Where did this forum go to?

[Guest]

Can somebody let me know where I can find the service this forum used to have?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Can somebody let me know where I can find the service this forum used to have?

I'm not sure what you are asking, or, since you are apparently having
trouble participating, whether you will see my reply.

But I'll point out that this is *not* a forum. It's a newsgroup, and
you are unfortunately participating in it in the worst possible
way--using the awful web interface to read this newsgroup--it's the
slowest, clunkiest, most error-prone method there is, and is probably
why you are having the problems you are having. Do yourself a favor
and switch to a newsreader, such as Outlook Express, which comes with
Windows. See
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[z1z1z1]

I'm not sure what you are asking, or, since you are apparently having
trouble participating, whether you will see my reply.

But I'll point out that this is *not* a forum. It's a newsgroup, and
you are unfortunately participating in it in the worst possible
way--using the awful web interface to read this newsgroup--it's the
slowest, clunkiest, most error-prone method there is, and is probably
why you are having the problems you are having. Do yourself a favor
and switch to a newsreader, such as Outlook Express, which comes with
Windows. See
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Even better, try one of the alternatives listed at the bottom of the page
at the above link.
Outlook Express is an email client that also does newsgroup reading (but
not very well).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Even better, try one of the alternatives listed at the bottom of the page
at the above link.
Outlook Express is an email client that also does newsgroup reading (but
not very well).

There are lots of news readers to choose from. Outlook Express is a
very good choice to get started with, since all Windows users already
have it. I disagree that it doesn't do it well. It does it just fine,
unless you want to participate in binary newsgroups. Outlook Express
is what I recommend to all beginners.

For some people, but *not* all, another news reader might be a better
choice down the line some time. But to get started--definitely Outlook
Express.

 

[Lil' Dave]

There are lots of news readers to choose from. Outlook Express is a
very good choice to get started with, since all Windows users already
have it. I disagree that it doesn't do it well. It does it just fine,
unless you want to participate in binary newsgroups. Outlook Express
is what I recommend to all beginners.

For some people, but *not* all, another news reader might be a better
choice down the line some time. But to get started--definitely Outlook
Express.

Been using OE to access newsgroups for a long time. Remember Uncle Gus (if
you're old enough)?
Dave

 

[VanguardLH]

Can somebody let me know where I can find the service this forum
used to have?

This is not a forum. There are no moderators here. This is not a
private bulletin board or forum. This is a Usenet group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

This Usenet group is not a free venue to support from Microsoft. It
is a community of peers. That means the populace of the group will
change.

 

[Unknown]

Why do you say 'but not very well'? Does an outstanding job here. Nary a
single problem.

 

[Xenomorph]

Where did the forum go?

Good question.

 

[z1z1z1]

I had based my comment mostly on the experience of others. I have seen,
over many years, many complaints about newsgroup reading problems, and the
common denominator was that the user was most often using OE.

I thought that perhaps this was related mostly to binary groups, so I just
tried OE myself again (not having done so for a few years). After having
it die a couple of times just trying to get the newsgroup list, then
managing to "subscribe" to this group and having it continually timeout
while fetching the headers (or does it actually do something as inefficient
as fetching the entire messages?), I did a bit of reading in this and other
non-binary groups. After this experience, I stand by my "not very well"
comment. I also looked at some binary groups, and "not very well" is much
too good of a comment there.

I have seen this sort of thing with a few other programs that were
originally meant as email clients. Since newsgroups grew out of the
original email protocols, it is similar to reading email, so they try to do
both with one program, but they usually are not up to the job.

You may be able to get it to work, but have you compared it to any of the
alternatives? After all, you can drive a nail in with a screwdriver, but
once you've tried a hammer, you'll not go back.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I had based my comment mostly on the experience of others. I have seen,
over many years, many complaints about newsgroup reading problems, and the
common denominator was that the user was most often using OE.

