With many businesses asking employees to work from their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, making sure you have the right set up is essential. 

Mark Paffrath, CEO of Tremar Computer Solutions in Cochrane says he has been spending the last couple of weeks getting people all set up to work from home. "Most of the work for the last couple of weeks has been setting up clients with VPN's, which are virtual private networks which remote desktop. As well as setting up Microsoft Teams, Zoom meetings and Team Viewer so people can remote into their computers."

Paffrath says that if you are new to working with technology in your home, there are a few things you'll need. "The main things you will need are internet connection at both ends, computer to computer and some software to talk to each other" 

"The main thing we are finding people don't have is the webcam on their desktop."

Stand alone webcams that connect to desktop computers are currently sold out not only around Cochrane but all of Canada with the sudden demand of work from home setups, but Paffrath says there are many alternatives for online video conferences and chats. "Almost all laptops these days have a camera or a webcam as well as a microphone. As well both Apple phones and Android phones are great for chatting."