Reminder of support policies
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Please take a moment to read/reread http://pfsense.blogspot.com/2005/12/obtaining-support.html .
Lately I noticed (and other devs as well) that a lot of general support questions are mailed/pm'ed directly to a dev instead of using one of the official supportchannels (forum or mailinglist or IRC).
Please don't do that!
1. You won't get a faster reply, maybe no reply at all. All devs read the lists/forum frequently, most several times a day. private messages are not processed outside these times. Also keep in mind that everybody is doing this in their free time. If an answer takes longer it means there is no free time.
2. If you post to a public channels you get the quickest reply as not only 1 person is reading it. Even non devs can help you!
3. If we need information from you that is not meant for public viewing (e.g. your config.xml) we'll ask you to mail it to a dev directly.
4. If you get no reply it means most likely noone has encountered this situation yet as nobody configured a system like that. pfSense has a lot of features and it's sometimes hard to test all possible combinations under all possible coonditions or to set up the installation you described atm.
This also applies to get in contact with package maintainers. Use the official support channels for reports/requests!
Finally, if you open a new thread please always provide the following information:
1. What Version are you running ("latest" is not useful)?
2. What platform are you running (embedded, live cd, full install)?
3. Depending on the problem post some information on your setup. Nobody can help you with requests like "I try to use feature X but it's not working. What's wrong?".
…well, and don't crosspost (choose one support media but don't post the same question on different channels).
We are really trying to make everybody happy and answer requests asap. Be sure that everything is read by the devs sooner or later.
Be patient. ;)
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I'm going to kick in a few others that should be obvious, but I've been on the 'net since 1995, and I still managed to step on a few toes when I got here. :) NOTE: Not a dev. I have no affiliation with this project, other than I like to use it.
Always be polite. Always! No exceptions. No one likes a jerk. :)
Remember that everyone here is donating their time. No one here is obligated to help you. When you remember that if you spent your free time constantly fixing other people's problems and those people DEMANDED it of you….well, you wouldn't be very happy, would you?
Give back when you can. If you use pfSense for a while, you will naturally start to learn some of the common issues people come across. As you see problems come up that you know the answer to, say so!
Try not to thread hijack. Guilty as charged here. It's really easy to stray off-topic on a thread and take over the topic. Aside from annoying people, it makes it less likely for someone to see your question and answer you. I've done this a few times myself by accident. Make efforts to avoid it. :)
Finally, and again, not part of this project, if you can't easily give back with knowledge, give back with donations. I'm sure these guys appreciate anything that the users are willing to kick in. Heck, $5 goes a long way toward their beverage of choice during a coding session, and believe you me either alcohol or caffeine is WELL appreciated during a coding session!