I thought that perhaps this was related mostly to binary groups, so I just
tried OE myself again (not having done so for a few years). After having
it die a couple of times just trying to get the newsgroup list, then
managing to "subscribe" to this group and having it continually timeout
while fetching the headers (or does it actually do something as inefficient
as fetching the entire messages?), I did a bit of reading in this and other
non-binary groups. After this experience, I stand by my "not very well"
comment. I also looked at some binary groups, and "not very well" is much
too good of a comment there.

I have seen this sort of thing with a few other programs that were
originally meant as email clients. Since newsgroups grew out of the
original email protocols, it is similar to reading email, so they try to do
both with one program, but they usually are not up to the job.

You may be able to get it to work, but have you compared it to any of the
alternatives?

I have compared it to *most* of the alternatives. Although I don't use
Outlook Express currently, I used it for newsgroups for many years. It
always worked well, and I never had problems with it.

My view is that if you compare almost any two programs that purport to
do the same thing (whether newsreaders or anything else), you will
find that for your purposes Program A does some things better than
program B, and also that program B does some things better than
Program A. Because we all work in different ways, some features are
more important to me than to you, and others are more important to you
than to me. For that reason, we can all have very different views of
what the best program in a particular category is.

The real answer is that there is no "best," but only best for a
particular person.

Outlook Express works fine as a newsreader, and I repeat that it's the
best way for almost anyone to get started with a newsreader, because
every Windows XP user already has it. Looking at the alternatives,
comparing them, and choosing which you like best is an appropriate
thing to do, but only after you've gotten started with a newsreader.

 

[Unknown]

I had based my comment mostly on the experience of others. I have seen,
over many years, many complaints about newsgroup reading problems, and the
common denominator was that the user was most often using OE.

But , OE is the most popular newsgroup program. Consequently you will see
the
most posts about it. However, at least 90% of the problem posts concerning
OE
is caused by virus detect programs.

I thought that perhaps this was related mostly to binary groups, so I just
tried OE myself again (not having done so for a few years). After having
it die a couple of times just trying to get the newsgroup list, then
managing to "subscribe" to this group and having it continually timeout
while fetching the headers (or does it actually do something as
inefficient
as fetching the entire messages?), I did a bit of reading in this and
other
non-binary groups. After this experience, I stand by my "not very well"
comment. I also looked at some binary groups, and "not very well" is much
too good of a comment there.

Did you ever try to figure out what was causing the problems? Certainly
wasn't
OE itself because it is trouble free.

I have seen this sort of thing with a few other programs that were
originally meant as email clients. Since newsgroups grew out of the
original email protocols, it is similar to reading email, so they try to
do
both with one program, but they usually are not up to the job. OE is!

You may be able to get it to work, but have you compared it to any of the
alternatives? After all, you can drive a nail in with a screwdriver, but
once you've tried a hammer, you'll not go back.

Yes, tried quite a few such as Netscape which is/was a disaster. And I might
add
it was Netscape itself and not something else causing problems.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

I had based my comment mostly on the experience of others. I have seen,
over many years, many complaints about newsgroup reading problems, and the
common denominator was that the user was most often using OE.

I thought that perhaps this was related mostly to binary groups, so I just
tried OE myself again (not having done so for a few years). After having
it die a couple of times just trying to get the newsgroup list, then
managing to "subscribe" to this group and having it continually timeout
while fetching the headers (or does it actually do something as
inefficient
as fetching the entire messages?), I did a bit of reading in this and
other
non-binary groups. After this experience, I stand by my "not very well"
comment. I also looked at some binary groups, and "not very well" is much
too good of a comment there.

I have seen this sort of thing with a few other programs that were
originally meant as email clients. Since newsgroups grew out of the
original email protocols, it is similar to reading email, so they try to
do
both with one program, but they usually are not up to the job.

You may be able to get it to work, but have you compared it to any of the
alternatives? After all, you can drive a nail in with a screwdriver, but
once you've tried a hammer, you'll not go back.

Never had any such problems with OE. I'm sorry your computer isn't working
right.