About MS Newsgroups

[Don Wash]

Hi All!

I do not find any relevant newsgroups to post this question so I just posted
to this VB DotNet and General DotNet groups.

I'm trying to create a VB.NET application that will scan newsgroups.

What I like to know is if there are any different between a MS newsgroup
(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) and a UseNet newsgroup (comp.software)
apart from their topic? Because as a NNTP newsreader user, it is totally
transparent. Obviously UseNet is a collection of non-commercial newsgroups
and MS newsgroups are commercial. But they both use NNTP protocol.

So what really puzzle me is that...
1. do MS newsgroups duplicated across servers like UseNet newsgroups do?
Or
2. MS newsgroups stay only on MS owned servers (and possibly duplicated
across other 'MS' servers across the world)?

In a nutshell, I would like to know what are the difference between UseNet
and MS newsgroups? How are they distributed and maintained. etc...etc.

If there's a relevant group to my question in mcirosft.* please point me
out. If anyone have the answer to my questions, also please point me out :)
An URL explaining this issue would be quite useful!

Cheers,
Don

[Ray Cassick \(Home\)]

There is really no difference except who owns/maintains them.

They are run on an NNTP server just like most other Usenet newsgroups.

They are propagated to several other services, for example my ISP (Adelphia)
carries a few of the groups on their NNTP servers but I refer to come right
to the source (msnews.microsoft.com) for the feeds for reliability sake.
"Don Wash" <do*@wash.com> wrote in message
news:eK*************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Hi All!

I do not find any relevant newsgroups to post this question so I just posted to this VB DotNet and General DotNet groups.

I'm trying to create a VB.NET application that will scan newsgroups.

What I like to know is if there are any different between a MS newsgroup
(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) and a UseNet newsgroup (comp.software)
apart from their topic? Because as a NNTP newsreader user, it is totally
transparent. Obviously UseNet is a collection of non-commercial newsgroups
and MS newsgroups are commercial. But they both use NNTP protocol.

So what really puzzle me is that...
1. do MS newsgroups duplicated across servers like UseNet newsgroups do?
Or
2. MS newsgroups stay only on MS owned servers (and possibly duplicated
across other 'MS' servers across the world)?

In a nutshell, I would like to know what are the difference between UseNet
and MS newsgroups? How are they distributed and maintained. etc...etc.

If there's a relevant group to my question in mcirosft.* please point me
out. If anyone have the answer to my questions, also please point me out :) An URL explaining this issue would be quite useful!

Cheers,
Don

[Cor Ligthert]

Hi Don,

There are a lot of newsservers on the world, some have there own newsgroups,
some import (often selections) from the newsgroups from others (The
microsoft newsserver does not by instance). From some newsservers the
retention time is very short and from some very long (by instance Google).

In my opinion is a good newsgroup to discuss that

alt.free.newsservers
(when it is not on your newsserver)
news.readfreenews.net has it, that is a read only newsserver which are a lot
on the world.

A good site to find software for NNTP seems to be.
http://www.indyproject.org/indy.html

I hope this helps?

Cor

[Arne Janning]

Don Wash wrote:

Hi All!

I do not find any relevant newsgroups to post this question so I just posted
to this VB DotNet and General DotNet groups.

I'm trying to create a VB.NET application that will scan newsgroups.

What I like to know is if there are any different between a MS newsgroup
(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) and a UseNet newsgroup (comp.software)
apart from their topic? Because as a NNTP newsreader user, it is totally
transparent. Obviously UseNet is a collection of non-commercial newsgroups
and MS newsgroups are commercial. But they both use NNTP protocol.

So what really puzzle me is that...
1. do MS newsgroups duplicated across servers like UseNet newsgroups do?
Or
2. MS newsgroups stay only on MS owned servers (and possibly duplicated
across other 'MS' servers across the world)?

In a nutshell, I would like to know what are the difference between UseNet
and MS newsgroups? How are they distributed and maintained. etc...etc.

If there's a relevant group to my question in mcirosft.* please point me
out. If anyone have the answer to my questions, also please point me out :)
An URL explaining this issue would be quite useful!

