Multiple Computer in the House

In my house we have 1 desktop, 3 laptops, 1 tablet and 1 smart TV.

To keep work and home separate, each device type has an email address associated to it. My work computer, desktop, only has business related items linked to it. I also have my personal email on the computer because some long time clients like to use that address instead of the business. You cannot change people, only yourself. 😉

My wife, our au pair and I each have owe own laptop. This helps keep personal information personal. I know many of you may ask, why so many devices? I have accumulated each device either from friends or family that have upgraded to new equipment. Please be aware that all equipment that I have used from previous parties has been formatted with 3 passes (write 0’s, write 1’s, write random 0 and 1’s). I then used low level recovery tools to verify that no salvageable data is possible before reloading the OS.

The tablet is an old Samsung that I use to play lullabies to my son when he is going to sleep.

Each device has it’s own purpose and owner. This reduces the spread of possible infection or attack to a specific device. Taking one device belonging to one owner offline to troubleshoot is much easier then taking one device that everyone shares. I understand that this may not be a reality for everyone to have so many devices, but having at least an ‘internet’ computer and work computer may help reduce a headache down the road.