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Home Alone
Most lawyers network on the golf course. But you can also do it at home. You can even do it without wires
David Brauer
The American Lawyer
December 11, 2001
Somewhere between the office-bound past and the unbound wireless future, home offices are becoming as common as casual Fridays for many partners. The fast-forward types have long known that their home offices can be more powerful than their office systems. This article isn't for those know-it-alls. It's for the rest of the members of the profession. They know that their clients and partners expect them to work from home, but they just don't know where to begin when they go to Office Depot or when they ask the firm for home equipment.
For this silent majority, there are many choices. Desktop or laptop? DSL or cable modem? Fax machine or fax modem? We can't promise to eliminate all the trade-offs and dilemmas, just make them seem less daunting.
• Computer. Let's cut to the chase. Do you want a desktop or laptop? It comes down to preferences. The desktop is cheaper and easier to upgrade; the laptop goes anywhere. Regardless of which you choose, take notes on the following:
Memory has never been cheaper. Buy at least 256 MB. You may be able to get it at no extra cost.
Unless you are an MP3 fanatic, you can easily get by with a 20-gigabyte hard drive. Don't skimp on speed. Get one that spins at 7,200 revolutions per minute rather than the slower 5,400 rpm. You'll notice the difference in how quickly you can access and open files.
Stay away from DVD drives unless you plan on watching lots of movies on screen. Instead, go for a drive that can both read and write CD-ROMs. They are known as CD-RW (rewritable) drives. You can back up your computer to them, or store discovery documents by the boxful.
If you have plenty of memory, there is no need to buy the fastest processor. You don't need one running at 1.8 gigahertz. Anything close to 1 GHz will work just fine.
Buy the monitor separately (see below).
There are several great models of computers to consider these days. The 1.4-GHz Micron XP2 ($1,200 without the monitor) and Dell 8100 ($1,500, also without the monitor), are both solid machines built by reliable companies. They both come with Office XP, the latest version of Microsoft's Office suite.
The gold standard for laptops remains IBM's 5-pound 1-GHz T-series ($2,300 with Office XP included and a generous 14-inch screen). A desktop expansion unit runs $500. The unit comes with a full-size keyboard, mouse, monitor and power source.
You don't have to crack $1,000 for a desktop if you are willing to forgo features you probably don't need anyway -- like a blazing-fast processor. A 900-MHz Dell Dimension 2100 system with free shipping goes for $850, with Office XP and 128 MB of memory but without a monitor.
The most intriguing discount offering may be the $770 Compaq IPAQ desktop. It comes with a cozy 10-MB hard drive (if you do only documents, no problem); a fast-enough 700 MHz processor; 256 MB of memory; Office XP; and a 15-inch monitor. The unit has few expansion possibilities, but you probably aren't the type to crack open the case and install a new hard drive anyway. You will need to buy business software elsewhere.
If you want a laptop, consider the Compaq Presario 1200, with a 900-MHz processor, for $1,350.
• Monitor. If you're OK with clunky cathode-ray monitors (the kind you must strain to pick up), Viewsonic has some good buys, like the 17-inch E70f, for just under $200. The 19-inch Samsung Synchmaster 900 ($360) is another time-tested winner. Whatever you buy, make sure the refresh rate exceeds 85 hertz at a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels. Forget what the numbers mean; just know that your eyes will be happy.
Flat-screen monitors take up much less room on your desk and have great visual appeal. Prices are starting to come down, but they are still not cheap. The 17-inch Samsung Synchmaster 770 TFT is $800 of saturated fun. The good news is that a 17-inch flat-screen monitor gives you roughly the viewing area of a 19-inch cathode-ray monitor.
• Software. Many systems come with Office XP installed. The basic versions of Office come with Word; Excel (to create spreadsheets); Outlook (to send e-mails and to schedule appointments); and PowerPoint (to create presentations).
For the few computers that don't come bundled with Office XP, you can try Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice for free. But it probably makes more sense to drop $300 for Word XP ($70 if you are upgrading) and use Outlook Express, which is free, for e-mail. (Do your spreadsheets and presentations at the office.)
If you need the complete suite, new versions of Office XP go for $400 -- $200 if you are upgrading. Be warned about anything ending with XP: These are new products. You might want to wait for the first "service release," otherwise known as a bug fix.
• Faxing, Scanning, Printing. Small-town Lutherans and Catholics have nothing on the quasi-religious split between those who want to cram as many features as they can into a device and those who savor simplicity. Multifunction devices (which typically print, scan and fax) are cheap and versatile, but the print quality is not great and the scanning abilities are limited. You won't be feeding law reporters through them any time soon. If you can accept these limitations, you might want to look at the Xerox Workcenter M940 ($150), which includes a flatbed scanner. In order to use it as a fax machine, however, you need to rely on the computer's modem.
