How to submit a support request

How to submit a good support request? 

Experiencing any issue with Nx Witness is of course very annoying, and you naturally want to have it resolved as soon as possible. You can help us provide even faster and better support by following the guidelines below when submitting a support request.

For all users we have the option to submit your request to our support community. For urgent matters we encourage you to submit your request to your local authorized reseller. Authorized resellers can submit a support ticket directly to the Nx Support team.

Submit one support request per issue.

Since different teams work on different features within our software applications tracking the progress of individual issues is impossible when there are multiple issues described in one report. Only when there is one issue in one report an effective bug fix workflow can be completed for each issue. 

Provide a short and clear summary.

An ideal summary should be clear, as short as possible but long enough to clarify the issue and gives the support team a brief overview of the issue that is encountered, mentions the component where the bug occurs (server, client, cloud, mobile app, etc.) and under which circumstances. 

Environment

Provide details about the environment Nx Witness is running in. This includes information such as what version/build of Nx Witness are you using, what operating system, size of the system (a single server or a multiserver environment), etc. The more details provided in a structured way, the better the understanding of the situation will be had by our support team and development team.

Example:
Nx Witness 4.0.0.29987
Client: macOS 10.13 Client
Server: Windows Server 2019
Network Topology: Wi-Fi access point connected to  a single POE Switch with 10 cameras and a Windows Server PC
Special features: The mentioned switch has the embedded firewall blocking the UDP traffic.

Reproduction scenario

Describe the steps we need to take to reproduce the issue. Ideally, the steps should be concise and easy to follow. The goal is to allow the support agent or developer to reproduce the bug on their side to get a better idea of what might be causing the issue.

An issue report without the steps to reproduce is not very useful because trying to guess the issue and communicate guesses to the user until the correct scenario is reached, wastes time and effort. Part of the reproduction scenario should always include the expected result and the actual result.

Expected behavior

To understand an issue, it is very helpful if there is a general understand of the behavior someone is expecting.

Actual behavior

The actual behavior is important to understand comparing it with the expected behavior. A screen recording of the actual behavior is very valuable to show the actual behavior.

Additional information

Attachments can be extremely helpful for the support team and developers to understand the issue quicker. Some screenshots or even better a screen recording of the issue provides a lot of useful information, especially when the issue is visual. Other very useful attachments like Server Logs can, at the very least, point the developer in the right direction.

Since attachments can be quite large to share, and we have a size limit of 25 MB for attachments, we do accept downloads via third party services like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Nextcloud, or other cloud-based storage applications. Also, file sharing applications like WeTransfer can be used for this purpose. Avoid sending us compressed files since we are less likely to open these. Just upload each file individually in the application of choice, so we can check it before we open or download it. 

Remote assistance

Often issues are system-specific, and our support team would like to investigate your system, especially when they aren’t capable of reproducing the issue locally in their test environment. 

Frequently our support team will ask for unattended TeamViewer access so that they can investigate the issue at any moment of the day, any day of the week. Be sure to share the required login credentials of the VMS, the cameras if applicable, or the OS if required. 

We totally understand it if this isn’t possible, but be aware that this might delay the solution since we are dependent on each other’s time schedule. If you want an attended session, please provide multiple dates and times our support team and or developer can choose from. 

For remote sessions, we often like to use tools like Wireshark and/or Onvif Device Manager. Please install these tools upfront so that we can use these. 

When it concerns a camera integration issue, we might request you to forward the device, so we can connect it to our test environment.

Lastly, please be responsive. We always try to have the first response on the same workday that the request was received. The sooner you reply, the quicker we can continue to find or create a solution. 

Support Request Template

We created a template to make it easier for users to provide complete and structured information to the Support Team. You can copy/paste this template in your support request and modify it by adding the required information. 

Please keep the bold text in your request and replace the non-bold text between the <> with the information you want to share. This makes it easier for the Support Team to find information. 

Questions

If you have any questions related to this topic or you want to share your experience with other community members or our team, please visit and engage in our support community or reach out to your local reseller.