whats the best server that has the microsoft groups?
A better or more relevant question is which ones stopped carrying them when Microsoft dropped them from Microsoft's server and later when Microsoft killed off their NNTP server. It's possible that some NSPs dropped the microsoft.public.* groups but it's not likely. Giganews, Google Groups, albasani, eternal-september, and even AIOE (the one you are using). NSPs didn't cancel those groups and they continue to peer them between each other in the worldwide mesh network of Usenet of which Microsoft was just one node. You posted using AIOE. More likely your problem is with the behavior (policies) established for that particular NSP. Lots of users complain about oddball behavior with AIOE. I left them a l-o-n-g time ago because of the measly 25 posts maximum per day quota. Their own web pages contradict each other regarding their policies (e.g., max groups in a cross-posted message). Just go to a different free NSP if you don't like how AIOE behaves. If all you see are the aioe.* groups when connecting to their server then you forgot to reset the groups list in your newsreader (to retrieve a list of all groups currently available). Telnet into AIOE (telnet news.aioe.org 119) and use the 'listgroup' command to find the group you are looking for, like: listgroup microsoft.public.outlook.general The group name must match one of those reported by the list command. list will show you ALL the groups available on that server. Alas that means having to eyeball the list as it scrolls by very quickly. Use the 'list newsgroups' command with wildcarding to show just some of them, as in: list newsgroups microsoft.public.* The wildmat pattern lets you specify more than one group; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildmat on how to use wildcard matching. You'll find LOTS of Microsoft groups are still there and will be until a huge percentage of NSPs choose to stop peering those groups (not likely for a very long time). You can ask over in the alt.free.newsservers group which of the free ones is best for you. The one you are already using already carries the Microsoft newsgroups.
I tested using the mentioned "list newsgroups microsoft.public.*" command when telnetting into /*his*/ NNTP server of current choice (AIOE) and there were LOTS of matching newsgroups. I didn't bother trying to count them but it took quite a while to scroll through the output. Hell, he even used his current NNTP to post into this Microsoft newsgroup! There is a problem or policy that he doesn't like at AIOE and the real cause for his desire to move to a different NSP. Maybe he doesn't like that NSP's policies regarding anti-abuse, anti-spam, excessive cross- posting, max size of posts, or flooding. He has yet to define what is his concept of "best" for an NNTP server or what is "bad" about his current NSP that *does* carry the microsoft.public.* groups.
that one only lists about 10 newsgroups AIOE seems to have a problem with existing message size so i just delete the old text. Other than that i couldn't find windows7. found it now.
ES is a free NSP. That doesn't mean you get anonymous access. You have to register to get an account and then configure your newsreader to use that account with that NNTP server. It's free but still registered. Unregistered users just get to see the default groups list. Free access is NOT the same as free of registration. Did you read the instructions on their web site? http://eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=faq#Login-No-Auth After you registered and entered the login credentials into the ES account you defined in your newsreader, did you yet refresh the groups list so you can actually see them? http://eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=faq#RefreshGroupList Start here to *register* to use the free ES server, and then define an NNTP server in your newsreader that uses the login credentials for your account: http://eternal-september.org/RegisterNewsAccount.php?language=en The e-mail must be valid (but could be a temp or discardable email account, like Hotmail or Gmail, or an alias to points to your true e-mail address, like using Sneakemail). You register, select a username, and they send the password to the e-mail address you gave. AIOE, like almost all free NSPs, only provides access to the text-only newsgroups. Binaries are not included because the porn simply occupies too much disk space and consumes a huge portion of the bandwidth for the Internet connection to these free-service hosts. They can't remain free by having multiple concurrent redundant T3 connects to a backbone ISP to have a huge bandwidth available for all those porn downloading users. AIOE publishes their policies on their web site; however, conflict with each other because some pages have not been updated. You're claiming that your replies are over 32KB in total size (with the headers exceeding 2KB)? If so, you obviously need to get engrained in the practice of trimming the quoted content in your replies to provide only the context that is sufficient for your reply. Except for very short quoted content, you are expected to trim it before submitting your reply. Top-posters are typically very lazy and, as such, rarely trim their replies. All the garbage is under their reply and they only focus on their new content and not on all what others have to look at. Stop just slapping your new content into your reply and leaving tons of garbage shoved in it that isn't relevant to your reply. Trim and review your post BEFORE submitting it. From AIOE's web site: - Each IP address is authorized to post 25 messages per day. - Max of 10 messages within each 10-minute interval. - Posting rights are suspended for 24 hours if more than three messages are rejected in a day. - Each post must be sent to less than four groups (crosspost) and each one can include at most three followup groups. - Maximum allowed size is 32 KB per article and 2 KB per header. - Only two concurrent connections per IP address are allowed and 400 connections per day are accepted from each IP address. You really think anyone wants to read 32KB of new and old content in a post? As long as is my reply, it is still only 3,692 bytes in total size for new and old content. The deeper the thread the more likely you will exceed their max size for your reply. 5KB is considered a big post. 15KB is huge. 32KB is ridiculous. If you include old content from others, it's still in YOUR reply so it's still your post. Learn to trim. It's expected. It's polite.