Cheers,
Don

Hi Don,

There is an implementation of an ADO.NET Data Provider for NNTP
by Dirk_Primbs [MS].

http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/nntpClient

This library allows you to :

- Simple access using a DataReader:
Dim cn As NntpConnection = New NntpConnection("news.microsoft.com")
Dim cmd As NntpCommand = _
New NntpCommand("select top 10 * from
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp", cn)
cn.Open()
Dim reader As NntpDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()

- Getting a DataSet:

Dim ds As DataSet = new DataSet()
Dim cn As NntpConnection = New NntpConnection("news.microsoft.com")
Dim cmd As NntpCommand = _
New NntpCommand("select top 10 * from
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp", cn)

Dim da As NntpDataAdapter = new NntpDataAdapter(cmd)
da.Fill(ds)

It is also possible to post a message:

NntpPosting:
Dim cn As NntpConnection = New NntpConnection("news.microsoft.com")
cn.Open()
Dim p As NntpPosting = New NntpPosting("Arne Janning",
"sp*****************@msn.com", "Re: fourtytwo", "This is a test.",
"microsoft.test")
p.Post(cn)
cn.Close()

If you use the DataAdapter, just call the Update()-Method.

Cheers

Arne Janning

[One Handed Man \( OHM - Terry Burns \)]

Nice post, I might just try that myself :)

--

OHM ( Terry Burns )
. . . One-Handed-Man . . .
"Arne Janning" <sp*****************@msn.com> wrote in message
news:uv**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Don Wash wrote:

Hi All!

I do not find any relevant newsgroups to post this question so I just posted to this VB DotNet and General DotNet groups.

I'm trying to create a VB.NET application that will scan newsgroups.

What I like to know is if there are any different between a MS newsgroup
(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) and a UseNet newsgroup (comp.software)
apart from their topic? Because as a NNTP newsreader user, it is totally
transparent. Obviously UseNet is a collection of non-commercial newsgroups and MS newsgroups are commercial. But they both use NNTP protocol.

So what really puzzle me is that...
1. do MS newsgroups duplicated across servers like UseNet newsgroups do?
Or
2. MS newsgroups stay only on MS owned servers (and possibly duplicated
across other 'MS' servers across the world)?

In a nutshell, I would like to know what are the difference between UseNet and MS newsgroups? How are they distributed and maintained. etc...etc.

If there's a relevant group to my question in mcirosft.* please point me
out. If anyone have the answer to my questions, also please point me out :) An URL explaining this issue would be quite useful!

Cheers,
Don

Hi Don,

There is an implementation of an ADO.NET Data Provider for NNTP
by Dirk_Primbs [MS].

http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/nntpClient

This library allows you to :

- Simple access using a DataReader:
Dim cn As NntpConnection = New NntpConnection("news.microsoft.com")
Dim cmd As NntpCommand = _
New NntpCommand("select top 10 * from
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp", cn)
cn.Open()
Dim reader As NntpDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()

- Getting a DataSet:

Dim ds As DataSet = new DataSet()
Dim cn As NntpConnection = New NntpConnection("news.microsoft.com")
Dim cmd As NntpCommand = _
New NntpCommand("select top 10 * from
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp", cn)

Dim da As NntpDataAdapter = new NntpDataAdapter(cmd)
da.Fill(ds)

It is also possible to post a message:

NntpPosting:
Dim cn As NntpConnection = New NntpConnection("news.microsoft.com")
cn.Open()
Dim p As NntpPosting = New NntpPosting("Arne Janning",
"sp*****************@msn.com", "Re: fourtytwo", "This is a test.",
"microsoft.test")
p.Post(cn)
cn.Close()

If you use the DataAdapter, just call the Update()-Method.

Cheers

Arne Janning

[Don Wash]

Thanks all for all their replies. All of the replies has been very helpful
and I have gained insights of newsgroups for my project.

Many thanks!!
Don

"Don Wash" <do*@wash.com> wrote in message
news:eK*************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Hi All!

I do not find any relevant newsgroups to post this question so I just posted to this VB DotNet and General DotNet groups.

I'm trying to create a VB.NET application that will scan newsgroups.

What I like to know is if there are any different between a MS newsgroup
(microsoft.public.dotnet.general) and a UseNet newsgroup (comp.software)
apart from their topic? Because as a NNTP newsreader user, it is totally
transparent. Obviously UseNet is a collection of non-commercial newsgroups
and MS newsgroups are commercial. But they both use NNTP protocol.

So what really puzzle me is that...
1. do MS newsgroups duplicated across servers like UseNet newsgroups do?
Or
2. MS newsgroups stay only on MS owned servers (and possibly duplicated
across other 'MS' servers across the world)?

In a nutshell, I would like to know what are the difference between UseNet
and MS newsgroups? How are they distributed and maintained. etc...etc.

If there's a relevant group to my question in mcirosft.* please point me
out. If anyone have the answer to my questions, also please point me out :) An URL explaining this issue would be quite useful!

Cheers,
Don