correspondence with newsgroup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Grampy Pete
  • Start date Start date
G

Grampy Pete

My isp is Comcast and to set up smtp I need to compromise security with
Outlook Express. My work around at no cost is to ask questions here, receive
answers at my hotmail account and come here to do a search with my name or
the issue.
Sounds like a lot of work but I have rec'd my best answers here.
Am not techy so please if you suggest a better interface keep it simple.
Thank you
 
Grampy said:
My isp is Comcast and to set up smtp I need to compromise security with
Outlook Express. My work around at no cost is to ask questions here, receive
answers at my hotmail account and come here to do a search with my name or
the issue.
Sounds like a lot of work but I have rec'd my best answers here.
Am not techy so please if you suggest a better interface keep it simple.
Thank you
Click to expand...

Can you explain compromise security? and just to make sure you mean
SMTP email right, not NNTP news.?
 
Grampy said:
My isp is Comcast and to set up smtp I need to compromise security
with Outlook Express. My work around at no cost is to ask questions
here, receive answers at my hotmail account and come here to do a
search with my name or the issue.
Sounds like a lot of work but I have rec'd my best answers here.
Am not techy so please if you suggest a better interface keep it
simple. Thank you
Click to expand...

You subject line is "correspondence with newsgroup," yet your question
references SMTP, which is the protocol for sending e-mail (the protocol
for newsgroups is NNTP).

If you're talking about e-mail, Comcast offers a Web interface if you
don't like the idea of using an e-mail program. If you *do* want to use
an e-mail program, Outlook Express may be configured to meet your
security requirements. See:

http://people.cornell.edu/pages/drb1/Windows/OutLookExpress/OutLookExpress.htm

and/or

http://www.malwarehelp.org/securing-your-e-mail-client-outlookexpress1.html

Or, you may use other e-mail clients; Thunderbird is popular:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
 
Grampy said:
My isp is Comcast and to set up smtp I need to compromise security with
Outlook Express.
Click to expand...

Explain how using Outlook Express compromised the unindentified security
criteria.
My work around at no cost is to ask questions here,
Click to expand...

If you are really a Comcast customer then asking them questions is also
"free" (you've already paid them and support was included).
receive answers at my hotmail account and come here to do a search
with my name or the issue.
Click to expand...

What the fark are you doing? This is newsgroups, not e-mail. If you
are posting to newsgroups then you have the time to return to newsroups
looking for responses. If you post here asking for respondents to send
you e-mails with their replies, forget it. Most won't bother because it
disconnects the conversation in the newsgroups thread and is an old ploy
by spammer or malcontents to get someone to divulge a valid e-mail
address.
Sounds like a lot of work but I have rec'd my best answers here.
Click to expand...

Post here so return here.
Am not techy so please if you suggest a better interface keep it simple.
Click to expand...

I doubt you are using Hotmail for anything regarding newsgroups. You
are in Outlook Express and connecting to newsgroups. Newsgroups are not
e-mail.

So did you actually have a question? So far you haven't identified a
problem nor have you asked a question.
 
What the fark are you doing?

He explained at the beginning that he is not technically inclined. He thinks
he is sending into the newsgroups using email (since newsreader programs
require an email address to be entered for posting) and then reading them in
a newsreaders. It is a simple misunderstanding. Give a polite answer and
move on--leave the attitude at the door.

And ne noted that he comes here because he gets the best answers here--we've
got three replies so far and two of them weren't much help so it looks like
we failed on that account this time.

Grampy Pete,

As others have hinted, your email is irrelevant to using newsgroups--indeed,
many people place false email addresses in their newsreaders to prevent
receiving spam. Spammers will trawl newsgroups and harvest email addresses
for spam lists so it is not uncommon for usenet (newsgroup) users to put in
bogus email addresses or email addresses with things like
(e-mail address removed)

While you can put your correct email in and ask for answers to be sent, most
usenet users prefer to reply to the group so that others who are having
similar problems can come here in the future, do a search, and find an
answer without asking the same question. If you do not come back to the
newsgroup and look at your answers, you are probably missing the majority of
good advice. In other words, don't wait for email responses.

For your own purposes, when asking a question on newsgroups, flag your
question so it's easier to find. Look in the help file for whatever program
you are using to browse here for how to do this and you will have a better
newsgroup experience.
 
Grampy Pete said:
My isp is Comcast and to set up smtp I need to compromise security with
Outlook Express. My work around at no cost is to ask questions here, receive
answers at my hotmail account and come here to do a search with my name or
the issue.
Sounds like a lot of work but I have rec'd my best answers here.
Am not techy so please if you suggest a better interface keep it simple.
Thank you
Click to expand...


I'll pass along the same advice you've been given before, start using a real
newsreader to access this newsgroup instead of the Microsoft web site. Here are
a couple of threads started by you that cover this subject.

http://groups.google.com/group/micr....*+author:grampy+author:pete#1353ae7672a33d8d

http://groups.google.com/group/micr....*+author:grampy+author:pete#6684c035ef0e04df

As you've found, there is no easy way of keeping track of questions you've
posted on the "Discussions in Windows XP Help and Support" web site . Sure, you
get an email notifying you that someone has posted a response to your question,
but if you want to reply to that person you've got to go back and search the web
site for your original post.

You may not like the answer, but unless you're willing to put in the effort to
become familiar with how a newsreader such as Outlook Express works, you'll have
to put up with the frustration that comes with using the Microsoft Discussions
Groups web site.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
gerryf said:
What the fark are you doing?

