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Practical technology help for homes and small businesses, from someone who knows how to make it work. Based in Martinez, serving Contra Costa County.

Practical IT guides, cheatsheets, and references from Jeremiah Ellington, drawn from more than 20 years of IT work in public sector and higher education.

Contact Info
Email hello@jeremiahellington.com
Location Martinez, CA (Serving Contra Costa County)
Contact Info
Email hello@jeremiahellington.com
Location Martinez, CA (Serving Contra Costa County)
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Affiliate Disclosure

  • Last updated

This site is run by me, Jeremiah Ellington, as Ellington Technologies. Most of what I do is paid IT work for homes and small businesses. The IT Resource Center is free to read, and some of its links can earn me money. This page explains how.

The short version#

  • Some links to products and services are affiliate links. If you make a qualifying purchase through one, the company pays me a commission. That commission generally doesn't add anything to what you pay.
  • Affiliate links are labeled paid link right next to the link, and every page that can contain them says so near the top, before the first recommendation. (The label is added as the page loads. If your browser has JavaScript turned off, you'll still see the notice at the top of the page, but not the individual labels.)
  • I recommend things because they fit the job. Whether a company has an affiliate program doesn't decide what I recommend, and I include non-affiliate options when they're the better choice.
  • I don't accept payment for reviews, and I don't let companies review or edit what I write.

An affiliate program is an arrangement where a company pays a referral commission when someone makes a qualifying purchase after clicking a link from a partner's website. The company pays the commission; it generally isn't added to your price. Prices, discounts, and terms are set by each company, so check them on the company's site before you buy. Some programs pay once per sale; others pay a percentage of a subscription for as long as the customer stays.

Joining a program usually requires an application and approval. Until a program approves me and I've set up its links, any link to that company on this site is a plain link that earns me nothing.

Most recommendation links on this site go through a short redirect on my own domain (they start with jeremiahellington.com/go/). That lets me switch a link to an affiliate link when a program approves me, or back to a plain link if I leave a program, without rewriting every article. Some programs, such as Amazon's, don't allow redirects; links to those companies point straight to their site instead.

  • When a link is currently an affiliate link, it's labeled paid link.
  • When it isn't, there's no label and I earn nothing from it.
  • Links to documentation, standards, and other references are ordinary links and never earn anything.

Some programs require specific wording. When those programs are active, their required statement appears on the pages where their links appear. For example, if I'm in the Amazon Associates program, pages with Amazon links will say: "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."

Current affiliate relationships#

This list is loaded from the same system that controls the links, so changes show up here within about a minute.

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Editorial independence#

These rules apply to every guide, comparison, and recommendation:

  • Fit comes first. I rank options by how well they solve the reader's problem, how well they're documented and supported, and long-term cost. Commission rates aren't a criterion.
  • Limitations are always listed. Every recommendation includes its downsides.
  • Non-affiliate options are included when they're a better fit, including free and open-source tools.
  • No invented testing. I don't claim to have tested, benchmarked, or used something unless I actually have, and I don't publish made-up performance numbers. When a guide relies on vendor documentation instead of hands-on testing, it says so.
  • No paid placements. Companies can't pay to be included, ranked higher, or reviewed.
  • Corrections. If something is wrong or out of date, email me at hello@jeremiahellington.com and I'll fix it.

More detail is in how these guides are made.

Privacy#

  • On this site: clicks on recommendation links are counted in aggregate (for example, "12 clicks on the backup guide's Backblaze link this month"). Page views are counted the same way. No cookies are set and no profile of you is built. Your IP address isn't stored; a scrambled version that changes daily is used briefly (minutes, at most a few hours) to block abuse. Clicks and page views aren't counted at all if your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal. Like any website host, Vercel may keep standard request logs for security and operations.
  • After you click: when you follow an affiliate link, the company or its affiliate network (for example CJ, Impact, or Rakuten) may set cookies in your browser to credit the sale to me. Those cookies are governed by their privacy policies, not mine. You can block or clear them in your browser settings.
  • I never sell or share your contact information with affiliate partners.

Questions#

Email hello@jeremiahellington.com.