The ideal home office workplace
Every home office starts with a question: Where do you set up your home office equipment, how can you work undisturbed, effectively, and as productive as possible? There is no right or wrong in answering this question. Rather, it depends on your own individual life and work situation and can be flexibly arranged.
Full focus in the study
If you want to work from home, ideally set up a separate workroom. This is also possible in remote rooms, such as the basement or the attic. A separate study has various advantages: You reduce the number of potential disturbance factors and become less distracted..
A physical separation of work and living spaces also ensures that you can switch off better after work and that the job doesn’t affect important recovery phases too much. It is particularly effective if you maintain fixed, regular working hours..
And from a purely practical point of view, a fixed workplace also offers many advantages. Here you can set up your home office however you’d like - with a large desk, an external monitor, smart home office gadgets or other home office accessories..
Maximum flexibility throughout the entire house
Not everyone can enjoy the luxury of a dedicated study. Depending on your life situation, it can also make sense to occasionally leave the confinement of a room and – if the job allows it – to visit other places within the living space.
Why don’t you bring some variety and movement into your daily work routine? This way you don't always see the same room and you can enjoy some variation in the working atmosphere and your posture.
For the sake of your back, don’t crouch for too long at a dining table that is too small or on a chair that is too hard. A changing workplace can provide dynamism, inspiration and fresh home office ideas. And (in exceptional cases) you can also keep an eye on the children playing in the garden.
Wherever you’d like to work: With devolo you can enjoy a strong and stable internet connection with the best range in the entire living area – from the basement to the attic.
Set up a seamless video conference
– Basic tips for virtual meetings
Depending on your profession, you can work just as well in the home office as in the office, if not more productively. And nevertheless: the exchange with colleagues is important – for the accomplishment of common tasks and projects, maintaining interpersonal relationships and cultivating a positive team spirit.
If you set up your home office, you can hardly avoid the video conference. Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet and other services give you the opportunity to exchange ideas on important (and sometimes less important) topics every day. To ensure that this works well, here are a few tips that you should take to heart when participating in virtual meetings.
Mind your appearance.
If you're working from home, it might seem tempting to do it in your comfortable sweatpants. But even if one doesn't usually get to see your lower half: At the least when talking to colleagues – not to mention customers – you should pay just as much attention to your appearance as you would in the office. This is also beneficial for your personal mindset.
A few unnecessary stubbles or areas of the face without make-up often get lost during the transmission and are not a big deal. However, if you do show up in a spontaneous meeting with a bathrobe or the latest flea market purchase, you may just provide company parties with enough conversational topics for years to come.
Find a quiet place.
With appropriate Wi-Fi coverage, you can theoretically work throughout the house. For the video conference, however, you should definitely retreat to a quiet place where you can largely exclude interruptions by children, pets and other disturbing factors.
Of course, you should also make sure that your smartphone is set to silent and that no other unexpected noise sources can disturb the web meeting.
Choose an appropriate background.
In virtual meetings, you provide your colleagues with a look into your private living area. Order and cleanliness should be a matter of course. To convey the most professional impression possible, you should not sit in front of the children's play area, but rather a background that is as neutral as possible or alternatively impressive – a wall of books, for example.
Optionally, with most meeting services, you can also switch on virtual backgrounds that cover your living space. Here you should also choose a picture that is as neutral as possible – you can save the colourful beach panorama and other funny backgrounds for the next virtual company party.
Consider the lighting conditions.
Cardinal errors can be avoided: Before the video conference make sure that you are sufficiently illuminated – ideally by daylight. This brings freshness and naturalness to your appearance.
Also make sure that the light comes from the front or, even better, from the side. If you sit with the window behind you, your face will quickly sink into the shadows. The result: an unsightly image – and a highly unprofessional impression. If the natural lighting is not enough, you can help with artificial daylight lamps.
Rely on the right technical equipment.