Buying à la carte is more costly but more rewarding. For $750 you can buy one of each device: a $100 plain-paper fax (all the major brands have a decent entry-level model); a $300 Brother HL-1440 laser printer; and a $250 Microtek Scanmaker V6UPL.
If you receive faxes but don't send them, take a look at the J2.com Web site. Senders can send faxes to your J2 telephone number, and they arrive as e-mail. You don't need hardware or a second line, but J2 numbers are usually long-distance, so co-workers and clients pay to send you documents. For $12 a month, you can get a local J2 number, if one is available. Then you will be able to send faxes, too, for about 12 cents a minute, so long as the document is in electronic form.
• Backup. This can be as simple as e-mailing home documents to your office e-mail address. If your computer has a CD-RW drive, you can simply back up your hard drive to a CD. It takes less than 10 minutes to record 640 MB (a substantial spread of disk real estate). The $170 Plextor Plexwriter is a good choice among CD-RW drives. If you're comfortable tackling a simple network, buy an old computer and copy valuable data to its hard drive.
• Broadband. A home Internet connection can seem downright pokey unless you've decided to upgrade to a digital subscriber line or cable modem. Unfortunately, these services aren't always available, especially in more remote locations.
Internet cable service is 25 times faster than a dial-up America Online or EarthLink account, but less private. It is also harder to use if you want to network your home computers to one another (see below). Cable service typically costs $40 a month for the service and, unlike DSL, comes with Web access.
DSL connections are comparatively slower than cable service -- but still five to 10 times quicker than dial-up and easier to network. Many smaller DSL providers have gone belly up, so if you want to go that route, have your local phone company provide the service. Verizon is unlikely to go out of business before you'll be getting your Internet beamed through your jaw. In competitive markets, DSL costs about $35 a month, but you still need to sign up for a separate Internet account, at $20 or so per month. AOL offers qualified users a $44-a-month deal that provides both high-speed access and an Internet connection.
• Networking. Most lawyers do this at parties or on the golf course. But you can also do it at home. Just because you and your kids or spouse share a high-speed Internet account doesn't mean you have to use the same computer. You can create a home network. Best of all, it can even be wireless.
Why bother with wireless? You can work from any room in the house. You don't have to share space with your kid blasting aliens on one screen and your spouse watching "Six Feet Under" on the other. If you go there, get the "Wi-Fi" standard (the rival "HomeRF" protocol is the wireless version of Betamax). If your work supplies you with a wireless-ready notebook, it should work at home too.
Best bet: 3Com's Home Wireless Router ($300), which includes one wired and three wireless connections that work up to a football field away. You will also need to buy a $150 wireless card for your notebook and install it, if you don't own one.
Setting up a wireless system doesn't require scraped knees or force you to crack open a computer case. You simply plug the wireless gateway unit into the back of your desktop computer and slide a wireless card into a free slot on your notebook. That's it.
The thrifty and office-bound can cheaply build an Ethernet-cabled network. You can make it happen with a $50 Intel Fast Ethernet 4-port hub ("fast" network connections are 10 times faster than older versions), network cards at $20 apiece, and cable for 30 cents a foot. Windows ME makes the network setup a breeze -- usually. And Windows XP should be better. You will have to get down on all fours; threading cables along your wall is the modern version of plowing. Fortunately, you only have to do it once.
• Security. Increasingly, firms are requiring homebound lawyers to install hacker-blocking firewalls and antivirus software. The state-of-the-art, easiest-to-use firewall is ZoneAlarm. It's free for personal use from ZoneAlarm.com. The setup is a breeze, even for novices.
The Internet is awash in worms, viruses and other nasty, man-made creations. There are two primary choices of anti-virus software. McAfee Anti-Virus ($30) is a bit less user-friendly and comprehensive than Norton AntiVirus ($30), but more crash-proof. Both offer increasingly inconvenient levels of security. Make sure you configure them to scan incoming e-mail and attachments. Like home alarm systems, they don't do much good unless they are activated.
Encryption software should be mandatory. Pretty Good Privacy ($100) scrambles messages so that they are indecipherable to everyone but the sender and receiver. There's a catch. The recipient needs to have the software installed, too. Otherwise, he or she won't be able to read it either.
• Office Furniture. It's a buyer's market for office furniture these days if you don't mind dot-bombed stock. There's a glut of modular stuff available at surplus stores.
If you want to justify the purchase of new furniture, an ergonomic chair will pay for itself in avoided chiropractor bills. An inexpensive model is the $242 Grahl Premier Duo-Back (www.grahl.com); the Internet-era icon Aeron runs $700 (www.hermanmiller.com).
Once you buy your new seat, the best thing to do with it is staple your rear end to it and play with your new toys. There is no substitute for butt time.
David Brauer is a free-lance writer, with a well-equipped home office, based in Minneapolis. E-mail: dbrauer@tcq.net.
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