This blog is written to appeal to home users; small business operators such as “mom and pop” shops and micro-businesses; and community groups such as churches who want to get the most out of their information and communications technology, including their small computer network, using technology that is cost-effective and easy for most users to set up.

Here, the common need usually is that most of these groups don’t have dedicated IT staff on hand to assist in acquiring or maintaining their information and communications technology. In a lot of small-business or community-group cases, whoever runs the organisation typically ends up managing the organisation’s technology.

The articles are written in a manner to support the use of commonly-implemented standards where multiple vendors are able to supply products based on these standards. They are also written in a manner where there is no fear or favour in choosing or deploying a particular standard or vendor’s product.

This blog is also about encouraging the provision of safe reliable broadband Internet access that is cost-effective to all wherever they may live. This includes the provision of a reliable broadband service to rural and regional communities, thus facilitating access to Internet activities like working from home, distance education, telemedicine and the benefits of the “world wide library and news service” that is the World Wide Web.

I am also discussing areas where industry needs to work to make technologies accessible to home and small-business computer users. This includes foolproof installation of relatively-sophisticated network setups like multiple-access-point wireless networks or IP-based telecommunications setups.

At times, I have discussed issues concerning information technology in the home from a social perspective such as Internet and social network activity in the home and using the blog as a springboard for information concerning local emergencies.

Infact I have used this site and my knowledge behind it as part of providing technical and similar assistance to various people and organisations, whether they were in the market for computer equipment or using the equipment they already own. Feel free to have a look at the Testimonials page to see what I have done and don’t hesitate to contact me using the Contact Form on this site for any such assistance you may need. There is a detailed explanation about what I stand for with this site and what values I place on things like reviewed products if you want to look further.

Standards Concerning Products And Services Mentioned In This Blog

All products and services reviewed or mentioned in this blog are reviewed without fear or favour from anyone associated with the companies involved. Infact, I encourage the implementation of commonly-accepted industry standards and practices that exist to facilitate best-value competition and innovation in this industry.

When I review goods or services, I also look at the way that the companies who provide the products can improve on these and other products in the same product class thus creating an environment fertile to innovation and best-value products.

I may cite or provide links to advertising campaigns as part of mentioning various products or services.  In this case, I would mention that the links are from the advertiser and go to commonly-accessible microsites or landing pages associated with that campaign and these links or my mentioning of the product or service is not a paid endorsement of that item.

Benefits and Advantages

If I receive high-value goods or services from a supplier in a manner not normally available to the general public due to my reviewing or mentioning a particular product, I will disclose this fact. Examples of this include:

  • receiving such goods or services at reduced cost or for free;
  • buying goods and services available “direct from the warehouse door” that aren’t normally sold to the public this way;
  • purchasing carrier-subsidised telecommunications equipment and engaging in teleccomunications and allied services under contract terms not normally available to the general public, including free or reduced-cost early-discharge of prior contracts or
  • purchasing goods or services not normally available to the general public such as samples or advance-issue prototypes.

It also includes my benefiting from travel, entertainment or hospitality from the suppliers and their public-relations agencies due to my reviewing a product in a certain way.

As well, unless stated otherwise, all equipment that has been reviewed in this blog is sample units lent out by the manufacturer or their public-relations agency or purchased under regular business arrangements. If the product is software or a service, the supplier or their public-relations agency may offer me a free licensed copy or subscription to their product or service for my use whenever I review a paid software product or service and I will disclose this.

Extended use of equipment

In some situations, I may benefit from extended use of the review-sample equipment in a manner where I use them as if my own. It is in a similar context to the common practice in the motor trade where a manager or similar staff member continues to have use of new vehicles especially the desirable vehicles for a significant amount of time and uses them as if they are their own.

This doesn’t affect what I say about the equipment but the extended use allows me to spend more time assessing the equipment or highlighting key functions and features. In the case of equipment like printers that are dependent on consumables such as ink or toner or equipment powered by disposable batteries I would be responsible for the cost of these materials and purchase such materials through regular retail sources.

