4 All Memory Blog

This month we’re starting a new segment for our articles called The Google 5. The concept of this segment is to take a common tech topic and type it into Google. Then we’ll review the top five results to help you find the most informative and helpful article so you don’t have to wade through it all. A great article is as much a compliment to Google for finding and ranking it as it is for the writer and hosting site. Of course, the inverse applies as well.

In accordance with our first topic, we are offering a special deal on our travel router. Click the Hot Deal link to learn more about the D-Link Wireless Pocket Access Point.

Our topic is one that more and more people have questions about. Home networking. How do you set it up? What do you need? What about file sharing? Wireless networking? Those are all questions we hoped would be answered in our search on Google. Read on to see what we found.

The Google 5 Parameters
Topic: Home Networking
Query typed into Google: “How to set up a home network”
Results:

Article 1 – PC World

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,102461-page,1/article.html

As the number 1 article on a Google search query, I expected this article to be the cream of the crop. The article that Google determined was the absolutely most relevant to my query. However, I was disappointed. The article appears to have at one point been very relevant indeed, but since that was in 2002, and tech changes monthly, I found the five year old article leaving something to be desired. Like helpful info. While there are some interesting and little known tech options for networking here, overall it’s not really what a person searching for this topic now would need.

Pros - Talks about little known techs that could be useful
Cons - Outdated (from 2002), not especially relevant, and very ad-filled page

Article 2 – Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/wirelesssetup.mspx

This article really surprised me. It is focused on setting up a wireless network, and coming from Microsoft, I expected it to mostly center on how to configure the Windows aspect of networking. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see instructions on setting up the router, and getting everything to work together. This article also describes how to secure your wireless network, which is very important these days.

Pros - Short, sweet, and to the point. If you already know a little bit about wireless networking in general and just need a refresher or to fill in some gaps, this article is for you. Easy to read, helpful, and no ads. Not one.
Cons – Only covers wireless networking, and might not cover all your questions.

Article 3 – About.com

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/homenetworking/Home_Networking_Setting_Up_a_Home_Network.htm

This article was actually an entrance page to just about everything a person could ever want to know about home networking. If you click on the first article link on the page, titled “Introduction to Home Networking” you’ll start on a road that will lead you to what you need in a logical and helpful manner. The only downsides to this one are that it has quite a few ads on it and it’s also quite long, so it might take you a while to find what you need. However, it’s all there, it’ll just take some looking.

Pros – Comprehensive and helpful guide on several topics such as file sharing between computers, wireless networking, and others. Several helpful tools and diagrams.
Cons – Very long and could be hard to find specific data if you only need some of it. Also a moderate amount of slightly annoying ads.

Article 4 – PC911

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/hmnetwk1.html

PC911’s article was also pretty comprehensive and explanative, but not quite as much as the previous article. One helpful section on this one right off was the comparison between different types of networks that connect multiple computers to the internet. This was a helpful thing to start out with I think as it set the groundwork for why the router setup is the best. This article also links to several external sites that have very useful tools for different aspects of the process.

Pros – Well structured and gives a good comparison to different physical structures. Discusses file sharing and wireless networking and also has links to many helpful tools.
Cons – Just a little outdated, but still useful. Also contains non-obtrusive ads on the page.

Article 5 – HowStuffWorks.com

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question353.htm

When I saw the source of our fifth article on Google, I became excited. I’ve always liked the concept of HowStuffWorks.com because when I learn how to do something I always find it best to find out why I am doing it a certain way over another. I don’t just want to know what’s best, but why. However, I found this article to be very similar to the first article covered. It looked at a couple different older tech options for networking and was pretty boring overall. However, I noticed that this page Google decided to show for this query was probably not the best page HowStuffWorks.com had. In the introduction of the article, I found this link: “setting up an in-home network” and clicked to find a much more helpful article. I’ll put a separate pro/con section for that one.

Pros – None, really. Not horrible, but nothing stood out.
Cons – Not relevant, much like the first article.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/home-network.htm

Pros – Good, simple but fairly comprehensive guide to how a home network works and how to build one.
Cons – Not the original article linked from Google and is less comprehensive than article 3 and contains more obtrusive ads that article 4.

Conclusion

It depends on your needs, really. If you just need a refresher, I’d go with the Microsoft article. However, If you’re looking for a deep guide, go with 3. If you’re somewhere in between, I’d go with 3 or 5 (the second link). If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them and I’ll try to answer what I can. Also, if you happen to need any hardware (like, I don’t know, a router) for your home network, you know where to look!

Andrew