Types of Online Resources

In the old days, the places to go online to get technical help were the tried-and-true online services like CompuServe and MSN, and for a few years, America Online, before it stopped providing support for products other than its own software. In addition, users frequented bulletin board systems (BBSes) where you used your modem to dial into company numbers (often at long-distance prices) to check information and download drivers.

Today, of course, almost everything is centralized on the World Wide Web, where you’ll find three major types of online technical resources:

Manufacturer-based  These sites are usually run by the company manufacturing or distributing your product. These sites are almost always free.

Other commercial/public  Many online technical communities are offshoots of online services, publishing companies (such as ExtremeTech run by Ziff-Davis and ZDNet run by CNET), or peer sites that are partially supported by manufacturers and/or advertisers. These sites typically don’t require a membership fee, but may insist that you register (provide your name, address, and e-mail) before you post questions or access its content.

Peer-to-peer  Peer-to-peer sites take a more person-to-person approach in offering technical help. They provide text help for hardware and software troubleshooting and answer questions in message board or chat areas on their personal/small office web sites. Most of these are free, but a few involve users who bid for help (“I’ll pay $5 to the first person who can tell me how…”) or users who pay a small subscription fee.

Let’s look at what you can expect to find on manufacturer-based web sites. Then I’ll explain how non-manufacturer sites differ slightly.

Note 

As I talk about the features of technical support sites, please understand that these sites differ widely from each other and they change their formats frequently. You might find one that has a live, help chat room one month and then discover that feature is no longer there the next month.