PSA: Free Technical Support! - DPChallenge Forums

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon

02/15/2005 09:49:34 AM · #1

It may be hard to believe, but freetechsupport.org are offering technical support to anyone and everyone, regardless of skill or experience. And it's absolutely free, no strings attached. You're probably tired of calling support numbers, only to be placed on hold for half an hour, then wind up fighting a language barrier... and most of those support personnel are only looking up answers in a manual - they don't necessarily know any more than you do!

The technical volunteers of freetechsupport.org are self-proclaimed computer experts who are volunteering their time to help others. They're as fed-up as you are. Some of them are certified, professional computer technicians who do this for a living. For others, it's a infectious hobby. Together, they're committed to sharing their knowledge with anyone who's willing to listen.

freetechsupport.org will attempt to answer any question you may have regarding any aspect of Windows or Unix/Linux (Mac support unavailable at present), and you will always be talking to a real person, not a bot. Why is it free? Because they are nice people who want to help other nice people who donâ��t have the technology knowledge that they do. It's as simple as that.

So if you need any technical advice, just give it a go - it's free after all!

Disclaimer: I'm promoting this site because I'm one of the technical volunteers, so you might end up chatting to me :o)

Message edited by author 2005-02-15 10:11:32.

Zal

Nikon D200

02/15/2005 09:53:29 AM · #2

Interesting concept, although I fail to see a viable business model...:-)

I wish you guys the best--the world needs more volunteerism!

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

02/15/2005 11:02:18 AM · #3

Oh, we're still looking for Mac volunteers, since we've not got any Mac knowledge on the team yet, but volunteers for any OS would still be appreciated :o)

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

02/15/2005 12:23:01 PM · #4

Don't take this the wrong way Manic...I think this is pretty cool.

I may even sign up as I have no issues with job security and I just like helping people...but I guess the Professional stock photographers can now say to us support guys "How does it feel, when those in your profession give their services away"

Curiosity though...I see the big donation please button at the bottom, I understand it costs money to run such a service but someone stands to make some money (or not) for the volunteers work.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

02/15/2005 12:29:59 PM · #5

The donation thing is merely to pay for the bandwidth & other hosting costs, and won't go to the pockets of any of the volunteers (or the site owner). We're a free service because we don't want to charge anything, but since it's done on a voluntary basis, we might not always be able to answer the questions - if you want guaranteed answers, you need to pay for professional support contracts. We're just offering a service to help where we can.

Message edited by author 2005-02-15 12:32:48.

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

02/15/2005 12:30:50 PM · #6

That's a good idea. Kudos to you for doing it and whomever thought it up.

Andy, it's not any different than the open source movement really. It's amazing how much great software you can get for free. Admittedly, I don't understand how the model can survive, but the software companies (and I am a developer myself) are simply too greedy and need the competition.

What else can you buy that comes defective with no guarantee that it will do what it's advertised, will not cause harm to your hardware or your data, and is not returnable except for another defective copy?

Support is no better. I always laugh when I (used to) try to report software defects to companies only to be told that I would have to have paid support to do so.

4score

Nikon D80

02/15/2005 03:36:19 PM · #7

Nice idea and I applaud you for volunteering. It can be extremely frustrating to have a problem and not get it resolved quickly....especially due to language problems. I recently had some browser problems....things seemed to really slow down. I ended up running that hijackthis.com tool and going to the castlecops.com site to post the results. I believe they also have a pool of volunteers there to look over your specific problem (spyware, viruses, etc) and tell you precisely what to do to correct it. It worked great for me.

There's not too much traffic on your forum yet, but I would imagine that will grow fast.

Thanks and good luck!

brownt

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

02/15/2005 03:57:15 PM · #8

Originally posted by Manic:

Oh, we're still looking for Mac volunteers, since we've not got any Mac knowledge on the team yet, but volunteers for any OS would still be appreciated :o)

I'd be able to help with the Mac (and PC) stuff if I had some free time.

We've just had a baby so that kind of takes up too much of it just now :-)

4score

Nikon D80

02/15/2005 09:00:01 PM · #9

I get this message:

This is the placeholder for domain freetechsupport.org. If you see this page after uploading site content you probably have not replaced the index.html file.

I'm just typing in www.freetechsupport.org

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

02/15/2005 10:53:13 PM · #10

Originally posted by 4score:

I'm getting that message clicking on the link in the first post.

If you're doing this via an internet app or email, I might be able to help out a little with the older Mac OS (versions 7-9), but I'm not really too up to speed on OS X.

Chiaroscuro

Nikon D600

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 16-35 f/4 ED VR

02/15/2005 11:08:58 PM · #11

I'm also getting the same error message on my computer too. I use IE 6.0 on a windows 2000 machine. Wonder whats up?

Chiaroscuro

Nikon D600

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 16-35 f/4 ED VR

02/15/2005 11:15:13 PM · #12

Ah by the way if there is any assistance needed in networking prouducts from Linksys I can be of assistance. Do let me know I should be able to resolve your issues.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 16-85 f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

02/16/2005 05:42:31 AM · #13

Gah, typical, the day I start promoting the site, the site admin decides to change hosting provider and accidentally takes down the site, doh! However, the site is now back up and running, so please try again if you got the holding page(s) last time.

cbeller

Nikon D300

02/16/2005 08:06:03 AM · #14

Originally posted by Manic:

Still getting the holding page.

You guys need some technical support? ;-)

deapee

Kodak V803

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

02/16/2005 08:10:22 AM · #15

heh....yeah same page still up for me.

How does that work -- the call forwards to you at home or something?

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 16-85 f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

02/16/2005 08:12:56 AM · #16

Hrrm, try clearing your browser caches, that might fix things. As for how it works, it's all done via online chats (or the forums), similar in some respects to the DPC chatroom.

cbeller

Nikon D300

02/16/2005 08:20:14 AM · #17

Originally posted by Manic:

Hrrm, try clearing your browser caches, that might fix things...

Nope, I even tried a browser that I haven't visited the site with, so there would be no cached pages. Still doesn't work.

The "index.html" page will default and override whatever your default start page is, unless you remove/rename it. But, I'm sure you already knew that.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

02/16/2005 08:37:56 AM · #18

How strange - I've just chatted to the site admin again, and he now tells me the site transfer didn't go ahead, so it's possibly a borked DNS entry that's confusing things (since that was repointed, then pointed back). At the very least, your DNS server should get the corect IP etc within then next 24 hours.

jemison

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

02/16/2005 12:22:22 PM · #19

Originally posted by Manic:

Has this issue been resolved? I can get to the site OK on this computer (have always been able to since the thread was first posted) but on my laptop, connected wirelessly, I am unable to as of 10am mst 2/16.

02/16/2005 12:26:50 PM · #20

Yeah, it's a DNS issue - some DNS servers have the correct IP details (and thus point at the working server), the others have cached the broken details, which gives the holding page. If you're not managing your own DNS, you'll have to wait for the cached entries to be renewed, which will take up to 24hrs. Hopefully everything will be alright tomorrow :o)