He explained at the beginning that he is not technically inclined. He thinks
he is sending into the newsgroups using email (since newsreader programs
require an email address to be entered for posting) and then reading them in
a newsreaders. It is a simple misunderstanding. Give a polite answer and
move on--leave the attitude at the door.
Click to expand...

So you really thought there was a question in Grampy's post. Well, you
could make up any guess you want.
 
VanguardLH said:
Explain how using Outlook Express compromised the unindentified
security criteria.


If you are really a Comcast customer then asking them questions is
also "free" (you've already paid them and support was included).


What the fark are you doing? This is newsgroups, not e-mail. If you
are posting to newsgroups then you have the time to return to
newsroups looking for responses. If you post here asking for
respondents to send you e-mails with their replies, forget it. Most
won't bother because it disconnects the conversation in the
newsgroups thread and is an old ploy by spammer or malcontents to get
someone to divulge a valid e-mail address.


Post here so return here.


I doubt you are using Hotmail for anything regarding newsgroups. You
are in Outlook Express and connecting to newsgroups.
Click to expand...

According to Grampy's headers, he is *not* "in Outlook Express and
connecting to newsgroups"; he is using Microsoft's godawful Web
interface. I think there is an option there to be alerted via e-mail if
someone answers his post. My guess is that rarely happens, so he makes
all these posts but doesn't seem to see the responses!

Grampy, in the event you see this post (hope springs eternal), here are
instructions again on how to configure Outlook Express to access
Microsoft's newsgroups:

If you want to give it one more college try, here are the steps:

(adapted from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/newsgroups101.mspx
)

1. Open Outlook Express

2. On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

3. Click the Add button, and then click News.

4. Enter your name (Grampy Pete) and e-mail address (something like
(e-mail address removed) to prevent the spam harvesters to get
your e-mail address).

5. For the name of the news server, type "msnews.microsoft.com" (without
the quotation marks).

6. Click Finish.

7. Click the Close button.

8. Outlook Express will ask if you wish to download the list of
available newsgroups. Make sure you are connected to the Internet and
answer 'yes'. When the download is finished, you can subscribe to any
group by double-clicking its icon.

9. For this particular newsgroup, scroll down to

microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support

10. Click Subscribe.

11. Click Go To.

12. Headers are automatically downloaded. You may sort them any way you
like: by Subject, by Author, by Date. You can always get more headers by
clicking on the Headers button.

13. Click Ctrl+H and you will see only threads you're participating in.
 
gerryf
This novice wants to thank you for your kind support/defense.
I do understand that smtp is mail and ?nntp is newsgroup. I spent hours with
Comcast techs who admit they know little about configuring newsgroups.
For now I ask questions here then come back, type my name in the search and
the answers are there for me to learn from.
Again, I wish all the respondents would show a little courtesy b/c we all
had to start some time and place. After 7 decades I find my skills abit
diminished but I am still going to learn as I can. So, press on with the
business at hand but please accept my thanx b/c kindness is fast becoming a
thing of the past.
p.s. I found all of my wife's mail on my outlook account which was removed
from her Comcast web based server. That and the fact that Comcast said their
software was having trouble led me to put Outlook Express aside for the time
being.
 
I came back to check my messages or responses and wish to thank you for the
information you rendered; I will now paste it in my learnng folder and when
Comcast gets its software steady I will see what I can do.
My other post re: losing my wife's email was a scary experience with Outlook
Express so I'll discern between newsgroups and email and tread cautiously.
Thank you very much.
 
I came back to check my messages or responses and wish to thank you for the
information you rendered; I will now paste it in my learnng folder and when
Comcast gets its software steady I will see what I can do.
My other post re: losing my wife's email was a scary experience with Outlook
Express so I'll discern between newsgroups and email and tread cautiously.
Thank you very much.
Click to expand...

I've never had to deal with Comcast personally, but the impressions friends
and others left me, is that they don't really know how to configure much
anything.

Outlook is designed to work with Exchange server, for any other uses, just
about any other program is a better choice for email. Especially if you
don't want to lose your email. It's easy to lose mail in Outlook, it' not
very easy to recover it. It's the only mail program ever that deletes the
file that stores the mail, when you delete the account the mail came from.

I highly recommend switching to Thunderbird for email. It has higher mail
capacity too, so no need to "archive" your mail every 2 weeks. You can have
as many accounts and email addresses you want, delete them as you please,
and you'll never lose any email. And it's forwards and backwards
compatible, so you can up and downgrade and still have access to your mail.
It organizes mail differently, render formatted emails correctly, and does
a better job at protecting your privacy and your messages. My dad just
passed 74 years of age, and loves the program. He used to be on Outlook
(because it's what he used when he worked), then he got a new computer that
came with Open Office instead of MS Office, and was forced to make a
switch. I sent him the link to download Thunderbird, and he's been running
with it happily since. Worth noting that I live 6000 km from my dad, and I
have yet to have to help him figure out how to do anything with the
program. What the program doesn't do for him, he figures out himself.
Thunderbird updates itself, and then tells you it does. It updates its
addons itself too, so you're always safe and secure as can be.
That program is simple on the surface, but dig deep enough and you'll find
a plethora of more complicated settings and features - so you can grow with
it and get more hardcore as you use it.

And I have never heard of anyone losing their email with Thunderbird. Had
to help people recover mail in Outlook many, many, many times though.
Eudora too several times.
--
Rene Brehmer
IT Technician

North Hill Inn
http://www.northhillinn.com
 
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