HOWTO ask for help on the ntop or ntop-dev mailing lists: WHERE TO POST =============
ntop is for user questions - "How to I install", "data isn't being recorded", etc. ntop-dev is for code and development questions. The ntop-dev list goes to fewer people, those who have self-selected themselves to be interested in ntop at the code level. If a discussion gets too technical, you may be asked to "move it to ntop-dev". Please honor that request (even if you have to subscribe for a while - ntop-dev is fairly low traffic). There used to be mailing lists and trackers at SourceForge, which were rarely looked at and have been discontinued. Use the ntop and ntop-dev lists (go to http://www.ntop.org to signup for them). OFFICIAL vs UNOFFICIAL ====================== A response from Luca Deri should be considered official. He is the author of ntop and controls the project and it's destiny. ***Please understand that the mailing lists are a community support effort*** Besides Luca Deri, a number of people answer questions to the best of our ability. None of the rest of the people who may respond to your question on ntop or ntop-dev are able to respond "officially". Likewise, this HOWTO is unofficial. Everyone is welcome to help with the evolution of ntop - that is to find problems, create and test patches and send them in to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for inclusion. There are a small number of people with write access to the cvs, but anything we commit is subject to being ripped out by Luca for any reason... or no reason at all... QUESTION FORMATS ================ ONE QUESTION per message, and you MUST use meaningful message subjects - one's that would have helped YOU find the prior discussion of this or a similar problem in the archives. Titles such as "urgent" or "ntop problem" will often not get a response - it may be urgent to you but it's probably not an issue for others. Beyond that, don't worry -- it's about information, not format. RESPONSES ========= Despite any individual's frequent postings, nobody is "responsible" for answering your question. It's all on a "best efforts" basis. This is equally true of the FAQs posted at http://snapshot.ntop.org. Our responses may be incomplete, inaccurate, even dead wrong. Caveat Emptor! The only "guarantee" is that free support will be worth what you've paid for it. Just because you post a question does NOT mean that you are OWED an answer. If nobody answers, then maybe it's because: * Nobody knows. * People are busy. * You've asked the same question multiple times and it's already been answered. * You have been asked for additional information and are unable/unwilling to supply it. or, well, any one of a dozen other reasons. Asking the same question multiple times - or asking it again because you don't like the answer you received - is a slap in the face of the person who took the time to answer you in the first place and will more than likely not get a different response. If you're not sure that your message posted, check the archives to see if your message is there -- please don't just keep reposting it. Please direct all original postings and subsequent replies to the list, not to someone privately. Most of us will reply solely to the mailing list, unless you specifically request otherwise. If you do request otherwise, the individual you sent it to may choose not to respond. Our posting here is NOT a public invitation to invade our e-mail boxes for your free private support. THE BACK AND FORTH PROCESS ========================== "Why don't you just fix my problem instead of asking for more information?" Understand that we can't see your machine (and wouldn't want the responsibility of sshing into somebody else's box as root). The only information we have is what you post and the responses to our questions. Few failures in ntop are related to the core processing routines - so if you're having a problem, it's most likely because of some combination of your network and your ntop configuration. It may be unique to you -- and only with YOUR help can it be resolved. WHAT IS SUPPORTED? ================== At the time of this writing the stable version is 2.1.3 and the cvs version is 2.1.52. Releases are hosted at SourceForge. What support is available is for the development version ("the cvs"). All support is in the form of fixing things in the cvs, however we also attempt to support the current "stable" release (2.1.3). Older versions are not supported -- especially 1.3 and the 2.0.99 series of 2.1 release candidates. If you have a problem with them, please obtain the current cvs version and see if it's still a problem. Unlike certain much larger projects, we don't fix things in older versions - there simply aren't enough resources available. intop is not supported. Although the code is part of the current version, it's maintained on a "just enough to compile and