The right equipment is also part of the professional overall impression. If your laptop camera does not deliver a satisfactory image, it may be worth buying an external webcam. Also, under no circumstances should you use the standard microphone on your device – then your voice usually comes across as thin and tinny. Instead, rely on a dedicated headset or microphone with good, voluminous sound quality.
Establish stable technical conditions.
There are just a few things that are more annoying than a productive meeting that is suddenly interrupted by technical problems. Therefore, make sure that the basic technical requirements are correct. Does your laptop still have enough battery? If you suddenly get thrown out or must get up to "shortly plug in the power cord ", this already has a disruptive effect on the flow of the conversation.
Even more important – especially when several people share a home office – is a fast and stable Internet connection, ideally via Ethernet cable. Otherwise, the image quality may be blurry or the connection may even be lost, especially with parallel video conferences. We at devolo are happy to support you here.
The VPN connection in the home office
For security reasons, many companies rely on VPN technology for employees working from home. Without it, you might not even be able access your company's network. For this reason, we will answer some basic questions about VPN at this point.
What does VPN stand for?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is basically just that – a kind of virtual private network with the purpose of data security. Therefore, external computers can access a company server from the home office.
The advantage: This connection is end-to-end encrypted and therefore protected against unauthorized access. Your computer becomes part of the corporate network and can access secured files, tools and other services that are denied to third parties.
How can you set up a VPN connection?
Most of the time, your employer will provide the tools you need to set up a VPN connection. The relevant software is usually pre-installed on your work computer. When you set up your home office, all you have to do is log in with your company access data.
If the company does not provide a VPN solution itself, you have the alternative of setting up a VPN server in Windows, macOS or Linux by yourself. Or alternatively you can use your router if it supports this functionality.
Monitoring by VPN – what does the employer see?
Employees are often prohibited from accessing non-work-related content on the Internet during working hours and with the company computer. Would you like to check social media between tasks? Book your next holiday at the same time? If you use a VPN in your home office, you should be extra disciplined here.
Since all data traffic runs over the company network with a VPN connection, it is theoretically possible for your employer to access your browser history in order to encourage you to be more productive in case of doubt.
What to do if the VPN connection is slow?
Your internet connection can become noticeably slower due to the additional VPN encryption. You notice that quickly, for example when video conferences stagnate, or websites only load slowly.
At this point, as a user, you can do one thing above all: Ensure a flawless Wi-Fi connection in your home office. If you want to get the most out of your Internet connection, you should also use a wired Ethernet connection. Powerline adapters from devolo support you with this.
devolo - the perfect companion for your home office ideas
No matter which place of work, which equipment and video software you choose: For a trouble-free and productive home office life, you need an Internet connection that brings all your smart devices and ideas into harmony.
With the ideal solutions from devolo, you establish the perfect foundations for your home office equipment. The proven Powerline technology uses the already installed power lines to send the internet signal to any corner of your house. So, you can enjoy the best Wi-Fi anywhere - and if necessary, you can also connect an Ethernet cable for even better data rates.
devolo WiFi ac Repeater+
- Amplification of the Wi-Fi signal for adjacent rooms
- For small to medium-sized living spaces (one floor)
- For a few parallel users
- Surfing at up to 1200 Mbps
- LAN ports for Ethernet connection
Application example (or use case): Student flat-share or smaller flat with few participants in limited space
devolo Magic 2 WiFi 6
- Powerline solution for expanding the Wi-Fi
- Suitable for several floors and rooms
- Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1800 Mbps
- Efficient, parallel use of data-hungry applications (e.g. video conferencing and large file transfers )
- Gigabit LAN ports for Ethernet connection
Application example (or use case): Family with several home office participants throughout the house or flat
devolo Product Advisor
Not sure which Wi-Fi booster is right for your home? Our product advisor will help you in just a few clicks.
Whether in the home office, whilst cooking, streaming or even gaming:
devolo provides perfect Wi-Fi for your entire home.