Notebook Policies & Rules

Your note book policies should be the same as the rest of the computers on your network, I.E only authorised software to be loaded, backing up of mission critical data ect.
It might also worth telling any body that uses their laptop to accessthe internet that you can trace all the sites that they visit

It is also important to consider how the company handles sensitive data. If the laptop is not one that is consistently used "on the road", then it is best for the user to keep their information stored on the network. Also, laptops should be kept in a secure place when the user is done using. For example, a locked office or locked desk drawer. Laptops "walk off" much easier than desktops.

Other than that, I agree that laptop usage should coincide with desktop policies.

In addition to answers #1 and #2 above, we often find it necessary to impresws on laptop users that this is not their personal toy, it is a tool belonging to the corporation.

This means that no personal software of any type -- no matter how innocent sounding -- is to be installed. We've all had to do major software repairs on laptops when some user installed AOL and messed up the Novell TCP/IP stack, or they put some software package like Talking Elmo on that messed up a lot fo the system DLLS.

We usually have a heart-to-heart talk with the laptop users when we hook them up to the network for the first time. This is right after we explain the difference between a CAT-5 cable and a telephone line (and what color jack each needs to get plugged into).

humbly submitted,
diabetic