There are several FAQs about the Oracle database
scattered around the Internet, and many ways of
finding answers to the simpler questions about Oracle
very quickly.

The following list is a suggestion of where you might
find answers to questions that you feel should have an
easy answer.


The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html


The archive for this news group
http://www.google.com
select the GROUPS tab
then work through the list to
comp -> databases -> oracle



A search engine for searching the manuals for
current versions of Oracle software
8.1.7, 9.0.1, 9.2 and 10.1 for the database,
9.0.2 and 9.0.4 for the application server,
9.0.3 and 9.0.4 for Collaboration suite
exists at
http://tahiti.oracle.com


Oracle technology Network (free registration) which
includes documentation free, but limited use, software,
and sample code fragments
http://technet.oracle.com


Oracle Metalink (requires a support licence) contains
a number of forums, a searchable knowledge base,
and a searchable bug database.
http://www.oracle.com/support/metalink/index.html


Thomas Kyte is an Oracle employee who writes the
popular Ask Tom column in the Oracle magazine,
and maintains a website holding many real-life
questions and answers at:
http://asktom.oracle.com


Steve Adams is a highly respected member of the
Oracle community and his website, apart from the
wealth of information it contains, also has a
search engine which indexes a select sub-set of
the Oracle-related websites that are on the Internet.
http://www.ixora.com.au


For Security-related mattered, Pete Finnigan is probably
the best starting point. Apart from writing a book and
several articles about Oracle Security, he maintains an
annotated listing of references to other web articles on
the subject.
http://www.petefinnigan.com/orasec.htm


If you want to help the newsgroup help you then:

a) Check the at least the first two resources above
before posting your message. They may contain a
discussion document that gives you more help than
a direct answer to your specific question could.
It is worth mentioning the resources you have
checked as a lead-in to your question.


b) Quote the Oracle version number, and operating
system that you are running on. Answers that are
good for version 7 may be 2nd-rate for version 8 and
completely stupid for version 9.


c) If something "doesn't work", that doesn't give
anyone a clue about the problem. Always quote
any error messages you get, and tell us a bit about
the environment (e.g. SQL*Plus, VB, pl/sql called
from Pro*C).


d) Feedback is important - if you find a good answer
to the question you asked, post it to the newsgroup.
(If it is an article on a website, email me below with
the question, site, comment, and the URL and I can
add it as a reference to the FAQ).


e) If someone has got you out of a hole, it's quite
a nice touch to thank them (possibly be direct mail)
And if they haven't managed to help, it's quite useful
for everyone to explain what went wrong when you
tried their solution.


f) RTFM is not a civilised answer. Although there may
be questions that you feel deserve this response,
it would be better to phrase it as a URL or other
pointer to the appropriate bit of the manual.


g) If you have used one of the search methods above,
and subsequently see a question asked on the same
topic, please consider posting the address of the resource
to the person asking the question.

--

Regards

Jonathan Lewis
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk