I've been an enthusiastic user of these wonderful MS newsgroups for years
(mostly the Access groups), but I've noticed that Microsoft has been
removing them from their news server.

Are the discussions continuing on a Web-based forum somewhere? If so, I'm
disappointed because I've found reading the message threads with a
newsreader like Outlook Express is much more convenient than trying to
manage the browser-based forums. But if that's the only thing available,
I'd gladly use them.

Can anyone tell me where I can go to find the question and answer groups for
the MS Office suite that are no longer available on their news server?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

"Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been an enthusiastic user of these wonderful MS newsgroups for
> years (mostly the Access groups), but I've noticed that Microsoft has
> been removing them from their news server.
>
> Are the discussions continuing on a Web-based forum somewhere? If so,
> I'm disappointed because I've found reading the message threads with a
> newsreader like Outlook Express is much more convenient than trying to
> manage the browser-based forums. But if that's the only thing
> available, I'd gladly use them.
>
> Can anyone tell me where I can go to find the question and answer groups
> for the MS Office suite that are no longer available on their news
> server?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paul
>


They are being replaced with Microsoft Answers. Yes, it is a Web based
forum system. You can still access them on non MS servers such as Eternal
September, but how long quality posts and answers last is anyone's guess.
Here is the forum information.

Microsoft Answers - First Time Users
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

Paul wrote:

> I've been an enthusiastic user of these wonderful MS newsgroups for years
> (mostly the Access groups), but I've noticed that Microsoft has been
> removing them from their news server.
>
> Are the discussions continuing on a Web-based forum somewhere? If so, I'm
> disappointed because I've found reading the message threads with a
> newsreader like Outlook Express is much more convenient than trying to
> manage the browser-based forums. But if that's the only thing available,
> I'd gladly use them.
>
> Can anyone tell me where I can go to find the question and answer groups for
> the MS Office suite that are no longer available on their news server?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paul

Connect to a different NNTP server. Microsoft is first dropping their
newsgroups from *their* NNTP server. Then Microsoft will drop their
NNTP server. Microsoft is leaving Usenet. Microsoft is not Usenet.

Go connect to a different NNTP server, like Albasani, Eternal-September,
individual.net, Giganews, etc. Some are free, some are paid (and some
paid ones are cheap). Microsoft's NNTP server only carried the
microsoft.public.* newsgroup while other NNTP servers carry all the
newsgroups. Only Microsoft is dropping their groups from their server
and then drop their server. The rest of Usenet will continue carrying
the microsoft.public.* newsgroups so go there.

Bruce, VanguardLH, Jerry,

Thanks for the helpful suggestions.

Paul