An Independent Publisher. Not an IT Provider.
Packet Basics explains IT in plain English, ranks software on one published rubric, and lists managed service providers with the whole check record on the page rather than a badge. Nobody can buy a position on this site.
What Packet Basics is
Three things, built to the same rules and kept on one site so that each can point at the others.
203 IT concepts across 7 subjects, from networking and security to storage, systems, virtualization and hardware. Each page opens with a short answer and carries a diagram, a comparison table and the questions people ask.
22 pages covering 34 tools that IT teams and managed service providers buy, scored on one 40-point rubric, with every price dated to the day it was read.
84 managed IT and cybersecurity companies, each listed only after its state registration was confirmed, with the rest of the check record shown as it stands.
The reference we wanted when we were on call
Most IT explainers are written by marketing teams that have never configured the thing they describe, and most software rankings are sold to the highest bidder.
We started Packet Basics to do the opposite. Explain each concept the way an engineer explains it to a colleague: the short answer first, the real numbers, and the two things people confuse set side by side.
Score software on the same rubric every time, and say what each score was read from. List providers only after confirming they exist, and publish what has and has not been checked instead of a badge that asks to be trusted.
We do not provide IT services, we do not sell a reader's details to the highest bidder, and every source of revenue is listed on this page.
Who signs the pages
Packet Basics has one editor, and his name is on every page. That is a limit as well as a promise: a single person cannot be expert in everything, so the pages lean on primary sources instead of on authority, and say where each fact came from.
When somebody else contributes to a page or checks it, they are named on that page too. We do not list credentials we cannot show.
Six rules every page follows
They are printed here so you can hold us to them. The full version is in the editorial standards.
One named editor is responsible for each page. The name and the date of the last update are printed on it, so you always know who to hold to account.
RFCs, vendor documentation, public registries. If a claim cannot be traced to a source, it is removed.
Configurations and troubleshooting steps are checked against the documentation that defines them. Diagrams are generated in code from the figures on the page.
Forty points, published in full, applied criterion by criterion. Every ranking names the evidence its scores rest on. Vendors can dispute a fact, never a score.
State registration is confirmed before a company is listed. Website and phone, address, certifications and client references are shown on each profile as done or not done yet.
Every page shows when it was last updated. Pricing carries the date it was verified.
How a page gets published
Five steps and one editor. Nothing skips a step, whether it is an explainer or a 4,000-word ranking.
Pick the question people actually ask
Every page starts from search data: the exact phrase people type, how often, and how much traffic it already sends to other sites. A gap tool checks that no published page already answers it, so each question gets exactly one canonical page.
- Search volume and measured traffic for the exact phrase
- The cluster around it, sized before anything is written
- Which silo owns it, so there is one canonical page
The gap list, recomputed before each new pageRead the primary sources first
RFCs, vendor documentation and the pages of standards bodies, read at the source. Search results and summaries are leads, never sources: a fact that only appeared in a summary does not go on the page, however plausible it sounds.
- RFC and standards text, read in full at the source
- Vendor documentation, read at the version it describes
- Public price lists, recorded with the date they were read
Read at the source, and datedWrite down the evidence before the page
Every page has an evidence file in the repository. It quotes each fact from its source with the date it was read, lists every sentence that is inference rather than quotation, and records what the page deliberately does not claim.
- Quotations with the source and the date read
- Inference labeled as inference, on the page too
- What was left off, and why
Evidence files live beside the draftsWrite, diagram, tabulate
Short answer first, then the anatomy, then the comparison table, then the decision. Plain English, no filler, a table wherever two things are being compared, and a diagram of the one idea that is easiest to get wrong.
- A short answer before anything else
- A diagram drawn for the point, not for decoration
- A comparison table with the winning cells marked
Drafts live in the repo, not in a CMSCheck it, then sign and date it
A page that fails its publish checks does not go live: too thin, a dead link, a target phrase missing from the text. After that, a round of nine automated checks runs across the whole site, from spelling to structured data to claims of work that was not done. The editor name and the date are printed on the page.
- Publish checks that stop the page, not warn
- Nine site-wide checks after every change
- Editor name and date on every page
The editor signs the pageThis is desk research, and we say so. We read standards, vendor documentation and public price lists at the source and record where each fact came from. We do not run a test lab, and no page claims that we did.
What Packet Basics is not
Easier to trust a publisher that says where its edges are.
- Not an IT provider. We do not sell managed services, consulting or support, so no ranking or listing steers you toward a service of ours.
- Not a lead broker. A quote request goes to at most three listed companies that cover your area, and to nobody else.
- Not a test lab. Software scores are read from what vendors publish, and each ranking says so.
- Not a pay-to-rank directory. A listing is free, and no payment changes a check result or the order of a list.
- Not a substitute for professional advice. The pages explain how things work. A decision about your own network, security or contract still deserves someone who has seen it.
How we make money
All of it is listed here, and none of it changes a score or a listing.
Some software links pay a commission when you start a trial. The score is set before the link is added, and tools without a program are ranked the same way.
Providers pay a flat fee when a quote request is sent to them. The fee is the same for every provider, so it cannot buy a better position.
A provider or vendor can sponsor a clearly labeled placement. Sponsors are never listed without passing verification and never affect a rating.
The full disclosure is on the affiliate disclosure page.
Corrections log
Every correction to a published page is recorded here with the date, the page and what changed.
Nothing has been logged yet. When a published page is corrected, the entry goes here, and the page itself carries a dated note saying what changed. We do not quietly edit a mistake away.
Found one? Use the correction form. Tell us the page and what is wrong, and we check it against the source.
Get in touch
One form, routed by subject, read by the editor.
- Report an error on any page.
- Apply to be listed in the provider directory. It is free and begins with the registration check.
- Dispute a fact in a ranking, if you are a vendor, or a check result, if you are a provider.
- Suggest a topic or send a problem worth writing up. If we publish it, you get the credit.