Hi all This might be slightly off topic, but here goes anyway. I was part of the Windows 7 beta programme and numerous others back when the NNTP newsgroups were still being used (betanews.microsoft.com). I have been advised this is no longer the method used, yet Im still registered and active in the IE8 Technical Beta and Windows 7 / SP1 technical beta programmes. What happend to the old Windows.7.General etc newsgroups? Would some kindly advise me the new system for accessing both secure / public newsgroups. Ive been trying to find this info for over an hour. My Beta ID is 1028328 Rodney (confused)Microsoft Windows Vista Beta Tester

http://www.gmayor.com/msnews.htm If I understand things correctly, MS discontinued the old Usenet newsgroups last year. They continued NNTP access to some forums (including this one) through a bridging service. I don't know if it's still available. (I gave up on NNTP quite some time ago, as traffic in the newsgroups was getting to be quite limited. The Web-based forums that I read now are all moderated, so the Usenet lunatics I used to know and loathe have mostly disappeared from my view.) I never had access to any of the restricted groups, but I would not be surprised if things are the same there. Time to move boldly forward into the 1990s, I guess.

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:46:35 +0000, bobkn wrote: If I understand things correctly, MS discontinued the old Usenet newsgroups last year. Microsoft stopped carrying them, but they still exist on many other servers. But traffic on them is unfortunately way down. They continued NNTP access to some forums (including this one) through a bridging service. I don't know if it's still available. Yes, it is. (I gave up on NNTP quite some time ago, Your choice of course. Personally I greatly prefer newsgroups to web-based forums. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP