The working from home thread: tips and advice

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frankenbike in reply to @hugo7

Hmm, guess my question wasn't very clear - if the laptop has a webcam why/how does a separate webcam improve the setup? If a new webcam requires buying a dock it seems like quite a bit of money for not a huge gain

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Greenbank in reply to @frankenbike
A separate webcam can improve the setup if having the laptop closed and off the desk improves the setup.

I much prefer having a separate monitor/monitor/mouse, and no laptop on my desk. This means I need a separate webcam.

I could either have bought:
- a USB hub for ~£20 and had a load of cables hanging out of the laptop (power, monitor, USB hub, etc), or
- a £20 USB hub and a £140 dock (Lenovo USB-C Mini Dock) that means I have a single cable connected to the laptop (the dock) and then everything else connects to the dock (power, monitor, network, USB stuff via a hub, etc)
This means when I need to take my laptop away from my desk it's just one thing to unplug, rather than faffing with a load of different cables. (The dock also came with a separate power brick so I can leave one attached to my desk and have one portable.)

So, it's not strictly necessary, but it makes it cleaner and a lot less of a faff. In my previous job my old laptop rarely ever left my home office desk. In my new job I'm on call a bit more often, and will be traveling a bit more, so the ease of unplug/replug is going to be useful.

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spenceey in reply to @Greenbank

This means when I need to take my laptop away from my desk it's just one thing to unplug, rather than faffing with a load of different cables.

This is my current goal. Both me and the girlfriend van also use the USB c connection so it makes working at the desk easier for us.

So far I'm leaning towards a usb c doc and a permanently fixed keyboard and mouse at the desk, probably webcam too.

I just need to find a dock that is:
Not too pricey
Can drive 2 monitors (hdmi so nothing too fancy)
Has enough usb ports to take webcam, keyboard, mouse, sometimes headset and scanner.

Then I was planning on using some sort of velcro set up to attach the dock to the back of one of the monitors and there's one usb c cable to drive power.

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