Hacking Question. Options

[Trebor]

I'm running a game reasonably soon and am just trying to iron out some bugs. I will be using an npc hacker for my group and, to simplfy things for me, he won't accompany the group on runs, rather will live in his little cocoon. What i need to know is, prvided he has access to another runners comm-link, can he us it to hack low signal devices near the runner in question, essentually using the runners commlink as a signal booster? If so can he use his own programs through it or does he need to use ones loaded into that runners comm-link?

Secondly, if the runners infiltrate an area with a wired computer system, can the basically hook up to that system, with their comm-links and the hacker use them to try and access the data, basically using their comm-links as uplinks? If not, is there anyway that this can be done.

Got to say, the new matrix is baffling me just a little.

Cheers in advance.