Essential Home Office Technology

• This is the Kirchoff Credenza. It’s perfect for placement of many technology devices and more. It’s somewhat small to medium in size, as you can see. The top two drawers are common. The bottom two left handles are a single pullout file drawer. The right center shelf is fixed and the bottom one is a pullout shelf.

This is a tower set of drawers. It’s good for storing some active papers in various stages of processing. It also doubles as keeping the laptop off the desk, by being at the top of the tower. And it has further function by having some immediately available items such as printer paper, tech device manuals, and cables with adapters.

• Some people will start with the UPS device first. I recommend that you position all your other devices first and then position the UPS. Over time, you may find that the UPS location could dictate where a few of your devices go; you’ll want the opposite to occur.
• Your incoming Internet connection location may vary. In this example, it was established to go into the Home Office behind the credenza. So, the modem is the initial tech device to be put into place on the credenza top. The power plug will eventually go into the UPS. In the meantime, as you might need to maintain the Internet in your Home, you could temporarily use a power strip for all these initial devices. Then, you’re not pressured for time for installing all of this equipment.

• Some people will have the modem and router as one unified device so this may not apply to you. If you happened to have the modem and router separately, this is now the time to connect your router to your modem. The shapes of routers, like many devices vary extensively. Most routers are just another rectangular box.
• If you’re experiencing a lot of buffering issues via Wi-Fi, it might be time to look for a more updated router that can handle more wireless devices concurrently. This will help modernize your credenza technology. An alternative is if you can add wired networking so some equipment can be directly connected to the network and off of wireless.
• As referenced earlier, if you need to maintain an Internet connection in your home, you could temporarily plug this into a power strip.

• If your router isn’t sufficient for all your network ports, you might have a network switch to supplement them. Or, some will use a network switch anyway for various reasons of controlling traffic. You can place this on your credenza and plug it into one of the ports on your router.
• In my case, my router ports are used up to go out to various rooms in the home for direct Internet access. So, I mounted the small network switch on the side of the desk and covered all the wires. This enabled all desk items (starting with the laptop) to have a direct wired connection instead of relying on Wi-Fi.

• Most people just use their cell phones these days but, some Home Offices will use a handset or speakerphone setup connected to the Internet, e.g., VOIP. In other words, a phone system that runs off the Internet. Updating your office phone to run over the Internet is a good way to modernize your credenza technology.
• An ATA Adapter is a device that you plug into an Internet port (on the router) on one side. On the other side, you plug your phone into it, using the standard phone plug. Those devices are technical in nature and some services include them pre-programmed for you. Some services examples are Vonage, CallCentric, and others. Some Home Offices use these types of systems for these various reasons:
  • to have a business phone number
  • just to have a different phone number than their personal cell
  • affordable International calling
  • keep their minutes down on their cell phones (not everyone has unlimited minutes)
  • to have a call menu structure with extensions
• If you use a phone system you’ll want to connect it to the Router (or Network switch) now. If you still use a landline, you’ll want to put it in place now.

• So, you may not have any of these things or, you might just have a printer. In any case, it’s now time to put it/them into place. This example covers a multi-function 3-in-1 device (printer, scanner, fax). I’ll just call it “the printer”. In the example credenza you see, we had to remove the fixed center shelf. This allowed the printer to rest on the pull-out shelf. It worked out great because it keeps it somewhat out of sight yet permits the pulling out for using the scanner.
• The location should be easily accessible. That’s for changing paper for labels or cardstock for printing business cards. It’s also for refilling any ink, toner, or paper. Finally, it’s for ease of scanning if yours has a scanner.
• Due to its location on the credenza, it can now be directly plugged into the router (or the network switch). It you don’t have a network port on your printer, you can utilize whatever method you have before, i.e., Wi-Fi or USB. If using USB, you might now need a USB extension cable, depending on your situation.
• If you have a separate scanner, it might best be positioned on top of the credenza. Then, connect it.

• This is an example of adding a NAS Server on the credenza. It stores digital files for use via the network. It can be also be placed anywhere besides on a credenza. It can have one or more network cables plugged into the router or one plugged into any available network port in any room. The contents of the files on this server, in this example, are encrypted, for added protection. We wrote a guide “How To QNAP Factory Reset NAS“.
• Other Home Offices may have much more elaborate servers and might be larger. Some servers will go into a separate area of the Home Office such as a “closet” and might be be rack mounted, along with other networking equipment. Also, you might eventually want to see how to have a desktop app run as a service so it continues to run after you’re logged off. However, this article only addresses the small devices such as this.

• This is an example of a USB connected hard drive that’s used for backups of digital files. While some devices might be just a small enclosed single drive, this is an open “drive dock” and can hold 2 hard drives (of different types). It has the advantage of simple and quick drive insertion or removal, similar to “hot swap” capability. It’s directly connected via a long USB cable to the server.
• Due to the nature of a little bit of added security, this drive dock is located in a different room. The drive’s file contents, in this example, remain encrypted.
• Periodically, a drive is removed for storing offsite for security. Another drive is inserted to continue receiving backups.

• This is the item that your credenza-placed tech devices can be connected into. However, printers and a few types of devices still today are discouraged from plugging into a UPS. You’ll have to decide for yourself on that aspect. I plug my printer into the “surge only” outlets of the UPS. All the other electronic items I use are plugged into the “battery” outlets on the UPS.
• If your UPS has a USB or Network capability, you’ll want to connect it back to the devices you used before. In my case, the UPS allows the cable coax to run through it for the cable Modem. It also has a USB connection to the NAS for protection. It does have Network ports (in & out) for plugging the router into it if desired.

There will sometimes be additional technology for home office items you consider as time progresses. For example, over time, you might discover a need for larger drive storage. Or, in some cases, a drive might fail and will need replacement. For security reasons, you don’t just discard the old one without some further preparation.

So, with some sensitive information such as login credentials or confidential client files being stored on your computer or server, it’s good to have a drive storage “wiper” for HDD drives or a secure “eraser” for SSD drives as your replace them. There are other more advanced types of drives and secure methods of completely erasing their contents, as needed.

However, it’s known in the security information world that the only true, final erasure is to physically “carve” the storage device into a particularly small sized set of pieces or have it fully burned and melted down. These aspects however, are usually afforded by more commercial operations so a wiping device is more practical for the home office; however, you could then physically damage the drive further with a sledge hammer and soak it overnight in a large bowl of salt water, if you’re so inclined.