How to set up a home office

1. How to set up a home office Pat Berastegui Egen Session 7214 SHARE 92 San Francisco February 1999 pregen@egenconsulting.com

2. Topics to be Covered • What was our goal • Description of our equipment • Telecommunications Adventures • Joys of ISDN • To Fax or not to Fax; two phone lines or three? • Power, protection and backups • Space, furniture challenges and “is the room warm or is it just me?” • Some lessons learned • Addendum - some web sites to check out SHARE 92

3. What were our goals • Connect all our computers to a network • share printers, phone lines, modems etc • Be as economical as possible (translation:cheap) • Use technology to make copies, send and receive faxes - limit the amount of equipment to do this • Make sure equipment fits in our allotted space • Keep it to two phone lines • Have our server on line 24x7 to the Internet • Backup everything, often, to one device • Access our LAN remotely, but protect it from intrusion SHARE 92

4. Our LAN setup SHARE 92

5. Our hardware • The server • IBM PC Server 315, 20 GB hard drive, 56 KB modem (currently not being used) • runs Lotus Domino and NT Server • My machine - used predominately for my work as a consultant • Compaq Presario 9564, 200 MHz,7 GB HD, 33KB modem,scanner • Windows 95 and NT workstation • Don’s computer - used half for helping with the company and half to dial into mainframe for late night systems programming support • Dell XPS-D333, 333 MHz, 13 GB HD, 56 KB modem,CD burner,Magneto-optical • shares keyboard and monitor with server (using a data transfer switch) • Windows 95 and NT workstation • “Frankenclone”, home built, 200 MHz, 24 GB HD, parallel port zip drive, 5 1/4” floppy drive • Windows 95, Windows 98, OS2, NT Workstation, NT server, Linux (and a partridge in a pear tree...) • Every machine has a CDROM drive and they are all peer-shared on the LAN - from all operating systems SHARE 92

6. Why this setup? • Most of it we already had • New are: scanner for copying,zip drive,CD burner, color printer for brochures, data transfer device to share a keyboard, mouse and monitor (to save space) and an upgrade to our existing LAN to add the ISDN router and hub. • A lot of the different types of hardware peripherals are to support requests that come in from my customers • Example: one of my customers brought a zip disk with his data - guess what, we did not have a zip drive; we do now. • You may not have these same requirements. • However, have you ever used some piece of hardware at an adjoining office or cubicle or used something off a server that would not be available if you were now working from home? • If so, you need to make sure it’s either available in the home office or can be reached in some other manner • Some of you may ask why we did not set up the server as a domain controller? • We figured it would be a Pain and we don’t need the security at this time SHARE 92

7. Telecommunications Adventures • One of our key goals was to not add another telephone line or change out our existing telephone equipment • We knew we needed to be able to do the following: • Have a server connected 24x7 to the internet that would need to send out information as well as receive, meaning lots of two way traffic • We wanted fast connectivity to the Internet for research and problem resolution • We would need to be able to dial into a mainframe • We needed to be able to dial back into our own LAN • We needed voicemail, message waiting, conference calling • We did not want a separate phone line for a fax machine • this has turned out to be our most challenging problem • We don’t want to raid Ft. Knox to afford this connection SHARE 92

8. What are our options? • Living in a small town means our options are limited; however, we researched the top choices - ADSL, ISDN, Cable, Really fast modem • ADSL (Asymmetric digital subscriber line) • moves Internet data more quickly downstream than it does upstream. • achieves download speeds of up to 9Mbps and upload speeds of up to 1.5Mbps • Requires a special ADSL modem, but it connects to a standard analog telephone line • Exploits unused frequencies on existing phone lines allowing you to use same line for telephone calls • Service restricted to within 2 miles, just getting ramped up and not available in many large cities • supposed to be cheaper than ISDN • ISDN (Integrated services digital network) • digital line for both voice and data transmission, widely available; permits fax, data, voice on same line • top speed of only 128Kbps both directions and often difficult to set up • expensive phone-company and ISP charges. A reasonable upgrade for many analog modem users, but not smart if you have access to satellite or cable. • Cable • uses the existing cable TV infrastructure and a special modem to let you surf the Net at speeds of up to 30Mbps. Actual speeds reach only around 1.5Mbps downstream and 300Kbps upstream • potentially available wherever cable TV is and provides high-speed downloads and uploads • inexpensive but you share bandwidth with others in your area • difficult to get in many older, urban buildings. A long-term choice for homes but not if we want to run a server that is accessed from outside • Really fast modem - still only 56KB but getting better SHARE 92

9. The Joys of ISDN • Based on our requirements of needing good two way traffic, and the fact that ADSL and Cable are not available, we went with ISDN • Note, Tennessee is the cheapest state for residential ISDN • Now, for the setup. It turns out the press is right. Setting up ISDN is not really easy; but it’s not as hard as they say • If you are not comfortable with IP addressing, sub-nets and the basic idea of routing, you need to find someone who is - usually your ISP • The Bell person is your friend. If they understand what they are doing, they can make all the difference in the world. If they don’t, and that seems to be the greatest trouble with ISDN setup, then you’re toast. We lucked out with ours. He turned out to be one of the top experts in the Southeast • Once we figured out SPIDS (service profile ID’s) it was all downhill • Note: our ISP had not yet defined our domain name, so we were on the Internet long before we even knew it because we did not know how to find ourselves. • We saved over $150 setting it up ourselves instead of letting the ISP do it • Our router is from Netgear, cost around $350 and very easy to set up • Another good user-friendly ISDN modem is Motorola's BitSURFR Pro modem (800-894-ISDN, www.mot.com/isdn; $495) - comes with a user's guide that has extensive setup specifications to help you place the right order and an easy setup program • Note: if you go the ISDN route, find out what your ISP recommends - they will end up having to support it anyway so go with what they know. SHARE 92

