Provide as much information as necessary to answer the question. You may obfuscate anything that may be sensitive, but be careful of obfuscating too much. These may occasionally come into conflict...

Server Fault does not require you to obfuscate anything. These guidelines are intended to keep you out of trouble and to help you get better answers to your questions.

Passwords

Never post passwords, API keys, or any other credential that can be used for authentication or authorization.

If you accidentally post such data, do the following:

1. Consider the credentials compromised and have them revoked or changed immediately. Do not skip this step! API users may retrieve the original revision of your post before you are able to edit it, and your password may then be out on the Internet forever.
2. Edit the post, removing the credentials and other sensitive information.
3. Flag the post for moderator attention. Moderators can then redact the sensitive information from the post's revision history.

User names

If the content of the user name is itself sensitive, consider replacing it with something generic.

Host names and domain names

If your domain name is sensitive, replace it with an example domain name. The example domain names are specified in RFC 6761, section 6.5:

• example.com
• example.net
• example.org
• example TLD and any subdomain thereof

When referring to Microsoft products, it may also be acceptable to use Microsoft's example domain names, contoso.com and fabrikam.com.

Never replace your domain name with a domain name which does not belong to you or your organization and which is not reserved for use in examples.

NB: In many cases it may be necessary to know the actual domain name in order to answer your question. This is especially true if your question relates to setting up or reconfiguring the domain name itself. An experienced community member will typically comment on your question if this is the case.

IP addresses

Never obfuscate private IP addresses. This only leads to confusion and makes it more difficult to answer your question. Private IP addresses are those defined in various RFCs:

• 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16 defined in RFC 1918
• 100.64.0.0/10 defined in RFC 6598
• fc00::/7 defined in RFC 4193

You may obfuscate public (globally routable) IP addresses, if doing so you must use an IP address range reserved for that purpose (see below). Never obfuscate using IP addresses not controlled by you or your organization and which are not reserved for use in examples or documentation.

The following IP address ranges can be used for obfuscation, examples, and documentation. These should be used only to obfuscate public IP addresses:

• 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24 defined in RFC 5737
• 2001:db8::/32 defined in RFC 3849

NB: In some cases it may be necessary to know the actual public IP address(es) in order to answer your question. An experienced community member will typically comment on your question if this is the case.

Service providers

If your question involves resources purchased or leased from a third party service provider, do mention the names of the providers involved. Many such providers have their own idiosyncrasies and this information makes it possible to answer your question in these cases.

Business information

When asking questions, do not mention the name of your company unless it is necessary to understanding the question.

When answering questions, do mention the name of your company if you are recommending or advising regarding your company's product or service. You are required to disclose your affiliation if one does or appears to exist.