One of the many things I’ve learnt during the past few years of working on my own is how to have an effective home office setup – one that caters for not only working from home, but also a more comprehensive entertainment experience for those long non-working lockdown hours.
By Guy Whitcroft
So, as many readers will be still finding their way through this new experience – once thought to be temporary but looking increasingly permanent – I thought I should give you some insights into the approach I’ve taken in the hope that this will help you.
Network
This has to be the key to successful working – both the internal network bits and the external.
On the internal side, I upgraded from a network with a few APs in strategic points to a proper mesh network three years ago and have never looked back. No more messing about with reconnecting to a faster AP when I’m in the right area – everything works seamlessly as I move around.
On the external side, I had to wait a while (impatiently) for fibre to become available in my area and, as soon as it did, moved my 10Mb ADSL line (all that was then available) to 20Mb fibre at about the same price, and subsequently to 50Mb fibre, taking advantage of a deal that gave me much more speed for very little additional cost. While this might seem a lot, it’s invaluable for video conversations and, of course, entertainment as we find we use streaming rather than satellite signals more and more, especially as I have increasing amounts of data in the cloud with all that means for ongoing file sync activity.
Oh, and on the entertainment front – a combination of smart TV, Apple TV, DVD player (almost never used now) and decoder all on the network, too, so can switch between various services easily at any time.
Security
Of course, a key part of having a decent network is also having good security: you don’t want your environment hacked in any way. My mesh network boxes are set up with high levels of intrusion detection and will drop any device it deems “rogue” and flag all suspicious activity, while my PCs are all running a top security package, with a second one in the background (I’ve always liked the “belt and braces” approach here as I’ve found that sometimes one package will detect something the other doesn’t or, at least, before the other). Don’t skimp in this area – it’s just too important – use top-rated software.
Storage
One thing I’ve learnt through the years is that hard disk drives fail, despite quoted MTBFs over a million hours and/or <1% failure rate. This can be disastrous, especially if you don’t have proper backups.
So I adopt a multi-tiered approach. Firstly, I keep my main work files constantly backed up in the cloud with OneDrive (included with my Office subscription); secondly, I run weekly automatic backups of my whole hard drive (on my Windows machine) to external NAS which, itself, is mirrored (my Mac runs Time Machine to these drives too); thirdly, I back up all my Outlook ost/pst files to another external (mirrored) NAS system automatically every night.
It really is worthwhile having this sort of system in place for when something goes wrong (and, of course, your personal files like photos are irreplaceable, so need to be preserved).
Power
One of our special South African challenges is, of course, the availability of reliable power. Obviously, one can go off-grid completely with solar etc, but this is expensive and the ROI is long, according to my investigations.
I installed a couple of 2.4kVA inverters with 200Ah of deep cycle (marine) battery each – one runs my office (excluding laser printer, of course) and the other my media room. This, combined with a number of rechargeable lamps, gives us a satisfactory level of independence from the vagaries of load-shedding (remember, your routers and necessary APs need power, too, when installing this).
Location
This is one of the more difficult aspects. I know many people try to conduct WFH from the bedroom, in front of the TV and other locations. I also realise that space is often at a premium. All I can say, from 10-plus years of working primarily from home, is that you need a quiet area. A spare room is ideal, but not always practical.
You do, however, need a space free from constant interruption and where you can conduct video meetings without imposing on your family.
In England, production of garden sheds/rooms/offices is booming, so maybe this is also an opportunity for many here.
Other
This is down to both company standards and your individual preferences, so hard to make recommendations. I’m pretty clear on my preferred PC brands, as well as my software environment and accessories, but those are my personal choices.
Work with whatever makes the most sense for you, but bear in mind the issues of network, security, storage, power and location, and you will find a satisfactory WFH environment.