HOWTO Seek Help

There are 3 channels to find help/support for Fail2Ban. Depending on the level/urgency you might like to use:

• IRC: #fail2ban channel on Freenode network
• Mailing list: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fail2ban-users
• Issues tracker: https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/issues

Recommended steps to troubleshoot problems

1. Verify that issue you are experiencing is not already reported on the issue tracker
   1. if known - on the corresponding issue page you might find existing workarounds, or a pull-request to try, or submit a new comment or even a pull request to address the problem
2. Collect information needed to be shared for effective troubleshooting
   1. Fail2Ban version
      1. if your fail2ban is outdated:
         1. try testing a new release -- the issue might have already being fixed in development
         2. if you can't test for some reason -- read the ChangeLog if no similar issues have been fixed in recent releases
   2. Your configuration (/etc/fail2ban), in particular any customizations you have done
   3. Relevant parts of /var/log/fail2ban.log file, preferably obtained while running fail2ban with loglevel = 4 (set it in [Definition] section of /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.conf or /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.local)
3. If you encountered a bug -- submit a new issue to Issue tracker and provide collected above information
4. If you just need help with your setup -- report to IRC or the mailing list, once again with the above information

Without providing adequate details you are unlikely to be helped, since noone has a mind reading machine, although some Fail2ban authors are working on it ;-)