In most cases, my decision to take advantage of this kind of deal occurs well after I have reviewed the equipment and published its review and is based on my personal impression of the equipment concerned.

As well, any of these benefits will not affect my opinion about the products or services concerned when I review or mention them. This same standard also holds true if this site accepts advertising for goods and services or receives other forms of financial benefit.

Prices

The prices for goods and services that I quote in this site, especially in the reviews, are primarily the vendor’s suggested or recommended retail prices for the items concerned and, in a lot of cases, these prices don’t really reflect the actual price you will end up paying. This is more so if you shop around which I encourage you to do. For reviewed equipment, I supply the Australian prices because of the fact that I am located in Australia and the vendors would release the prices for that market.

Value-Added Taxes (VAT, GST, etc)

Where applicable, the prices will include known value-added taxes like the Australian or New Zealand GST or European VAT at the rate applicable to the class of goods at the time of publication. This may not be achievable for goods sold in North America where state or local taxes may be area-specific.

Trade marks

All trade marks cited in this site are the property of their respective owners. My reference to a particular trade mark does not always mean that it is alway endorsed on this site.

Articles relating to current or pending court proceedings

From time to time, I may write an article that is related to a court or tribunal hearing, whether it is a civil, criminal or similar kind. Here, the goal is to explain key issues being raised in these hearings or provide further information on the topic at hand.

The only material that is referred to these legal proceedings is what is based on material that is legitimately published or my personal observations that is relevant to the facts that are commonly known.

In the case of criminal or similar proceedings based on proof beyond all reasonable doubt, nothing in these articles is written to infer guilt on the accused parties who are innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law. As well, with civil or similar proceedings assessed on balance of probabilities, nothing is written in a manner to infer the culpability of any party to the case.

Privacy Notice

The author of this blog respects the privacy of individuals who have anything to do with this blog, whether by reading or commenting on the blog, linking to the blog’s articles or subscribing to the blog’s RSS feed.

It will also encompass individuals who contact the author to seek technical assistance or purchasing advice concerning IT products that they own or intend to own including their home network. This latter statement also applies equally to individuals who are acting as a representative of an organisation for the same purpose when it comes to the organisation’s IT products or network, whereupon the organisation’s privacy is also protected.

Information collected in the course of your interaction with this site

There is aggregate data being captured in relation to what is being viewed on the blog and where from in order to optimise the content.  This is mainly in the form of Internet IP addresses, ISP or corporate network name where you came from, browsing environment (browser, operating system or device platform, display resolution and existence of Javascript, Flash and other enhanced-browsing options) as well as what pages you have viewed.

E-mail addresses and other contact information

If you leave a comment on the blog, you will have to leave your name and e-mail address as part of leaving the comment. As well, if you use the contact form you will be required to provide your name and e-mail address in order to contact the author, with the option to leave your telephone number.

By leaving the e-mail addresses or other contact information, you implicitly allow the author of the blog to contact them in relation to the blog or other computer-assistance matter that you may have raised in the contact form. But the contact details will only be available to the author and will not be shown on the blog. Similarly if you leave details about your computer-equipment setup in the message field of the Contact Form as part of engaging the author for technical assistance, this infomation will only be available to the author and not appear on the blog, but just in relation to providing this assistance.

You will also need to use your email address if you fill in the “Subscribe” form on the homepage or visit this link to subscribe by email. This is in order to have any new posts arrive in your email inbox. This FeedBlitz-driven option has been protected by various anti-spam technologies and will requires users to “opt-in twice”.

Users are strongly discouraged from writing e-mail addresses anywhere in the comment forms or in any other forms on this site except in those fields specifically labelled for email addresses.  This measure is to protect their email addresses from being harvested by “spambots” for use in sending unwanted junk email.

Also users are strongly discouraged from using the comments forms at the end of the articles if they wish to communicate directly with the author and owner of this site. Instead, they should use the Contact Form for this purpose.

