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Manufacturers' Web Sites

Probably one of the best ways to get useful technical support information is the use of the Internet, and specifically, the World Wide Web. Once an optional luxury, an informative web site is now a virtual necessity for any large hardware or software company. Since you are reading this page you obviously already know about the power of the Web and the advantages it offers: universal access, multiple file formats, ease of use, etc. Most hardware and software products today are supported with information on their manufacturer's web site for this very reason, and I suspect that this method of distributing information is only going to increase in popularity. You can probably find your manufacturer's site in this index, or by using one of the well-known Internet search engines.

Tip: Try "www.<name>.com" for the address of most larger companies. For motherboard companies, also try "www.<name>.com.tw", since many of them are based in Taiwan.

Even though good web sites are now much easier to find, there are still some that are less than totally useful. Be careful when searching on a company's web site, because sometimes you may find incorrect or incomplete information. You can generally tell just by visiting the site whether or not any care or attention has gone into the creation and maintenance of the site. Unfortunately, some companies are still skimping in providing technical support to their customers.

You can also, of course, find troubleshooting information on many third-party independent web sites (i.e., sites not sponsored by manufacturers; you're reading one right now). See this section for a listing of general hardware reference sites that I think are useful. Also, many of the sections of the Reference Guide contain links to relevant sites with good information in them, and the sections in The Troubleshooting Expert also contain links you may find helpful.

Next: Manufacturers' Email

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