Specifically the IRS.

He is not allowed to declare any business expenses. That is what was decided, by upper management.

When the Oklahoma bombings took place...the various gov't agencies decided
to send people out to work at home. Most of the agents who are in the field,
are only home part of the time. (about 1/2) .
They thought that it would show favoritism to allow for deductions (and the IRS does not like home offices anyway)... so they said in return for no longer commuting to the office and for all the money and time saved, the employees could foot the bills.

Not everyone chose a separate line for the phone. We did for privacy. We have a answering machine, and printer fax that we pay for too. He does have a telephone card, with a code, to use for his phone use beyond the basic
service. (long distance etc). But it looks like we might get another DSL depending.

What really bothers me is that this was not given in the beginning. It really
messed us up, and many kind, generous people like you, Jo, offered help.
Now we just have to decide if our router is permanently disabled by that devil laptop. I can only run well when plugged into the DSL directly anymore.

Also we might get a wireless for the desktop...that might fix the conflict.
The laptop upstairs runs fine, as long as this cable desktop is off. When I turn it on, the wifi goes down now. So we might just get wifi for the desktop and leave the devil unit on cable (its wifi is disabled for security).

This has been agony and worry since Dec 6th. Worrying I had infections/trojans etc. It is the WORRY that could have been avoided.! Sheesh.

edit~~ I just got an email from my son....he doesn't believe it. Thinks it is a LIE... some trick.
He asked around work and they said they had never heard of this (software company) . (one computer blocking the others).
I think it might be true 50/50...maybe some new military program or FBI thing.
Or some sick manager's idea of a passive aggressive joke... either way it punishes us!