Ed Hansberry
10-28-2002, 06:00 PM
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/club/community/newsgroups.asp">http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/club/community/newsgroups.asp</a><br /><br />A few days ago I was awarded <a href="http://www.pocketpcmag.com/Jan03/winners.asp">the 2002 Pocket PC Community Outstanding Achievement Awards</a> and there were several in that discussion that didn't really understand what it is I and the other MVPs do. If you are interested in learning more about what many MVPs do and how to get connected to what is, in my opinion, one of the <i><b>best</b></i> resources anywhere for help with your Pocket PC, read on. <!><br /><br />I spend tons of time here at Pocket PC Thoughts, but most of my time and that of many other MVPs is spent on Microsoft's Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) server in what are called "news groups." I am not sure where that name came from. It is an old Unix method for allowing discussion groups across the world before the web had even been thought of. You may have also seen the term Usenet. It's all the same thing.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2002/20021028-nntp.jpg" /><br /><br />Up until a year ago, you could only be an MVP by participating in the NNTP groups. Now, Microsoft has expanded the MVP program to include web sites such as this one and recognizing people like Dale Coffing of <a href="http://www.pocketpcpassion.com">Pocket PC Passion</a> and Derek Mitchell of <a href="http://www.devbuzz.com">DevBuzz</a>. That being said, NNTP is still has the most traffic. The microsoft.public.pocketpc group alone gets about 250 posts a day and can climb to as high as 450 a day after a major Pocket PC release. All of the Pocket PC related groups across all languages average around 500 posts per day. It is extremely fast, pure text and can be done offline. It is all about help. Very few announcements are made there and discussions about current events are few and far between.<br /><br />So, what do you need to connect to one of these newsgroups? Well, you could just use your browser and connect to the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/club/community/newsgroups.asp">Club Pocket PC site </a>that is a web based front end for Microsoft's NNTP server. You could also use Outlook Express to read and post messages. I find that better as you can download hundreds of messages and read them offline. You can even find some NNTP clients, or News Readers, for the Pocket PC, though they are a bit dated and lacking some critical functionality. The Club Pocket PC link has some web links that will even open up your News Reader, like Outlook Express, and configure the server and newsgroup. Clicking <a href="news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.pocketpc">here</a> will open up your news reader and take you to the microsoft.public.pocketpc group.<br /><br />Club Pocket PC only gives you the top 4-5 groups though. As you can see from my listing above, there are about 20 groups relating to the Pocket PC in some way. Some are general discussion groups in French, Spanish and German while others are more specific, like microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync or microsoft.public.pocketpc.ebooks. The two *.smartphone groups were added just last week. Note too that Microsoft hosts over 2,000 groups, so if you have a vexing question about Excel, Outlook is giving you fits, your SQL Server isn't working quite right or you want help with an X-Box game, it is all right there on the same server! If you want to manually set up your news reader to connect to Microsoft's server, the server name is msnews.microsoft.com. You don't need a userID or password. Just download the groups, subscribe to the ones you are interested in and jump right in!<br /><br />Most of the MVPs dealing with Pocket PCs will have their posting name configured as <b>Ed Hansberry, MS-MVP/Mobile Devices</b> so you can quickly see who the MVPs are. Of course, there are hundreds of volunteers in there that aren't MVPs that are very knowledgeable. Microsoft watches those people and when it comes time to renew MVPs each October, older MVPs that no longer post much may be dropped and volunteers that post frequently and are helpful may become an MVP.<br /><br />If you are serious about working with news groups, I recommend you look at a dedicated news reader. There are several available, but I prefer <a href="http://www.forteinc.com">Forté's Agent</a>. There is a free version and a more powerful $29.95 shareware version. The user interface is a bit old looking, but it allows you to use the keyboard exclusively for navigation and has very powerful watch and kill filters. Forté is working on version 2.0 right now and I hope the UI is cleaned up a bit and made to look like something designed after 2000. :) <br /><br />Speaking of kill filters, Microsoft is diligent about keeping spam out of the groups. Occasionally some get through, but it is 2-3 per week, not the dozens a day you may have seen if you have ever used a news reader before.<br /><br />So, if you need help with your Pocket PC, there are tons of options for you. Obviously we have a number of forums right here at Pocket PC Thoughts to help users out, but there is a whole world of support groups available to you. I hope to see some of you in there.