System administrator Peter had some network troubles, but managed to resolve them by cross-referencing problem email messages to the dates in the change log—or journal of updates—he keeps.

I used that information to look through the log I keep of server and network changes and maintenance. It turns out that two months ago I made a change to the firewall rules, and the problem started the very next day. It was hard to see how this particular change would cause the machine to crash, but it was too coincidental, so I disabled that rule and restarted the firewall service. There have been no warnings, problems or crashes since. I hope you can see the value of good record keeping. If you are making changes to your network without keeping a detailed record of what you are doing and when you're doing it, it is going to be extremely difficult to diagnose problems later.

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You already know how to create multiple user profiles in Firefox for various types of online work; but if you're trying to troubleshoot an existing Firefox profile, start up the 'fox in "Safe Mode" to disable add-ons or reset other custom configuration. Use firefox -safe-mode at the command line to get there.

The How-To Geek blog posts a truly helpful guide to figuring out what's causing Internet Explorer 7 to slow down, particularly on Windows Vista systems. Starting with running IE7 in safe mode, the guide is a boon for anyone not particularly tweak-savvy as it moves through disabling add-ons, confusing options boxes, and all the way to disabling auto-tuning, plus the ultimate fix—unplugging and re-plugging your router, of course. Regardless of skill level, it's a good forward for anyone you know who can't/won't install Firefox and is tired of browsing the Internet at slug-like speeds. (Original auto-tuning post)

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Tech site CNET knows that finding the cause of a hanging or crashing application can be difficult, so they've rounded up several tips for hunting down the culprit when an application starts acting up. For example:

Often the problem is not the software's fault. Bad memory modules cause many programs to hang. Chris Brady's Memtest86 is a free program that diagnoses memory problems, though it requires that you copy its files to a floppy disk or disk partition, and then run the program from there. Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic loads easier onto a floppy or CD from which you boot to run its tests automatically.

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Web service Down For Everyone Or Just Me? serves a singular and useful purpose: to see if that web site you're trying to reach is actually down, or if your busted-up computer or network filters is the problem. When you can't get your Gmail or hit your favourite (hint, hint) weblog, just go to DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com, type in the address of the site that's MIA, and find out if it's really, you know, down for everyone or just you. I imagine this wouldn't work perfectly in a multi-server situation—like if some Google servers were up but not others. Still, a quick and easy way to see whether your problem is widespread.

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Windows only: See your device drivers and their versions at a glance and back up your "just works" drivers list with DriverView, a free application for Windows systems. The all-in-one-window view is itself a helpful upgrade from looking through devices individually in the Device Manager, but the real value here is in the list generation. Create an HTML-formatted backup list for your future troubleshooting needs or export to text to show friends or forum members just what's gone wrong. DriverView is a free download and works with Windows Visa, XP and 2000.

Tech support website Satisfaction walks the middle ground between the extensive, but nameless, answers found on community forums and official, but not always extensive, answers from company reps. Covering webapps, gadgets, and desktop applications, Satisfaction has more than 400 companies being discussed, and some of them, including Google, Sandy, Twitter and Microsoft, have actual employees helping to answer questions and troubleshoot. If you ask a new question, Satisfaction emails you when the answer appears, or you can follow the thread via RSS. It's not an all-in-one stop yet, but especially for help with webapps and newer programs, it's a good place to find help beyond the FAQs.

As someone who's often frustrated by poor or incomplete user guides or product information online, I can see that the Fixya website could be a useful tool. In beta at the moment, Fixya is aiming to be a one-stop-shop for people seeking tech support, user guides and repair guides for products from a range of vendors.

Rather than a tech support business, Fixya is designed as a community, where users provide both the questions and the answers. You can browse the database of already answered questions, or pose your own question to the community of registered experts. Experts are users who have registered with the site and nominated their own area of expertise. They can post answers to the site, or help users directly via online chat.

The success of a site like this will be in attracting knowledgable people who can provide decent answers to user questions. The site encourages people to sign up and answer questions by paying them. It's not a huge amount, a few bucks per answer posted to the site. I noticed that the Top Expert on the site has already racked up 300 solved problems, so the incentive scheme seems to be working to attract problem solvers to the site.

There are already a lot of online forums for people to discuss products and tech problems - this one might be good to browse when stuck on a particular problem - or if you don't have a resident geek to help you. If you know of any particularly good 'tech support' forums, please leave them in comments.