Remote Location, with View
Whether you're setting up a small home office or equipping an employee to telecommute, there are several staples you'll need. We had longtime contributing editor Bruce Brown survey the current offerings and test select multifunction printers, home gateway products, and CD-RW drives that don't require advanced technical expertise to install, maintain, or use.
"Nothing supports productivity better than a great chair," Brown says wryly. Beyond that pearl of wisdom, Brown encourages any home-based worker with more than one PC to set up a simple network. "You can share files and folders on the drives of the networked PCs and access printers installed to them," he points out. You can also share Internet access, which is appealing if you have broadband access and practical if you use a single phone line for dial-up access. Choices abound for home networking, and so do a slew of competing standards: wired Ethernet, HomePNA (which uses the phone line in your home to link two or more PCs together), HomeRF, and 802.11b (a popular wireless office standard that is coming down in price). Brown tested three residential gateways, a relatively new class of products that act as the central traffic cop for a home network, routing data to the proper devices, doling out Internet access, and serving as a firewall to protect connected PCs from outside intrusion.
For printing, a multifunction unit like the three we tested--which combine a printer with fax, scan, and copy capabilities--makes the most sense. These take up less space and cost less money than if you bought individual devices. And since home-based workers are often isolated islands of information, you'll want to be sure you have a reliable, easy-to-use backup medium, such as one of the CD-RW drives here, to make sure you can get to the beach or the links after a hard day at home knowing that the work you did is stored and safe.
Contents
FIRST PURCHASE: Multifunction Device | |
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SECOND PURCHASE: Residential Gateway | |
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THIRD PURCHASE: CD-RW Drive | |
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