10. To fax or NOT to fax • Ok, we have our ISDN line that turns out to be really two phone lines • one for regular phone usage (my business line) and one that is connected full time to the ISP for our server; the business line has voicemail through our telephone carrier • Also, we still have our regular analog line that acts as our home phone • Switched it to using a simple, handy dandy answering machine with a tape • In order to receive faxes on my machine, it needs to come in through the analog modem, attached to our original analog line • we could have bought an isdn modem, but since we’re trying to be frugal, this was not an option, as it may not be for you either (they are not cheap) • We installed MS Personal Fax on NT and guess what - it’s not supported • it’s not smart enough to sense that the phone call coming in is a person, not a fax and route it to the carrier voicemail. Turns out few programs do • I have to answer the phone, hear the screech and turn on the manual answer - mostly cool unless I’m not home. That, by the way, is what the manual says to do • Side note: finally get my mom to start leaving voicemail and the first time she tries she gets a funny screech - try to explain that one • tried running WinFax for NT but it’s having some “technology moments” • Status: I’m researching a box that allows you to plug in three devices to one phone line and it senses which is what, including routing to a telephone service like AT&T for voicemail SHARE 92

11. Power, Protection and Backup (or the “almost” three P’s) • When you start bringing in additional equipment to set up your home office, you need to be careful about power • Lot’s of home “daisy chain” their power circuits • this means the power to your office may share power with another room • Look at the amperage and wattage of all your devices, especially laser printers and photo copiers • Check your power outlet - you may be able to tell if it is daisy chained, but probably not • Do the math and if your equipment is more than the circuit, you may need to isolate or dedicate some of the power to your office • If you are going to want to dial into your home office computer, you will want to keep it up and running. • To protect any data and to ensure it has time to reboot during a power flicker, you may want to invest in a small UPS. Our American Power Conversion unit ran around $200 for a 500 volt-amp UPS. • You will now have more data and possibly more equipment with data, so you will really need to make sure you do backups. • The larger hard drives are making backups a lot more challenging • We bought a Sony SDT 9000 that backs up 24 gig per tape SHARE 92

12. Space, furniture and heat • When you start adding desks, filing cabinets, small conference tables, equipment, printers, scanners, copiers, etc you run out of space quickly. • You need to be creative in how you arrange your furniture setup • I’m still looking for the perfect setup • Currently, our desk is a door over two small, oak filing cabinets • I thought this was pretty unique until I logged onto a web site that talked about furniture for a home office - their advertisement said “living with a door over two filing cabinets?....” • It turned out I was used to working at an L shape desk. • Since my desk is not set up that way, I miss it. So, when you are planning your office, look at how you work today and what is most comfortable for you. It’s more important than one would think • After putting all this equipment up in our office, it became immediately apparent that the room does not need any heating in the winter. • Be prepared for an additional heat factor - we had to install a fan. • The photos on the next page are of a creative corner unit my son designed and built to house our printers, the server, the routers, the stereo and the TV • No, the last two don’t have IP addresses…yet. SHARE 92

13. Creative furniture solutions SHARE 92

14. Lessons Learned • You keep discovering things you don’t have • paper cutters, rulers, large envelopes, manila file folders, pencil sharpeners, heavy duty staplers, binders, index tabs, etc, etc. • filing cabinets and cabinets for the supplies (the ones you had to buy above) • Oh, gosh, the manual for that is back in the other place.... • The guy at the ISDN department at our telephone carrier was wrong - you can’t use regular phones connected to an ISDN line. Oh well. • Faxing turned out to be a huge issue. • I talked to some friends who are members of a small business organization and they echoed the same thing about faxing - so it’s not unique to me • You make a surprising amount of copies • when you use a scanner, you really pay attention to that fact • The idea of “gee, you work at home now, you have all that spare time” • Well, since your office is so close, you tend to stay in it more. Really! • I learned I needed to get up, get dressed, and “go to work”. That discipline has helped a lot • Devices that do more than one thing are the way to go • All in one printer/fax/copier/scanner. Note; the ones we looked at didn’t work on NT (sounds like OS2 doesn’t it) • Our prior planning kept us on budget - so Plan, Plan, Plan SHARE 92

15. Web sites of interest • You may find the following web sites of help • http://www.smalloffice.com/ • http://www.hoc.com/ • http://www.whoc.com/ • http://hocmag.com • http://hsoc.com • http://soho-lounge.com/ • http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00983.htm • http://www.4homeoffice.com • http://www.homeofficedirect.com/ • http://www.homeofficefurniture.net/index.htm • http://www.businessknowhow.com/ • http://www.bankofamerica.com/p-finance/athome/ho_home.html • http://wwwsprint.commerce.com/homeoffice/ • http://www.goinsoho.com/ • http://www.vertical-hold.com/ • http://sohosolutions.home.mindspring.com/index.htm SHARE 92