NG postings freeze

[Len Dolby]

Problem - Download headers OK. but when opening posts/threads to read, OE6
goes slower and slower, ultimately giving error message "your NNTP server
has not responded for 60 seconds .. option Wait or Close".

I have cable modem, on all the time. Switching to Internet Explorer, or
E_mail, there is no problem. Going back to NG's, sometimes works, sometimes
not - quite often I have to reboot completely, and then start over the same
scenario.

I'm fully up-to-date with XP/OE6 updates and virus definitions, run AdAware
& Spybot, and generally house-keep my installation, so, it's not a virus.
Nor is it a cap on downloads - my ISP has a 1Gb/day limit - doubt I download
that much in a year. Nor do I think it's local NTL server bandwidth - their
server was updated very recently to improve the E-mail service.

In your terms I'm a novice. My thinking is that somewhere in XP? my PC
there's an internal limit, a cache, maybe, which gets full very quickly.
I do not get this problem in E-mail, which I believe OE6 handles similarly,
just uses a different port.

Any thoughts on possible cause and solution ?
Sincerely, Len.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Problems of this nature are usually on the news server to which you are
connecting. Are you connecting directly to the Microsoft server or are you
picking up these groups from a server on your ISP. If it's an ISP server,
they are most likely having a problem with their news server. Understand,
this is independent of your e-mail and your ability to connect to the
Internet.

If you are connecting directly to the Microsoft news server, I'm unaware of
any issues at this time. However, their may be some issues somewhere in the
path from your ISP to the Microsoft server. You can try compacting headers
but the problem you are describing is usually on the server or connection
side. In Outlook Express, go to Tools, select Options go to the Maintenance
tab, click Clean Up Now, browse to the server to which you are connecting,
click "Compact."

NOTE: as I said above, this is more likely a problem with the server or the
path from your ISP to the server at the moment so the above function may
make no difference.

 

[Len Dolby]

Michael, thanks for the reply. Already have "compact" setting ticked.
Please remind me how to connect to the MS news server in OE - did it
once, but somehow lost it, it's now gone from OE Newsgroup.
Sincerely, LEN

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Len, the MS server is msnews.microsoft.com. In OE, go to Tools, on the news
tab, click Add, select news and follow the screens, no password required.

 

[yabbadoo]

Michael, I remembered some time ago having the same problem - solved it by
subscribing to Teranews, fine for NG's but limited download. Having
remembered, I re-installed it in OE - using it now, it's working fine. You
are therefore almost certainly correct - it's the =!@ NTL server, AGAIN !!
(and they've just announced their 1,000,000th cable sign-up here in UK (have
also been working on local mail server upgrade this last month)
I will however load up msnews.microsoft.com, just in case of further problem
.... Thanks again, LEN

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You're welcome, Len, glad you got it sorted out.