No to No Network (noun) - A crazy cool program that allows you and your awesome friends to share music, videos and other mind blowing stuff at work or at home using your work computer.

Otherwise known as: A Peer to Peer Network, or one of the quickest ways to the back of the unemployment line.

While a No to No Network doesn’t ring a bell, the phrase Peer to Peer Network probably does. In the current jungle that is the internet, file sharing, social networking, and all manner of instant media on demand is the norm. Some examples of these would be Kazaa and eDonkey. While the concept has it’s place in both the workplace and at home, the point of this article will be how you should use them at work. In short: Don’t.

This is where the following counter arguments come into play:

- I use it all the time at home, I’m sure it’s fine. Or: Even though I’m using my work computer, I only use it at home.
- I’m sure my work anti-virus and firewall software will take care of it.
- How will I get the latest cat juggling videos if I don’t use them?

Let’s go through each one:

I use it all the time at home, I’m sure it’s fine. Or: Even though I’m using my work computer, I only use it at home.

Great. Unfortunately for you, you’ll still take that computer and bring it back to work with you, hence opening up the rest of your work network to whatever happens to be currently residing on your computer. The minute you connect to your work network and for instance check your email, a virus you downloaded along with Spiderman 3 could send itself out to everybody in your address book. The point to remember is this: Any network you connect to will be exposed to the entire contents of your work computer.

I’m sure my work anti-virus and firewall software will take care of it.

A touching thought, but many times just not true. While many companies try and keep pace with the seemingly endless stream of threats to network and computer security out there, there is always going to be something that they don’t account for. Does their software catch most of it? Probably, however do you want to take that chance? Clearly not. I’ll go out on a limb, but the grainy video some guy took of the new Harry Potter is probably not worth losing your job over.

And finally: How will I get the latest cat juggling videos if I don’t use them?

Carefully, and without telling any of your friends. Just kidding, but this brings up a good point: Where can I use these programs? My only advice is to get a personal computer for, shockingly, personal use. You can get a decent desktop or laptop for peanuts these days, and it will save you a lot of worrying about screwing up your companies property.

The one caveat I have to this is if it is a company approved program or service. Many companies these days have incorporated popular commercial software such as AOL Instant Messenger into their everyday activities. This is perfectly fine as long as you follow the rules they set for them. For example, in the case of Instant Messenger, usually there is a separate security program involved that secures your chat connections. Once again, as long as you follow the rules, you’ll be fine.

In the end, it’s up to you whether or not you roll the dice with your job. People do it every day, and many never get caught. However, personally that’s just not a chance I’m willing to take when there are easy ways to avoid the problem entirely (see above: buying your own personal computer).