The sit-stand cycle is around 10-15 minutes each.
Mar 13, 2020, 3:09 am
#47
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That would be like a very important phone and urgent call that I took some years ago on a Friday afternoon to resolve Monday's problem. I knew it would arrive when I was out of the office fully engaged in an important pre-arranged activity.
I had earphones set to auto-answer and we sorted the issue. The caller then commented that it was a very clear call and he could hear running water in the background and asked where I was. In my waders in a river fly-fishing on one of the finest salmon beats in the country! He was beavering away in London and his single word response questioned my parents marital status
But wanting to maintain professional appearances might not allow that in many circumstances.
I had earphones set to auto-answer and we sorted the issue. The caller then commented that it was a very clear call and he could hear running water in the background and asked where I was. In my waders in a river fly-fishing on one of the finest salmon beats in the country! He was beavering away in London and his single word response questioned my parents marital status
But wanting to maintain professional appearances might not allow that in many circumstances.
Mar 13, 2020, 3:43 pm
#48
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I'm external facing, but had some conference calls with our internal IT team. Camera on is a thing at our company. One of the IT guys was working from home and had his kitchen and hallway in the background, complete with his wife walking around (unawares, we think) in her sweats and mussed hair carrying around their infant. Maybe we should've said something, but we didn't.
Mar 13, 2020, 7:33 pm
#49
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Companies that let employees work from home without confirming the security of their home networks are opening up huge security holes. It's only a matter of time - and probably not much time - before the bad guys start jumping through these holes and making off with the corporate crown jewels. The collective database exposure of all these home workers can dwarf exploits like the data thefts from Equifax, Target, and all the others you've probably heard of.
Totally agree. Most companies' IT department would/should address this issue prior to use.
Mar 14, 2020, 10:11 am
#50
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Is there an easy way to run my Windows laptop through my desktop Mac with some sort of wired connection? I currently use Remote Desktop, which generally works but takes a while to set up each time. The address seems to always change and it's a bit of wasted time each morning to reconnect.
Mar 14, 2020, 12:07 pm
#51
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Is there an easy way to run my Windows laptop through my desktop Mac with some sort of wired connection? I currently use Remote Desktop, which generally works but takes a while to set up each time. The address seems to always change and it's a bit of wasted time each morning to reconnect.
Mar 14, 2020, 3:59 pm
#53
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Despite it’s name, the coronavirus doesn’t affect computer networks.
Mar 14, 2020, 7:21 pm
#54
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Is there an easy way to run my Windows laptop through my desktop Mac with some sort of wired connection? I currently use Remote Desktop, which generally works but takes a while to set up each time. The address seems to always change and it's a bit of wasted time each morning to reconnect.
Mar 14, 2020, 7:25 pm
#55
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What issue? None of this is new. Most employees take their phones and laptops home every night and use them on their home networks. If they want to access files/sites on the company network, they VPN. Hacking a good VPN tunnel would be extremely difficult. The beauty of VPNs is that you can limit where on your corporate network that each user is allowed to go. If you wanted to each user could have different permissions.
Despite it’s name, the coronavirus doesn’t affect computer networks.
Despite it’s name, the coronavirus doesn’t affect computer networks.
Mar 15, 2020, 6:36 am
#56
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Is there an easy way to run my Windows laptop through my desktop Mac with some sort of wired connection? I currently use Remote Desktop, which generally works but takes a while to set up each time. The address seems to always change and it's a bit of wasted time each morning to reconnect.
There are a couple of different ways to accomplish this; the easiest is to use a feature common to most modern routers called DHCP* Reservation or Address Reservation and will usually be found in the LAN Settings section of your router's configuration. Assuming you reserve the address that DHCP has currently allocated for your Windows laptop, you won't need to do anything in Windows to enable this once the router is configured.
Refer to your router vendor's support/documentation for configuring a device to use this feature.
* Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Mar 15, 2020, 2:40 pm
#57
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I work from home 80% of the time but my most important aspects are;
- Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse... using the laptop as a laptop is not comfortable
- Wireless Headset... the Plantronics Voyager Focus UC Stereo is excellent
- A reliable connection
Mar 15, 2020, 7:37 pm
#58
Join Date: Jan 2015
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What issue? None of this is new. Most employees take their phones and laptops home every night and use them on their home networks. If they want to access files/sites on the company network, they VPN. Hacking a good VPN tunnel would be extremely difficult. The beauty of VPNs is that you can limit where on your corporate network that each user is allowed to go. If you wanted to each user could have different permissions.
Despite it’s name, the coronavirus doesn’t affect computer networks.
Despite it’s name, the coronavirus doesn’t affect computer networks.
Mar 15, 2020, 8:28 pm
#59
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Also privacy/security in that you might not want a random business contact to see personal items in your home or details of where you live. For example, even in a dedicated home office, architectural details could permit someone to know where you live (distinctive condo building features or view from window) and you might not want to show family photos or particular personal items, such as something that could identify your religion.
Mar 16, 2020, 8:02 am
#60
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Also privacy/security in that you might not want a random business contact to see personal items in your home or details of where you live. For example, even in a dedicated home office, architectural details could permit someone to know where you live (distinctive condo building features or view from window) and you might not want to show family photos or particular personal items, such as something that could identify your religion.