start" basis. The next time it won't compile, it will be moved to obsolete (unless somebody volunteers to become it's maintainer). Please understand that the only way to fix your problem may be a source patch, which you will have to apply, compile, install and test against the cvs version prior to it's inclusion in the cvs. If you aren't capable of or willing to do these steps -- for whatever reason -- then you should not be compiling from the cvs. CVS === The cvs is at http://cvs.ntop.org, userid is anonymous, password ntop. The cvs is a DEVELOPMENT version. The code in the cvs is subject to rapid change. At any point in time, it may not compile. It may not compile with certain options or on some platforms. s'be'it -- it's a DEVELOPMENT version. 2.1.3 ===== The actual flow of ntop development was 2.1 -> 2.1.1 -> 2.1.2 -> 2.1.50 -> 2.1.51... Version 2.1.3 was provided by Dennis Schoen [[EMAIL PROTECTED]] as part of the Debian project. Dennis (manually) maintains a bitkeeper tree, based on 2.1.2 with various patches which - in HIS opinion - were important enough to be back ported. Releases in this tree are identified as 2.1.2-n. Dennis reports you can obtain his current version via: bk clone bk://ntop.teuto.net:ntop-debian ntop-stable Version 2.1.3 is an export from Dennis' tree with the version number changed and is equivalent to 2.1.2-1. Dennis' graciously provided the extract and we accepted with thanks! FEE-BASED SUPPORT ================= If you want better than "best-efforts" support, contact the individual you desire support from off-list to make financial arrangements. Please understand that people are doing development in areas that are of personal interest to them, to improve ntop. If you want to discuss payment for support or a specific change that is of interest to you, feel free to email the individual off-list - some of us are computer consultants and can be bought, with the understanding that the work product is offered back to the community in the spirit of the open source movement and the strictures of the GPL. SO WHAT INFORMATION SHOULD I POST? ================================== BEFORE POSTING: 1. Please review the output from ./configure. We all have the bad habit of skipping over this, but there are often warnings which explain why things don't work. ntop tries to build itself by turning off features where the required libraries and/or headers aren't available. The minimum required set is just that - minimal. This is often the source of "feature x or switch y doesn't work" reports. 2. Please review the docs/FAQ file and also the ntop community FAQs at http://snapshot.ntop.org. 3. Please review back message traffic from the mailing lists. Yes, we know that there isn't a search function at ntop.org. Did you know that the lists are spidered every couple of months or so and can be searched through Google?? For example, "site:lists.ntop.org rpm" will find mail list messages with the word "rpm" in them. POSTING: Do not worry about posting TOO much information - we're pretty good at filtering out the noise, especially if you organize your information this way: 1. A brief summary of the problem. 2. Operations The EXACT command line you use to invoke ntop. If it's in a script, cut & paste it and resolve all the variables! Error Messages: Cut & paste the exact text. If it's in the log, give us 15 or 20 lines before. The exact URL you used from the browser. 3. Software ntop version, source and any applied patches If you've compiled from the source, say so! If you're using a package (such as an .rpm), where did you get it from and what is the EXACT name, version information and date? (for example, post the output from rpm -q ntop -i) OS vendor & version gcc version (e.g. gcc --version) (For ./configure problems, the versions for autoconf, automake and libtool too) glibc version Any major upgrades (kernel, networking, etc.) What else is running 4. Hardware Type & # of processors Amount of memory # network interfaces and types (vendor, bus, etc.) 5. Network Roughly where are the interface(s) you're monitoring (Public Internet, Private LAN, what?) What's the bandwidth (e.g. 10 Mbps University internet, 1.5 Mbps T1, Cable Modem capped at 1.5Mbps, 56K dialup) How many machines (traffic sources/destinations) and users (If you're uncomfortable giving specifics, then leave it generic, but the information is necessary to allow efficient use of the community's time helping YOU with YOUR problem) AFTER POSTING: Please let us know if our help fixed the problem, didn't solve it or enabled you to solve it yourself and what the result was. The historical record of the ntop and ntop-dev archives is the complete chain from problem to resolution. (Originally posted on 07Jan2002 to ntop and ntop-dev, updated. This is version 13Nov2002) _______________________________________________ Ntop mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop
