How to get a better answer...Tips on posting questions.

All sorts of questions are asked on Tek-Tips - some get answered better than others. This is usually because the question is phrased well, and contains the right information.

If you're new to Tek-Tips (or even if you've been here a while ), you may find it useful to review this post - as a guide to getting the best results from the forums.

1. BEFORE YOU ASK THE QUESTION![color green][ul][li] Read the FAQs. It may already be addressed.[/li][/color][color blue][li] Do your homework - read your user manual, check your helpfile, search on the internet...I've had many a doh! was it that simple? moment. so RTFM & STFW.[/li][/color][color green][li] Really do your own homework. As in, if you're a student, don't post your assignment question here - it will be redflagged. Besides, what if your lecturer reads this site?[/li][/color][color blue][li] Fire away with the Q! Normally, ask a new question in the forum, not as a reply to an existing thread.[/li][/color][color green][li] Do try to ask it in the CORRECT FORUM! You're more likely to get answered by the experts.[/li][/color][color blue][li] Keep the question to a single forum - it avoids repetition and means everyone involved is following the full thread.[/li][/ul][/color]2. FORUM ETIQUETTE[color green][ul][li] Be polite, don't respond abusively - even under provocation![/li][/color][color blue][li] Red-flag inappropriate/abusive responses
(click below the post on[color red]"Inappropriate post? If so, Red Flag it!"[/color])[/li][/color][color green][li] Don't address the question to a particular user[/li][/color][color blue][li] Don't expect a quick/any reply[/li][/color][color green][li] Remember, the people who help you are neither employed by Tek-Tips or paid for their answers. They may not have time to respond to you, we all have day jobs to do.[/li][/color][color blue][li] Please provide feedback - a simple "That's great - the problem turned out to be this, doing that solved it." This helps keep us all up to date with current issues.[/li][/color][color green][li] If you feel someone's given you the answer, please recognise them with a star
(click just below the post on [color red]"Mark this post as a helpful/expert post!"[/color])
We all like to feel appreciated![/li][/ul][/color]
3. WHEN ASKING YOUR QUESTION[ol][li] When you start a thread, [color blue]give it an appropriate subject...[/color] for example
"Need help" - well don't we all!
"IE can't access any websites"
"Wireless router only routing to WAN not LAN"[/li][li] [color blue]Give an exlanation of the problem[/color] (symptoms, when it started, changes made recently which may cause the problem)[/li][li] Generally with TCP/IP issues, [color blue]a posting of your network description[/color] (if applicable), and the IP configuration generally helps.
To find your IP configuration, open a command prompt (i.e. Dos window - "C:\") and type "ipconfig /all". We mainly want to know IP address, subnet mask, and gateway...but the rest helps aswell.[/li][li] [color blue]Use sensible grammer[/color], formatting (try to avoid ALLCAPS - it looks like shouting); the lingua franca here is generally English - don't worry if yours isn't perfect, as long as we understand the gist of the problem, you may get some help.[/li][li] [color blue]There are no silly questions.[/color] If you've tried your best to solve a problem, don't be shy to posting it...Likelyhood is, we only know the answer because we agonized over the same problem![/li][/ol]
I hope all this provides a useful guide to the site...and that all your problems are easily solved!

<marc>
[sub] - if you have anything to add to this faq, or any comments / feedback, please click the send a comment link below.
- feel free to link to this faq from whereever![/sub]