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Best Free Technical Support Sites
When compiling this list I only looked at free third-party support sites. If you are looking specifically for vendor support sites, then click here.
Most of the sites in this category have volunteer staffing and that means the quality of answers to your questions can very widely - it all depends on the individual you get. So don't take the following site rankings too literally as your experience may well differ from mine.
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Outstanding Sites
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Tech Support Guy Free help for users of Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000, XP and Linux. This is a volunteer run site with a very active forum area covering a good range of subject areas. You can also search past forum messages, which can be a little slow but may still be the quickest way to get the answer to your problems.
The site layout has been recently revamped and this has greatly improved usability. On the down-side advertising is now more prominent, though not yet intrusive.
When we tested the service, we got the answer to one of our questions immediately by searching the past forum database. Our two remaining questions were posed on the live forums in the appropriate categories and got answers to both, very promptly indeed. Impressive.
5Star Support
This free site offers a variety of tech support services. First there is an excellent on-line FAQ which provides quick answers to many common problems. Second, they offer some excellent technical guides which cover a wide range of topics from installing a network card to cleaning your mouse. Finally there is an web form where you can pose a specific problem and receive the answer by email.
We got the answer to one of our questions from the FAQ. The other two trickier questions we posed by filling in the web form. We immediately received an email saying that our questions had been sent to all the volunteers and we may receive more an answer from more than one volunteer.
That's exactly what happened, we got two responses to each question from different individuals. Quickly too, all responses came within 12 hours. The solutions posed were both sound and logical but didn't solve the problems. We then replied to the emails and asked for other solutions. After a couple of emails the volunteers came up with perfectly acceptable solutions though not necessarily the most technically insightful.
This service is free though donations for successful solutions are suggested. Overall an impressive service particularly for more straightforward problems.
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Highly Recommended Sites
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ProtonicThis is an online community that provides free computer technical support for Windows, Mac, Unix and Palm by email. The site is exceptionally well laid out and easily navigated. All you need do is , register for free then pose your question. The answer will be emailed to you very promptly.
Since last reviewed the site has gone from strength to strength. The already excellent layout has been improved further and response time to our questions was very speedy indeed.
Clean, straightforward and effective. I liked it!
AskMeHelpDesk is a Web site that pairs experts and novices to answer and ask questions. There are hundreds of topics, including many computer-related ones. The computer sections are quite active and I got answers to our test questions within a few hours. Take the strain off your help desk and get your users to check out this excellent free resource.
D-A-L Computer Help This a forum based Windows help service. It's quite active with responses to questions often posted within a few hours. The "Spyware, Adware, Viruses and HijackThis Logs" section is particularly active and the answers posted both helpful and sound. The "Hand Held" and "Web Design" sections are currently a bit thin but that does not distract from the overall excellence of this free site for general Windows support. Registration is required to post a question but this is a simple and speedy procedure. Well worth trying.
Help.com is a free tech support service from CNet. There are plenty of online resources to help you, drawn from a variety of sources. Some of these are on the help.com site, some are elsewhere. Included in the latter is a question and answer service that links to gives you an easy interface for the Usenet support newsgroups, although to use this service you must register.
Suggest A Fix This is a free forum where users can post problems in the hope that another forum member can help. The available forums cover operating systems, general computing, the Internet and security with many subdivisions under each category.
The forums are not the busiest we've seen but almost all questions attract good quality answers. Our 3 test questions were answered very promptly indeed the solutions provided and were of high quality.
Like many other forums, a few dedicated individuals seem to provide the bulk of the answers so you might find the quality of the answers varying day to day according to who's available. This reservation notwithstanding, we couldn't fault the service we received.
About Guide on PC Support Here you'll find an excellent portal site for all PC support issues. The information presented is thorough and comprehensive. They have a forum area where, after registration, you can post messages to other users free of charge. It's not a particularly active forum, with only a dozen or so messages a day, so you may have to wait a while for a response. We did however, get answers to our problems and the correct answers at that.
Virtual Dr This site forms just part of the huge Internet.com group of sites. They offer a pretty good set of online resources plus a well-used forum area where you can pose questions to fellow users. Registration is required but is free.
PC Crave A nice clean site offering free online and email tech support for all kinds of computer problems. Windows, Mac, Internet, Hardware etc. Just fill in the simple form on the site - no special registration needed.
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Comments
in my organization i use a thin client whose configuration is atom processor ,1 GB RAM , windows xp which communicated with a linux server and my other desktop machine whose configuration is 13 processor,4 GB RAM, windows 7.
my thin client is thrice faster than the desktop machine please give me a solution regarding this.
Sorry, but this page is a listing for support sites, not a place where support is provided. Please use one of the links above or alternatively post your issue in our forum and someone may be able to help you there.
security network
Hi
I have a question about connect 2 or 3 computers by ADSL wierless modem
I set IP but when I want to connect i should put username & password but I dont know where can I find that
I was wondering if you,d helping me
I dont want to remove password protecting
Sorry but we are unable to provide individual support here in the comments. Please post your query here in our forum:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/general-computer-support/
I can't believe *** MajorGeeks.com *** hasn't been included in this list nor in any of the comments thus far. They have gotten me through many years of grueling technical headaches, most without ever having to post my own problems on their forums because they are so well-used and thorough. I owe them a great deal, so please forgive me for my blatant advertising on behalf of them; it's the least I can do. They are superb, committed, and focused. They are hands down some of the best, no-nonsense, experienced group of people I've ever come across in any of the forum sites for the past ten years. Not a day goes by where I have my browser open without one of my tabs open to their site - ready and waiting for me. Just looking at the tab makes me grin.
