With No IT Guy Down the Hall, Here's What You Need to Know at Home

No commute, a more flexible schedule and answering conference calls in your favorite Scooby-Doo slippers — the advantages of the "home" part of a home office are not hard to imagine. It's the "office" part that tends to be more troublesome. Here's the stuff, and the help, every home office owner needs to have.

Your Career on Your Lap: the Computer

A computer is obviously an essential for a home office, but with travel and kids, mobility is key.

"A laptop is a must have," said the founder of Dr. Phil-approved Webmomz.com and work-from-home mother Kristie Tamsevicius. "If the mood strikes and you need to move somewhere else, a laptop is a savior. When you travel, you can take your business with you."

However, being mobile is basically useless unless you can stay connected.

"The main thing is a really good broadband connection. Without a good pipe, you're in trouble," said Michael Kanellos, technology expert and editor at large for CNET.com. "Definitely get a wireless so you can move around the house."

According to Kanellos, home office owners should also look into buying a cellular card so the computers can connect outside the home as well.

"You can buy them integrated with the notebook, which is very handy," he said. "Or just go to your cellular dealer. You can usually get a good deal with them."

If you work for a larger corporation, Kanellos said, once an Internet connection is made, a simple call to the company's IT guy can get your computer logged into the company's "virtual private network" so you will be able to communicate with other employees easily.

Lesley Spencer Pyle, founder of Home-Based Working Moms, a "professional association and online community," added that office software, such as Microsoft Office, is "a great way to remind me of important meetings and just keep myself organized."

The much advertised webcams for video conferencing are also a nice addition, but Kanellos doubts many companies take advantage of the technology.

"It's more likely that you'll be the only one with that capability," he said.

Talking the Talk: the Phone

Saying hi to the kids during a coffee break is a great advantage of working from home. The kids saying hi to your business contacts when they get to the phone before you is not. That's why home office owners should invest in either a dedicated line or a cell phone. Adding a dedicated line can cost anywhere from $50 to $200; the cost depends on the phone company, whether options like caller ID and call waiting are activated and if a technician is needed to install the new line.

"Fax isn't a must-have anymore," said Pyle, who believes workers are far more likely to use e-mail or, if absolutely necessary, online faxing services.

Rather the cash should be spent on backup hard drives to make moving data simple and reduce the likelihood of cardiac arrest during a computer crash.

"Everything on your computer will be automatically archived," said Kanellos, chuckling. "You never know when you'll drop that thing."

Pyle knows what it's like to lose everything, if only temporarily.

"It's a helpless feeling. I obviously didn't have a staffed tech person like a big company would," she said. "The backup hard drive pretty much saved my business. You should definitely have an external backup."

Depending on the storage capacity, decent external hard drives can cost anywhere from $30 to more than $1,000.

special thanks to abcnews:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/SpecialSeries/Story?id=3303550&page=2