Many companies do not supply networking equipment to users that work from home, nor do they provide support for employee owned and operated home networks. But desperate home-based workers continue to seek support from the company help desk. There are many potential causes of performance problems for home-based workers and some of the more common, and difficult to identify, come from wireless networks.

The Situation – A Common Scenario

Many enterprises allow employees to work from home, at least some of the time. While companies that have full-time home-based workers often supply all of the equipment and services needed for employees to set up a home-based office, those that allow staff to work from home on an ad hoc, part-time basis often do not. The latter employees are often given a laptop with the applications they need and a VPN connection and left to fend for themselves.