There are a lot of online resources for Debian. I won't be able to cover them all here, but I will cover the ones I use when I have problems or I'm just trying to learn something new.
The Debian home page is the central source for online information. There is so much to cover here that I'm going to break it out into a couple of sections. I highly recommend you go to the Debian web site and check it out. You will find more information on what Debian is about, Debian related news, security alerts and much more.
The Debian mailing lists are the one thing which make it such an incredible distribution to use. No other distribution can claim to have such "round the clock" excellent support services for free. Debian has over 20 mailing lists covering subjects from running an ISP with Debian to issues of security. If you can think of it, Debian probably has a mailing list for it!
The best way to get familiar with the Debian mailing lists is to visit the mailing list web site. You will get some basic information about the sites and how they operate. When you're ready to subscribe to a mailing list go to the subscription page. The most important mailing list to subscribe to for new users of Debian is the debian-user mailing list. Be warned though, the debian-user mailing list is a high-volume list. It's not uncommon to get 75 or more emails a day.
Subscribing to mailing lists does bring with it some responsibilities. Here's a quick list of some of the things you ought to do when posting to the list:
Read the list for a few days and take note of how people ask questions. Pay particular attention to those who seem to get their questions answered quickly.
Gather as much information as possible about the problem you are having before you post to the list. You'll get help faster and it'll be more accurate. Check out the section called Information gathering programs for tools that can help you do this.
Make sure the subject line of your email is accurate and descriptive. Subjects like "I need help!!!" may be overlooked by just the expert who could answer your question. A smart thing to do is to list the package name and the problem in the subject. Many maintainers browse the mailing lists, and usually have their mail program configured to highlight subjects about their packages.
Tell the truth (to the best of your knowledge) about what you've done to try and fix it, what has happened as a result, and what your experience level is.
Realize that some of the answers may do damage to your system or may be inherently risky.
Get familiar with the mailing list archives. You can search them here. It's a good idea to check there first, because your question may have already been answered. Answering the same question over and over can get very annoying; just ask anyone who has a 3 year old. (And remember, they don't love you like they do their 3 year old.)
If your problem was complicated, and took some time to solve, post a summary of the solution, so others can benefit as well. Use something like this in your email subject line: "Solution: problem description".
Here are some things you should NOT do when posting to the mailing lists:
Don't post to the list using html mail formats. This is by far the worst thing you can do on the mailing lists. It irritates everyone. 99.9% of the people who use Linux and don't use email programs that support html format. They'll tell you that's what web browsers are for (and they're right!). Make your posts in plain text only!
Don't post unrelated questions in one mail message. It's better to split it into multiple emails.
Don't give sensitive information to anyone on the list. There is absolutely no reason anyone on the list will ever need your root password, dial-up password, or any other type of private information whatsoever.
When posting configuration files make sure you delete or change any passwords or other sensitive information which may appear in them. When people on the list ask for configuration files and tell you to "munge" the passwords, this is what they mean.
Don't expect the first response to your question to always work. The Debian organization is made up of volunteers, and the person answering your question may not be an expert. What worked for others may not always work for you, but it's usually worth a try.
Don't flame or ridicule people for giving you incorrect advice (if you know it is incorrect). Remember, this is a volunteer list of people just like you, trying to find answers. Simply correct them (if you know you're right) and move on.
The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ is a very extensive document which covers a lot of (go figure) Frequently Asked Questions. You can check it out here.
Need to find out what a specific package does? Looking for a specific package? Trying to install a specific program but you don't know the name of the package it's in? Try here.
The Debian Documentation Project is an ongoing project to provide quality documentation on the Debian GNU/Linux operating system for free. This is a great place to start looking when you have questions that haven't been answered elsewhere. You may also wish to browse this area in your free time, as there is a great wealth of knowledge in these guides and manuals. This is a great place to start looking when you have questions that haven't been answered elsewhere. You may also wish to browse this area in your free time, as there is a great wealth of knowledge in these guides and manuals.
Of course, there's always the NewbieDoc Project, which aims to provide answers for commonly encountered problems that new users of Debian may encounter.