Solved! A New Way To Find Help

LXer Feature: 16-Mar-06 LXer launches Solved! feature to offer readers a different kind of help column. Instead of readers getting help from the publication, the editors and readers post solutions to problems already solved. Readers can scour the Solved! articles in order to see how someone else solved a similar problem.

The Problem

Let's face it, sometimes community-based and self-help can consume more time than it really should. You run your Google search, only to find the first 100 results show some similarities to your problems, but don't quite fit your situation. So you post a query on Linux Questions, and hours or days later, you've solved your problem. It would be nice if there were a resource where people could look up a problem and see how someone else solved it without having to filter through 250 forum posts on five different forums. In one case, I couldn't figure out how to get Evolution to connect to GMail's smtp server. The solution was simple, but took a couple of days to resolve, because I was looking in the wrong places.

The Pitfalls

I think my first failure was not spending enough energy on the Google search. All I had to do was include "evolution" in my search terms. Yet I insisted on waiting for someone on my LUG list to say, "use these settings". The problem was exacerbated by the fact that, while away from home, I couldn't respond to messages using my mail client, because my ISP blocks smtp connections from outside the service. Throw in the fact that they seem to allow smtp authentication in other areas, and you might understand if I was a little frustrated, thinking that my ISP must offer it in my area too. Since they surely offer the service, I must just have something mis-configured.

I discovered I could use GMail's smtp service, but had difficulty configuring Evolution to use it. Apparently, I had two items incorrect in my configuration, but had difficulty figuring that out. I discovered my needle in the haystack over at Linux Forums, where someone had psoted a note on how to configure several GNU/Linux-based clients, including Evolution, to work with GMail. Presto! Even then, though, one frequently has to sift through several messages and even threads to find the right solution.

The Solution

LXer's editorial team has wanted to offer a help forum, but were concerned about being able to do so effectively. The Solved! feature will be different from help features in other media, in that we will examine a symptom, trace it to its roots, and then show how it was solved. Since there is often more than one solution, LXer readers can submit their own solution to the same problem via our article comments feature. For example, two people with the same driver issue might have two different solutions, depending on the OS distribution involved.

Yet, only solutions should be posted. If a reader has a question about a Solved! article, it should be asked in the Linux forum, with a link to the Solved! article as a reference. This way, Solved! doesn't turn into yet another tech support forum. Tech support can occur in the Linux forum or on other, more appropriate sites. Any resulting solutions from the question can be posted back here as a comment. We know LXer readers to be opinionated, so please share your opinion on this idea.

Links

Here are the relevant links to configuring Evolution to use Gmail's SMTP server:

• Link 1
• Link 2
  
  

Editor's Note: While this article discusses a real problem, the information is incomplete and should be considered only as an example for the discussion. We will publish our first article, which will serve as a template, on Monday. So hold off on submissions until you see the first article, so you'll know what we expect to see. Thanks.