Many of them provide support to other forums as well, such as Malwarebytes' forum, pchelpforum, geekstogo, and others. I can't imagine the combined years of experience they host. Their malware and virus forums are the best out there and I love their straight talk and honesty. Their advice is solid, but best of all it is kept CURRENT!! I never make a decision without referencing them first.
In addition to fantastic tech support, it's amazing to see their abundant array of reviews and recommendations for any kind of computer software or utility you can find and they are ALWAYS up to date with the latest releases. They're the only place I will download software from now, ranging between highly technical to artsy fartsy, because they have proven to be the one and only site where 100% of their downloads are free of any unwanted surprise bloatware, spyware, malware, viruses or other sneaky inserts that I didn't plan on getting. Many times fixing our computer problems requires certain kinds of software to perform specific, necessary tasks and I love knowing that I can go to their site and find the one that is most reliable with the least fuss and almost always free. Commercial vendors owe them big time. Why? Because I, unbelievably, ended up WANTING to pay for well over 20 of the dozens of applications and utilities I had downloaded for free from Major Geeks (as freeware or as trial-ware) because they ended up being so reliable in solving my tech problems and became priceless to my daily/weekly/monthly maintenance.(And I hate paying for software.) I also gladly donated to almost every piece of freeware I ended up keeping. Now multiply that by the thousands of others like me and you can see why software vendors take notice of MajorGeeks.com.
Last but not least, you can't beat their slogans!! >> "MajorGeeks.com - This is the first download of the rest of your geeky lives." >> "You want the Geek? You can't handle the Geek!" >> And of course my favorite which has become my own personal motto: "Geek before it was Chic." That's right, they brought me out of the closet and turned me into a raging malware fighter! I encourage others to make them one of their primary "go-to" sites.
@ "gizmo.richards" - please place them in your article's outstanding category.
Best regards to you all!
Dear Tech support team,
I'm just requesting if one tech support officer can assist me with a problem which I'm facing here with my Laptop Toshiba Portege M300.
The CIMOS password been forgot and I try to remove but can not access, will you please advice me with instructions on how to go about and remove up CIMOS password.
Your assistance will be of grate help.
thanks,
gibbs
We are unable to offer this type of support in the comments. Please post your request here in our forum.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/general-computer-support/
my pc problem is my pc is not start only for 5 beep signal
please help me
Sorry but we do not provide this type of support here in the comments. Please post details of your query in our forum.
Great site guys. I sm looking to join a help forum as I have a couple of problems that are driving me insane and I found the 'Best Free Technical Support Sites' review an interesting read. I,m going to try the Tech Support Guy one first but from reading the reviews they all sound quite good sites. Cheers Gizmo's Freeware I,ll bookmark and recommend your site to friends.
Computer problem? A free web based computer forum, we help with all general computer issues including Viruses, hardware, networks and software issues.
This Computer Support site is almost 7 months old and we are doing very well, we are all very friendly and helpful so why not take a visit to FixItWizKid.com .... It's totally Free and Ad Free too.
http://fixitwizkid.com/forum/
hello
Can you help about net download limit ,
I have ISP conection with 4 MBPS speed but only till 75 GB Download for 1 month,as ISP plicy after download limit over 75 GB net speed goes to 256 kbps , we have 6 users in the same network , can you help about I want 4 mpbs speed for all one month,
Can we find any divice for this problem .
Regards
shyam
Sorry but this page is just a listing for free technical support sites. We are in any case unable to offer support like this here in the comments. Please register and post here in our forum, then someone will be able to help you.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/general-computer-support/
How can I access/save the data on my WD3200ME-1 HD? It worked fine and now I get a prompt to format the HD and cannot access the data. The same happens regardless of the computer used.
Sorry, but this review is a listing of free technical support sites and we are unable to provide support via these comments. If you would like one of our editors or members to help you, please post your query here in our forum.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/general-computer-support/
Sir,
I ams using DELL PC with CD/DVD Driver. Now CD can write or read. But DVD can not READ or WRITE. DVD reading time it is showing blank. Before both CD & DVD worked propely. Because of this reason while trying to write ,many blank DVD damaged. Please tell me solution for it.
Thank you
The drive may have gone bad. Take it to a repair shop. Its a hardware related problem, and not software.
Also, this is an article for list of support sites. For individual queries, please post in the forum.
May I strongly encourage Protonic.com to be upgraded to the Outstanding sites. I have used them a couple of times with fast, professional, quality results. I have posted the same questions on several of the other boards with variable responses, but protonix head and shoulders gave me the best solution everytime!
If you do use them or even if you don't, please donate
Thanks
Thanks for you kind words Osteo, we do try our very best.
Another site that has help me with nearly all of my issue is Bleepingcomputer.com . They have extremely quick with their response.
That is a Great list! I use many of those sites often. My two favorites are pctechbytes which has a lot of help along with other tech information and computertooslow which offers help for slow computers. I check both of these often along with a few in the original list.
The Elder Geek needs to be added to the list, its the top Site for PC Tech.
www.theeldergeek.com
http://www.pctechbytes.com has helped us in the past. They have a free forums, too, I think.
For malware removal, I'd definitely recommend: GeekPolice.
I like Tips4pc And it has a forum also.
A new one for your list is Jarha Tech Support Free support for home users!
http://tech.jarha.com
I would just add a caution for all potential users of this type of service which states that "they may need to request remote access to your computer"
Always check the small print
Jarha Tech Support
"Remote access: with some issues we may not be able to diagnose an issue with just questions in this case we may ask for remote access to you computer this is completely voluntary and will be a last resort. Please Note all remote access is completed in full vision of the consumer and can be cancelled at any time."
Love the guys at http://www.geekpolice.net/
They are so professional when dealing with viruses and other security issues, very helpful too!
Let me ask this very helpful website. It helped me a lot with my technical problems. My manufacturer is not providing free support for there product.
http://www.out-of-warranty.com
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