Help and Advice

With our  motto “Users helping Users” we endeavour to help members with problems,  big or small.
The information below is not inclusive of all available options, and feedback for additional help information is welcomed.

When requesting help or advice, please do so using your <username>@pcug.org.au e-mail address.

PCUG HELP POLICY:

  • PCUG help and advice is provided by volunteers, in support of our motto “Users Helping Users”, and is based on available best effort.
  • Use of PCUG Help is not designed to be a substitute for commercial support calls to vendors.
  • The PCUG Help Policy was passed by committee 16 August, 2010. Revision of this document was passed at committee 17 June, 2013.
    Full details are available to members via the PCUG Committee Minutes page
  • Link to PCUG’s Help Policy.

GENERAL ENQUIRIES:

  • PCUG General Enquiries Form:
    General Enquiries about PCUG  may be lodged using the General Enquiries email form.
    For technical help, please use the Technical Enquiries form as linked below.

TECHNICAL ENQUIRIES:

  • PCUG Technical Enquiries Help Form: 
    A technical help request may be lodged via the online Help Request email form.
    If you have a general enquiry about the group, please use the General Enquiries form as linked above.
    Note that if you cannot access the web (for what ever reason), an email may be lodged from any active internet connection, directly or on your behalf by a  volunteer, or other appropriate person.

BY PHONE:

  • 1800 728 853:
    The volunteer who answers the call may be able to answer your question,  depending on that person’s expertise.   For more difficult problems,  we may refer you to another member with more expert knowledge.  This is usually done by email to the help support group most appropriate to your help query.
    Phone calls are preferred between 9:00am and 5:00pm weekdays. Messages may be left at  anytime.  Messages are followed up by the next available volunteer, and via roster during holiday periods.

 INFORMATION SHARING:

Opportunities for PCUG members to learn and share information are provided by:

  • The PCUG Information Wiki provides a forum allowing PCUG members to share and update useful information on a range of topics of interest concerning both the PCUG specifically, and IT issues generally.
  • The TIP Wiki supplies information on PCUG/TIP Internet Services, and allows PCUG members to share and update useful information on their use.
  • Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are a meeting forum allowing members with like interests to share and develop their knowledge
  • PCUG Training can help build your skills in a formal training session (courses no longer provided)
  • Mailing Lists supported by PCUG as a TIP service allow people with common interests to interact by email

HELP OPTIONS OUTSIDE PCUG:

  • Search Engines:
    Looking outside the PCUG, you can often solve a problem by the use of a search engine – note Google is nominated in the foregoing as “the world’s most popular search engine” but there are many others to choose from.
  • Canberra based Silicon Kid (Matthew Purcell):
    He provided advice on computing  in a regular column in the Canberra Times since 1998.  Recently (2013) he closed down the newspaper column, and his website at Silicon Kid is no longer directly available.  It gave access to an easily searchable archive of all his published advice particularly for Windows,  but also for Mac and Linux.
  • Australian internet and technology discussion forums on Whirlpool:
    hosted by the independent Whirlpool website,   provide a wealth of information and are well worth a visit.

Scams

PC scams constitute serious threats to unwary PC users,  by  swindling them of money payments for fictitious services  or by accessing their bank accounts using user names and passwords provided unwittingly  by users.  Thus users may be mislead by deceptive advice about winnings  lottery,  a large commission for  assisting with  the transfer of money out of a country where there are political problems,  appeals for financial support to a worthy cause and so on.  Many scams have become very sophisticated as by being constructed to appear like genuine communications from a bank,  the Australian Tax Office,  genuine charities or but all designed to defraud. For examples see the letsconnect scam-watch page or the government’s report a scam page.

Spam

PC Spam is the electric equivalent of junk mail, wasting users time with unwanted advertisements and even blocking a web site by floods of unwanted email. For information and preventative measures see our Spam page on the TIP Wiki; the ACMA About Spam page, or ACCC about Spam.

Please see the PCUG Copyright and Disclaimer  for further information on the use of the above.