SUGGESTIONS Faster and Better Help in the Forums?

[darmock]

:tazb:


I for do not mind helping out as time permits but lately it is like pulling teeth to get enough information to provide any answers. While some problems don't need an encyclopedia to solve it can't hurt.

BACKGROUND

Currently we have 32/64 bit ISO's and 4 colors of PIAF load files. Plus there are any number of incredible variants and older PIAF projects. I think I am not understating it when I say this can be a support nightmare.

Currently people donate their valuable time to the forums to help people out. Don't you think if you are asking a question that you should provide more than "I just installed PIAF and it doesn't work" and "Fix my broken box it worked before and now it doesn't" as a problem?

SOLUTION (maybe)

Because people donate their time I think it would be advantageous to provide a minimum of information about your system prior to describing your problem. We have provided several tools such as status and statustofile in PIAF just for this reason. So far one or two people have used statustofile and some people have posted the output of status.

Really this needs to change so please please please at a minimum post a capture of the status command with your question/problem. Realistically you should also post info like is incredible installed, hardware specs, and other salient details. This will save time and allow the people who are trying to help interact with more people.

Perhaps something like

-Status output (At least once per thread)

-Hardware profile (at least once per thread)

-Problem (at least once per thread)

Be as detailed as possible. Posting hundreds of lines of log files in multiple posts tends make the gurus eyes glaze over especially when it is the same output over and over. Please post only a few lines initially of a log file! If the gurus want more info they will ask for it.

-What steps you have tried to resolve this problem

Really just a point format is great!


SUMMARY

I think if these small changes occurred that the forums would operate more efficiently and the gurus eyes would not glaze over so much!

Just a few other points for newbies

If the first time you install PIAF and "it is broke" try a complete reinstall first prior to asking about your problem in the forums. Really this does help sometimes.......

Another point is if you have tried installing PIAF a few times and the problem still exists running update-source will not help at all and may compound your problem.

Did I mention that update-source is EXPERIMENTAL!!!!!




Sorry I really like this icon



That is it I am sure there will be flames.


Tom

 

[drmurdoch]

When the idea is this good, you think of it twice.

Great Idea.

Chipping in some bones to keep the server running helps too

I don't think my build has statustofile (build is in my sig).
Is there a wget to install it ?

Helping the newbies help themselves could reduce the support burden:
- help them get up to speed with webmin.
- statustofile

> statustofile
bash: statustofile: command not found
> status
TERM environment variable not set.
Status Version 1.2.9 released on Date 042310
********************************************************************
*            PBX in a Flash Version  Daemon Status                 *
*                      Running Asterisk 1.4                        *
********************************************************************
* Asterisk  * ONLINE  * Zaptel    * ONLINE  * MySQL      * ONLINE  *
* SSH       * ONLINE  * Apache    * ONLINE  * Iptables   * ONLINE  *
* Fail2ban  * ONLINE  * IP Connect* ONLINE  * Ip6tables  * ONLINE  *
* BlueTooth * ONLINE  * Hidd      * ONLINE  * NTPD       * ONLINE  *
* Sendmail  * ONLINE  * Samba     * ONLINE  * Webmin     * ONLINE  *
* Ethernet0 * ONLINE  * Ethernet1 *   N/A   * Wlan0      *   N/A   *
********************************************************************
* Running Asterisk Version : Asterisk 1.4.21.2
* Asterisk Source Version  : 1.4.21.2
* Zaptel Source Version    : 1.4.12.1
* Libpri Source Version    : 1.4.7
* Addons Source Version    : 1.4.7
********************************************************************
pbx.local on 192.168.1.140 - eth0
CentOS release 5.2 (Final) :32 Bit Kernel: 2.6.18-92.1.6.el5

I think Webmin > Command Shell > status might be even easier than statustofile

One thing that might help newbies is to have a real live example of Hardware profile, etc.

 

[darmock]

Most appreciated! Yah I rant sometimes twice as much as I should. I will see about backporting status and statustofile for earlier versions of PIAF


Tom

 

[dghundt]

I just chipped in $50 last week. Hope it helps!
Tom, you do a great job. Don't think otherwise!

 

[darmock]

Wow should rant more often!

Actually it was more about trying to make things run a little smoother instead of pulling teeth.....

Thanks for your comments...All the gurus here seem to do a great job I just want to make it a little easier for them. Clarity is a hard thing to achieve at times in a forum such as this.

You just have to look at "other" similar forums to see how bad it can really get.......


regards

Tom

 

[rossiv]

Another tip that I have been seeing a lot around here lately.
Many users just post the top line of status, which usually consists of "PBX in a Flash $color Daemon Status - Version 1.7.x Release on MMDDYY"
That is not the complete output of status. That doesn't really help us. Yes, it does provide the color which gives us some estimation of Asterisk version. But if you have $color=Purple, you could be anywhere from 1.8.0 to 1.8.3.2. So please, please if anyone is reading this before posting a new thread (which you should) please post the complete output of status that looks like this:

 PBX in a Flash SILVER Daemon Status - Version 1.7.9  Released on 110910
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   ┌────────────────────────System Information───────────────────────────┐
   │  Asterisk   = ONLINE  | Dahdi     = ONLINE  | MySQL     = ONLINE    │
   │  SSH        = ONLINE  | Apache    = ONLINE  | Iptables  = ONLINE    │
   │  Fail2ban   = ONLINE  | Internet  = ONLINE  | Ip6Tables = ONLINE    │
   │  BlueTooth  = ONLINE  | Hidd      = ONLINE  | NTPD      = ONLINE    │
   │  SendMail   = ONLINE  | Samba     = OFFLINE | Webmin    = ONLINE    │
   │  Ethernet0  = ONLINE  | Ethernet1 = N/A     | Wlan0     = N/A       │
   │                                                                     │
   │  PBX in a Flash Version   = 1.7.5.5                                 │
   │  FreePBX Version          = 2.6.0.5                                 │
   │  Running Asterisk Version = Asterisk 1.4.38                         │
   │  Asterisk Source Version  = 1.4.38                                  │
   │  Dahdi Source Version     = 2.4.0+2.4.0                             │
   │  Libpri Source Version    = 1.4.11.5                                │
   │  Addons Source Version    = 1.4.12                                  │
   │  IP Address               = 192.168.4.2 on eth0                     │
   │  Operating System         = CentOS release 5.5 (Final)              │
   │  Kernel Version           = 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5 - 32 Bit            │
   └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘


root@piaf-home:~ $

Or something similar depending on your configuration, color, etc.

Thanks!

 

[darmock]

Actually I have been wrestling with removing the Version X.X.X as it only show the version of status and NOT the version of asterisk. If you type status on 4 current machines with different colors they all have the same version. Where the real meat is the lines below the first line.

I may just remove it but it does help to look and see what version if it is not up to date as that can be a source of problems. I still get email from a chap who is still running PBX in a Flash version 1.0..... Course I just retired my last PBX in a Flash 1.2 box last week.


Tom

 

[Tekmon]

Newbie here reporting.. You all are more than great. Reminds me of physics,stress and strength in college. Hard course, students would go in to teacher to get help wanting to be spoon fed. Profess would slide a blank paper across the desk and lay a pencil on it. "show me what you don't understand". Lots of goods docs on this site and update readings are here very clear. Just make a point to read em. Thanks to all.

 

[billsimon]

I would like to add to this discussion.

If someone comes and asks for help, kind souls will reach out to help.

But then if the requester disappears, or gets their problem fixed but doesn't say so, it leaves the helpers wondering what happened, and frustrated at the lack of response. And less willing to help out in the future, thinking, "my help isn't appreciated."

I think the responsible thing to do when asking for help in a forum is to monitor the forum closely, reply quickly, and wrap things up when the problem is solved.

 

[rossiv]

Sigh...I am beginning to think that people aren't using the search button anymore. Just browsing the forums, I can see so many duplicate threads that have almost the exact same issue.

If you are reading this before posting a thread, which you really should, please use the search box to see if your problem has been asked before. Please. Please.

The less duplicate threads that we have in this vast resource of knowledge the better. It helps us help you! (I'm starting to use that now. Kinda catchy!)

And as always, post the following if possible with each new thread:

Perhaps something like

-Status output (At least once per thread)

-Hardware profile (at least once per thread)

-Problem (at least once per thread)

Be as detailed as possible. Posting hundreds of lines of log files in multiple posts tends make the gurus eyes glaze over especially when it is the same output over and over. Please post only a few lines initially of a log file! If the gurus want more info they will ask for it.

-What steps you have tried to resolve this problem

 

[blanchae]

I've modified my forum signature to include a link to this thread. Tough to get under the 100 character limit!

 

[rossiv]

Me too.
OT: Perhaps 150 characters would be in order?

 

[Tekmon]

Helping yourself

I would suggest this Faster better help be a separate Forum leader- at the top. Read this first and also point to PBX in a Flash for Newbies.
Learing alot here by osmosis. See people continue to ask questions without root information about their system even when told and answered directly to go to this link and read. dah? Sorry, I like reading the questions and answers by the gurus'
Yes, i know . "You can lead a horse to water"

 

[MichiganTelephone]

You might want to remind people to redact information that they don't want publicly revealed. This is definitely the case with passwords, but may also be true with phone numbers or IP addresses. Before uploading a log file or CLI output to a publicly accessible place, load it into a text editor and do a search and replace on any items you don't want revealed. For example, you can change the exchange prefix on phone numbers to 555, like they use in the movies. For IP addresses, you can change one or two of the octets to 255. Change passwords to "password" or "secret" or something like that. If the output shows more than one phone number or IP address, change each one to a different replacement value, so that whoever's trying to help you can tell them apart.

Just a friendly tip to help you maintain your privacy. Oh, and if you run into someone that says they won't help you BECAUSE you have changed this information? Unless you have some reason to trust them and can communicate the information via a private channel, RUN, don't walk away from that person's "help". At the very least, they should be willing to post an e-mail address so you can send them the information privately (or send it to you in a private message), and if they don't want to post their private information in a public place, why on earth are they expecting you to?

 

[[email protected]]

I am relatively new (about 3 months) to PIAF and Asterisk and have used nothing prior to 1.8.x.x. I find this forum invaluable and have learned a lot from it. But I often do not know what I don't know, how best to describe an issue or what and where logs, tools, etc. are located that may communicate better. I did not know to post status nor of the existence of statustofile. I have played with it since reading this post and can easily see its value. I will use it going forward. But please be patient with us newbies. We haven't grown up with this stuff.

 

[marlur6]

The less duplicate threads that we have in this vast resource of knowledge the better. It helps us help you!

For us newbies if we come across an older thread and we have additional questions about something related to that thread should we add to that thread or start a new one.

 

[randy7376]

@marlur6

A new thread is what is recommended.

Some of the resurrected threads are years old and the information in them, in all probability, grossly outdated.

 

[marlur6]

@marlur6

A new thread is what is recommended.

Some of the resurrected threads are years old and the information in them, in all probability, grossly outdated.

Thanks.