Use of cookies and similar technology

The site uses third-party cookies, Web beacons and similar technology as part of participating in the following advertising programs: Chitika and Google AdSense and the following affiliate program: LinkShare and Google Affiliate Network. The information used in these cookies will be based on the user’s Internet IP address, ISP or corporate network where they are browsing from and the browsing environment as stated in “Information collected from blog end-users”. This will permit geotargeting of advertising or showing relevant advertising to the user based on the sites visited.

It also uses third-party session-specific cookies when people use functions reliant on social-network and similar sites such as the Facebook widget on the right, the Facebook Like button at the end of each article or the ShareThis-enabled option buttons at the bottom of each article to share the articles with social networks and similar sites. This is primarily to provide continuity of your current session with the social-network site when you use these functions.

If you don’t want this to occur, please log out of your social-network session before visiting the site. As well, you have to make sure that you are logged in to the social network as yourself. This is important if you are viewing this site from a shared or public computer.

All cookies are stored on the hard disk or other main secondary-storage device in the computer or other device you browse this site from and reflect the Web-browsing conditions associated with that device. For example, Windows-based computers will represent this device as the “C:” drive.

The user can disable or selectively manage any of the third-party cookies by using their browser’s “Internet Options” or “Preferences” settings or by setting the options available to them in their client security software or operating environment. This may inhibit the user to gain maximum benefit from the blog and other Websites.

As well, the user can clear all the cookies from their computer using options in their browser’s “Internet Options” or “Preferences” Settings, typically by clicking on a “Clear Browsing Data” or similar button. This also exists not just for your privacy but if you find that your Internet browsing session isn’t going properly.

When you seek technical assistance or product recommendations via HomeNetworking01.info

No doubt, some, if not most, of you will be wanting to contact the author using the Contact Form in order to seek technical assistance with your computer equipment or network at your home or small business. This also holds true if you are leaving a comment after an article such as a product review with a desire to seek assistance.

There will be an implied risk to privacy when you divulge information about your current or potential ownership of valuable equipment. This is more so if you are replying to a link to any of the articles such as a product review that has been shared on a social network.

The author will be maintaining contact with you and gain knowledge of the computer equipment and network as part of providing the technical assistance. This knowledge about the setup will only be of use as part of providing the necessary assistance and, if the user so wishes, can be retained by the author for use in providing subsequent assistance. As well, such knowledge is kept confidential betwen you and the author.

Your privacy as far as article content and images are concerned

There will be times where the author writes articles based on his interaction with other people and organisations as he provides technical assistance to them or assisting with specifying or purchasing newer equipment. This may include taking and publishing images and screenshots relating to this technical assistance. There will also be times where the author takes a photo and uses it to illustrate a concept.

The author will make a strong effort to protect your privacy and security through dereferencing individuals and organisations who are benefiting from such assistance. Photographs will be taken or edited to focus on the details relevant to the article such as the equipment concerned. This will be done either at the time the photograph is taken or when it is edited for publishing. If a device like a computer or smart TV is set up to show an image, the image used will be a general image not intended to identify individuals such as a landscape or similar photograph.

As far as people are concerned, the author will publish a photo of the person on this website if that person agrees to having the photo published. This is more so if the author references the person in the associated article. If the person of concern is a child below the age of majority, that permission must come from their parent or other adult who has legal guardianship of the child.

If an individual or organisation wishes to publish a testimony on this Website regarding the assistance, they will need to relinquish their assumed right to privacy concerning their name and general (town-based) location along with specific contact details that are agreed on before publication. This is to allow others to verify this testimony when they seek assistance.

People who represent organisations and seek the assistance on the organisation’s behalf are required to use the organisation’s public-facing contact details rather than their own contact details for this purpose.

Author contact details

Author and owner of this site: Simon Mackay

E-mail: Simon_Mackay [at] bigpond.com  or click here to e-mail me

Country of origin: Australia