Tech support/help desk software (oss)

[Robert Brockway]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004, Madison Kelly wrote:

>    Here is a little bit of an odd question;

Not at all.  In some quarters it is an FAQ :)

>    Can anyone recommend help desk-style software package? I'm not sure

I have a distinct preference for Request Tracker.  Over the years I've had
to evaluate different options and setup tracking systems many times.  The
most recent version (RT3) is a great improvement on the earlier tools
(which were themselves very good).

If you decided to use RT3 setup MySQL as the backend.  I've had reports of
poor performance when using Postgres as the backend DB.

> what the proper title is for that type of software! What I need is a way

I'd call it helpdesk or tracking software.  The concept overlaps with the
"knowledge base" and project management software (depending on how it is
setup).

> of issuing case numbers, maintain a searchable database of post issues
> (and their resolutions) with some way to sort various issues by topic
> (ie, Samba issues, Apache issues, etc) and, ideally, a way to let other
> people search the issue/resolution database from the internet.

All possible with RT.  A few months ago I recently reevaluated the latest
OSS offerings in this field (to see if anything new and interesting had
appeared).  I found the alternatives to RT were either too immature or
didn't offer features I needed (many of which you have listed above).

Reference:

http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: 416-669-3073, Email: rbrockway-wgAaPJgzrDxH4x6Dk/4f9A at public.gmane.org, http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
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