Shorewall IRC Support

Tom Eastep (Shorewall creator and lead developer) and other Shorewall developers and users tend to hang out in the #shorewall channel on irc.freenode.net. It is a good place to go if you have a quick question. This page provides some guidelines for requesting and receiving help on IRC from the Shorewall developers.

First things first

READ THE CHANNEL TOPIC FIRST

This cannot be stressed enough. There are good informative links in the topic and if there is any major development (e.g., website down, etc.) it will be in the channel topic.

Just ask your question

Here are some questions to avoid:

• Is anyone here?

• Can someone help me?

• Does anyone know anything about <fill in the blank>?

These sorts of questions annoy people. Just ask your question, making sure you have read the guidelines at the  Shorewall Support Guide first.

Make an effort

Don't expect someone else to do everything for you. You need to make an effort to solve your problem first. This starts with utilizing existing support resources and, specifically, asking for help the "right way" as detailed in the  Shorewall Support Guide.

Be courteous and patient

The people in the Shorewall IRC channel are not your private paid support team. They are volunteers. Treat them kindly and with patience.

Specifically, that means not getting mad if:

• someone else is receiving help and you are not
• it takes a while before someone responds to your question
• you are referred to the documentation
• you are asked what steps you have already taken to try and solve your problem

IRC Information

• Channel: #shorewall
• Network: irc.freenode.net