Please read before posting for support!

[kchung]

Please read through this before posting for help. By following these guidelines, it will make everyone's life easier and your issue resolved faster.

1. Everyone is here on a volunteer basis; we're here to help each other out. So please remain polite and patient as we try to work out the problem. Proper Internet etiquette is also welcomed (don't type in caps, cross-posting and spam are evil).
2. We understand that not everyone's first language is English, but please make your best effort in communicating in English when possible. Also, everyone should respect the fact that not everyone speaks English as their first language, so be nice and patient.
3. Search the forums, wiki and Mantis before posting. Your problem may already be solved!
4. Proper subject line should be used. It would be helpful to everyone reading your post and for future support reference. A good subject line should include the problem component and it's problem and version number. Example: Hopper won't fill except with NEW leads in 1.1.12
5. Whenever applicable, please post version numbers of any software you're using. This includes your Linux distribution, kernel, Perl, Asterisk MySQL, php, or any other affected component of your system.
6. While our expertise here is ASTGUICLIENT and VICIDIAL, our knowledge does overlap to related areas such as Asterisk, Perl/CPAN, MySQL, php and Linux. You are welcome to post problems related to ASTGUICLIENT and VICIDIAL but you may also find faster support elsewhere, especially non-ASTGUICLIENT or VICIDIAL installation issues, by visiting relevant websites, forums or chat channels on freenode.net.
7. Your knowledge is welcomed! If you encountered a problem and solved it, please do post your situation so everyone else can learn. Also, if you request help here and we helped you fix the problem, please come back and post the steps of how you applied our help in fixing the problem.
8. You may also be requested to fill out a bug report at our bug tracker. Please do it at your earliest convenience so we can work on the problem.
9. Buy and read the manuals, donate and visit the sponsor links! Our main developer has spent personal money and time in making this software possible. Please contribute back so this software will continue to thrive!
10. If you require more help, phone and onsite consultation is available from Matt Florell and others. You can contact Matt at his company's contact page. Other consultants are listed at the wiki consultants page.
11. Want to be up and running ASAP? Consider buying turnkey hardware from eflo! See eflo's product page for more info.

Asterisk resources
Homepage: http://asterisk.org/
Documentation: http://www.digium.com/en/supportcenter/documentation/
Forum: http://forums.digium.com/
Chat: #asterisk on freenode.net

Perl resources
Homepage: http://www.perl.com
Documentation: http://www.perl.com/pub/q/documentation

MySQL resources
Homepage: http://www.mysql.com
Documentation: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/index.html

More resources will be added later. Does anyone have any to recommend?

[Op3r]

Additional: Simplifying the support for people

When Requesting for support please include the FF.

1) Version of VICIDIAL
2) loadavg
3) Server Specs
4) Codecs used
5) VOIP or PSTN
6) OS

last but not the least:

Did you really follow the SCRATCH_INSTALL Document? Did you read the manuals? READ IT FIRST!

[chander.prakash]

I think what Op3r is saying is absolutely correct and will help debug the problems fater.

[Op3r]

Please do not send a private message to moderators and asking questions.

POST IT HERE ON THE FORUM.

[BenZM]

Hello guys.

Thanks for the above, it was needed. Especially for newbies like myself. It is good to have some "do's and don'ts". It might be a good idea to have people read this as they are getting registered so that they read and understand it before they start to post things -- would remove a lot of the unnecessary traffic!

[Baylink]

I'd like to attach here, also, some thoughts on this topic that I wrote for the wiki for RT - Request Tracker, one of the top FOSS ticket tracking systems. I've adapted them so that they're pertinent more directly to VICIdial.

----

When you want to ask a question

First of all, read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. It's a bit long, but you only need to read it every couple months or so, and it's really well worth your time if you want free support for free software.

Having decided that you have to ask someone for help...

In your question, don't forget to specify:

* whether your problem is on a new installation, or a system which has been running properly in production. This is probably the most important thing for someone to know.
* $ uname -a - OS, Distribution.
* Software Versions - VICIdial, Perl, Apache, PHP, MySQL versions.
* Debug - Don't forget to attach errors, (enough of your) logs; think about debug log level.
* In any case try to search in the VD forums
* If you are not running the most recent stable/approved version of Asterisk/VICIdial then upgrade before asking your question.

It's understood that you may not be able to upgrade a given installation if it's in production, but understand in return that the amount of help people will be able to give you will decline roughly in proportion to the age of your install.

And, the answer may be "that's a known bug, and you'll have to upgrade to fix it" anyway. Minimally, you might find it useful to install the latest version on a non-production machine and attempt to reproduce your problem there.