The other week I was sitting in our garden in Greenwich, southeast London,
sipping a cool drink and basking in glorious sunshine. I was surrounded by
fragrant honeysuckle and the chatter of goldfinches. But I was working. Yes,
really.
With my laptop linked wirelessly to our broadband internet connection and
using a headset and microphone, I was interviewing a man in Sao Paolo,
Brazil, about how he manages to run his London-based investment property
website, www.bulgarianventure.com, from halfway round the world. We were
both using the internet telephony service, Skype, and so, although we were
thousands of miles apart, our 30-minute call was free.
Welcome to the world of flexible working, where technology frees us to work
almost anywhere. New gizmos and broadband internet connections are expanding
options, giving people the opportunity to live where they want without
having to downsize and sacrifice well-paid jobs.
If this kind of flexible lifestyle sounds appealing, here’s a step-by-step
guide on how to achieve it.
1 Go broadband
These days you really need a broadband internet connection, ideally of a
minimum 512 kilobits per second (kbps) — although 256kbps will do — to cope
with internet phone calls, video, television and large, securely-encrypted
documents.
There are two ways of getting broadband: fibreoptic cable and copper telephone
wires (known as ADSL). Cable services, of the sort offered by NTL
(www.ntl.com) and Telewest (www.telewest.co.uk), can be as fast as 10
megabits per second (Mbps), or maybe even more, but are largely confined to
urban areas; check the providers’ websites for availability.
In theory, you can also get as much as eight Mbps down an ordinary phone line,
but the actual speed will depend on how far you are from the nearest
exchange and whether it has yet been converted to broadband. BT (www.bt.com)
claims 99.6% of the UK can now get broadband over copper wires at 256kbps,
but many commentators dispute this figure. You can check broadband
availability in any area by using a service such as Broadband Checker
(www.broadbandchecker.co.uk).
If the home of your dreams is in a black spot, you may still be able to obtain
broadband via satellite, but it may not be very fast and, at £20-£40 a
month, will be more expensive. A price-comparison service, such as Uswitch
(www.uswitch.com), will help you to obtain the best deal.
2 Go wireless
This involves plugging a box called a wireless router into your broadband
internet connection, which allows laptops, handheld computers and other
wireless-enabled devices to talk to each other and gives you the freedom to
work in any room in the house or even in the garden. Make sure your network
is securely encrypted, or an unscrupulous neighbour could piggyback onto it
and slow it down. Wireless routers cost from about £40, but many broadband
service providers now include them in their subscription packages. For
example, BT has just launched Total Broadband, offering internet speeds of
“up to 8Mbps” (average speeds, however, are likely to be much slower than
this), a wireless router, a telephone for making calls over the internet,
and 250 free minutes of broadband access for when you’re within range of a
WiFi hotspot, for introductory monthly rates from £9.95 to £22.99. You can
also connect to the internet wirelessly at thousands of WiFi hotspots
throughout the country. Visit www.totalhotspots.com to find sites near you.
3 Phone over broadband
Use your broadband internet connection for making voice calls and receiving
voicemails using an internet telephony service from providers such as Skype
(www.skype.com), Google (www.google.co.uk/talk) or BT. Calls to people using
the same software as you are usually free no matter where they are in the
world, and calls to other landlines are much cheaper than over the
fixed-line network, with monthly packages starting from about £7. You can
ring people using your computer and a USB plug-in headset, or an internet
phone that plugs into your broadband connection, or use your existing phone
plugged into an adapter. You keep your number wherever you go.
4 Check for mobile reception
Getting a broadband connection is all very well but mobile phones are still an
essential tool for the flexible worker, especially as increasingly
sophisticated smartphones can now handle e-mail and a growing range of
office applications. They are also useful as a backup if your internet
connection crashes. So before you settle on your rural idyll it is worth
checking the coverage there: the major operators’ websites have detailed
maps showing reception in different areas.
5 Remote access
Remote access software can enable you to log on securely over the internet to
your office computer and use the company intranet exactly as if you were
sitting in the office. And collaborative software can also help you to hold
online meetings that give everyone logged on access to the files on your
computer — useful for giving PowerPoint presentations while you are on the
road, for example. Leading providers include Microsoft (www.microsoft.com),
Citrix (www.citrixonline.com) and WebEx (www.webex.com).
6 Stay secure
Working from home means you are in charge of security. This means installing
antivirus and firewall software and keeping them updated. It means using
surge-protector extension leads to keep your equipment safe from power
surges. If you access work systems remotely, make sure passwords are at
least six characters long, preferably containing a mixture of upper and
lower case letters, symbols and numbers. Change passwords frequently and
resist the urge to write them down. Don’t set your laptop to log on
automatically as this could give a thief the key to your office. Back up
important data regularly and consider storing it at a separate location.
7 What if things go wrong?
Computers go wrong occasionally and internet connections crash. There is no IT
department at home to come and fix things, so make sure you have a disaster
recovery strategy in place. This may involve having a back-up computer
available, as well as backed-up data. Make sure you have details of
service-provider technical helplines to hand and find out if there is a
computer repair shop nearby — ideally one that makes home visits. If you’re
really lucky, your firm might agree to provide remote support that allows IT
staff to access your computer over the internet.
