All week long, these IT professionals are under constant pressure at work, troubleshooting downed networks, fixing dead hardware, patching security holes and updating buggy software.

So what do they do for fun and relaxation after work? They head home and spend hours doing the same thing — for free — by volunteering on tech support Web sites to help home and business users solve perplexing computer problems.

On sites like Protonic.com, Techguy.org, BleepingComputer.com and GeeksToGo.com, anguished computer users post messages seeking answers to problems with hardware and software from volunteers — many of whom are self-taught home computer users. But the group also includes IT pros who work in the corporate trenches every day and then give away their expertise at night and on weekends.

They say they gain far more from the effort than what they put in.

IT after hours [ComputerWorld]