Tommy's Favorite Newsgroups Links

Links verified 8/6/03

You can find the answer to almost anything, especially pc problems in newsgroups, if you take the time to learn how to use newsgroups. Finding "good quality" newsgroups that are not empty is not easy. I try to only show ones that are quality and not empty. Of course doing this is not easy if you only have a few minutes a day of free time. That's one of the reasons I made this page, and also so I can refresh my memory as well.

In short, you can find stuff in newsgroups that you can't find by googling [ which takes a bit of time itself do do effectively ] , most casual pc users don't bother with this because the learning curve is a bit steep [ you can't learn it in just one day or by yourself easily ]. However this is so powerful a tool that I think it is definitely worth your time to do it.

My Personal Favorite Newsgroups

24hoursupport.helpdesk
alt.certification.a-plus
alt.certification.mcse
alt.comp.anti-virus [on google]
alt.comp.virus [on google]
alt.comp.freeware
alt.computer.consultants
alt.os.windows-xp
alt.privacy.spyware
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html
comp.security.firewalls
halpc.general *
halpc.halnet.questions *
halpc.halnet.questions.isdn *
halpc.test *
houston.forsale
microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
microsoft.public.win98.internet.outlookexpress
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
news.admin.net-abuse.email

* [halpc newsgroups are only available to halpc members]

Finding non-trivial Newsgroups

tip: Because the internet [ and the list of groups in on each net ] is so incredibly vast, finding "quality newsgroups" is not easy, its a good idea to use some of these groups I have listed to start with. If you're not experienced doing this try what I have done : google for "microsoft.public" then add descriptive items like "groups" and the name of the MS application also. Also click on news://msnews.microsoft.com to automatically get a complete list of quality newsgroups on MS topics.

Places to Find non-trivial Newsgroups

Google Groups Beta list of usenet groups [ they used to have a symbol showing the relative fullness of each group ]
houston newsgroups our area here
Newsgroups available under microsoft.public (Cambridge University)
MS Newsgroups official page clean groups [ but there's lots and lots of them,
and the "microsoft.public" ones are not in this list, can't open this site properly with Opera 8]
news://msnews.microsoft.com Click on Link to Add MS to your News Reader: excellent ,
excellent newsgroups for MS topics best link to use [only takes a minute to download the complete list.
Google list of Micrsoft.Public groups quality groups about Microsoft
Easy way to find a newsgroup for general interest [not computer] topics
Harley Hahn's Master List of Usenet Newsgroups
Zeal.com Newgroup Listings quality!
Outlook Express newsgroups [ all languages ] some "quality links here"

newsgroup finder prog $5 / 30day trialware, helps find non empty newsgroups in Outlook Express 591 kb

best way to find newsgroups / free version does not show # of messages in each group

Helpful articles:

How to Access Newsgroups Guide
Slyck's guide to Newsgroups more complete includes how to download multipart messages
Basic how to use Outlook Express for Newsgroups from Microsoft [tutorial]

Newsgroup Readers [ software to use ]

Outlook Express comes with MS Windows all versions , current version 6.0
Agent, and Free Agent see instructions to install and configure Free/Agent

A Few tricks for Newsgroup readers [ those that choose to use ]

MS OE news reader : If you keep seeing the blue [unread] numbers next to each group [in your list of subscribed groups] , then open that group, shift focus to the message headers, then go to the edit menu on the top of the OE window, hit "mark all read", then hit "Catch Up". Now the number unread in blue will be cleared from this subscribed newsgroup. Do all the newsgroups this way, then everything you see in blue then will be what was posted after you did this.

I'll put some tips on filtering here, the internet in the wild is full of spam and objectionable material. Outlook Express and Outlook both have some filtering, and that's what I use. I'll see if I can export my filter onto this site soon [ I've been checking, I don't think there's a good way to do this ] There is a way to backup rules in OE, but it involves saving registry keys, and I don't think my reg keys would work on somebody else's system. [ How about a great idea for Bill Gate's programmers? When you're on a wild newsgroup [ most newsgroups for that matter ] , that filter can make reading possible without all the excruciating garbage ]. Why not make those rules easily exportable for those of us that are not crazy about internet pests?