OE's News Client NEWGROUPS command behavior

[Hector Santos]

I hope someone at Microsoft involved with the design of Outlook Express (OE)
or any developer who has came across this particular small issue, can answer
theses two part related questions:

Question #1:

I would like to know the "frequency" and/or "logic" used by OE to determine
when it issues the NEWGROUPS command to determine when there are new
newsgroups at a NNTP server.

Question #2:

I would like to know the date time used by the OE NEWGROUPS command.

Background:

A NNTP newsgroup client, like the one built into OE, can issue the command:

NEWGROUPS date time [GMT] [<distributions>]

to obtain a list of any new newsgroups at the server by date/time.

We design a NNTP server that supports the NEWGROUPS command. When tested
manually, it properly displays groups based on the date time provided on the
command. We follow the RFC specification to the letter.

With OE, if there are any new groups returned, you get that OE popup
message:

"There are new newsgroups. Do you like to see them? Yes/No"

or something to that effect.

If you answer Yes, OE will display the new news groups the user can
subscribe to.

So question #1 is basically understanding "WHEN" OE will issue this
command.

And related to the same question, question #2 is what date/time does it use,
LOCAL vs GMT? Which date/time? Current or some last used date/time?

I can't get a consistent frequency of when it does this. It kind of seems
like it does it daily, but testing this theory by simulating a new date
(changing the date of the computer) doesn't seem to confirm it is a daily
process. It seems like it might save the last date attempted somewhere.

The reason I'm asking, is because even when there are NO new groups, there
are times where that stupid popup message comes up. So I am trying to see
why. Where there are new groups at the server, OE doesn't issue the
command to find out. So that tells me there is some schedule that OE uses.
I thought it was it daily, but that doesn't seem to be the case as I
indicated above.

Again, manually testing of the NNTP server via a Telnet console session
properly shows the new groups by date/time.

Anyway, it is not a REAL big deal, but it would be nice to find this out to
get rid of that popup.

Thanks in advance if you have any input.

[DGuess]

OE has a reg setting to be set to check for new newsgroups.
New group notification
in HKCU\Identities\{USER_ID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\News

If it is set to a DWORD of one (1), it will check for new groups upon
opening the news account (selecting a group). I don't recall seeing it
prompt me when I select a news account name instead of a group but then it
could have and I'll blame it in the "sometimers".

You can turn it off/on in Tools | Options | General tab
Uncheck "Notify me if there are new newsgroups"

As to the time, never thought about it but looking at it in the headers
(CTRL F3) it appears it uses GMT and then according to TZ it sets it to the
local time. The -500 would Central Time Zone DST which I'm located (actually
I'm in the I'm too tired zone but can't sleep but it doesn't qualify).

As to it appearing when no grouops are available the only time I have seen
this happen and it wasn't a problem with the Folders.dbx file (which
maintains the mail folder structure, the names of the newsgroups and
subscribed newsgroups for all news accounts - which can get quite large with
multiple large servers set up) was when I was testing OE locally using Win2K
server and setting up some newsgroups. I set up some, removed them and then
started up OE. It did prompt me that there were new groups available but
weren't really. So it could be on the server side that is causing this. Ever
have the log running when this occurs?

BTW: there is no logic to OE at times, that just a personal perception. :-)


dg

Post by Hector Santos
I hope someone at Microsoft involved with the design of Outlook Express (OE)
or any developer who has came across this particular small issue, can answer
I would like to know the "frequency" and/or "logic" used by OE to determine
when it issues the NEWGROUPS command to determine when there are new
newsgroups at a NNTP server.
I would like to know the date time used by the OE NEWGROUPS command.
NEWGROUPS date time [GMT] [<distributions>]
to obtain a list of any new newsgroups at the server by date/time.
We design a NNTP server that supports the NEWGROUPS command. When tested
manually, it properly displays groups based on the date time provided on the
command. We follow the RFC specification to the letter.
With OE, if there are any new groups returned, you get that OE popup
"There are new newsgroups. Do you like to see them? Yes/No"
or something to that effect.
If you answer Yes, OE will display the new news groups the user can
subscribe to.
So question #1 is basically understanding "WHEN" OE will issue this
command.
And related to the same question, question #2 is what date/time does it use,
LOCAL vs GMT? Which date/time? Current or some last used date/time?
I can't get a consistent frequency of when it does this. It kind of seems
like it does it daily, but testing this theory by simulating a new date
(changing the date of the computer) doesn't seem to confirm it is a daily
process. It seems like it might save the last date attempted somewhere.
The reason I'm asking, is because even when there are NO new groups, there
are times where that stupid popup message comes up. So I am trying to see
why. Where there are new groups at the server, OE doesn't issue the
command to find out. So that tells me there is some schedule that OE uses.
I thought it was it daily, but that doesn't seem to be the case as I
indicated above.
Again, manually testing of the NNTP server via a Telnet console session
properly shows the new groups by date/time.
Anyway, it is not a REAL big deal, but it would be nice to find this out to
get rid of that popup.
Thanks in advance if you have any input.
--
Hector Santos
WINSERVER "Wildcat! Interactive Net Server"
support: http://www.winserver.com
sales: http://www.santronics.com

[Hector Santos]

Thanks, I figured it out.

Post by DGuess
You can turn it off/on in Tools | Options | General tab
Uncheck "Notify me if there are new newsgroups"

Yes, I know that, I'm looking for the frequency.

I believe it is daily. It checks the registry LastUpdate at one of the
software/microsoft/Internet Mail and News/Mail. However, its for the
current session stored in a dynamic registry location that has the current
copy of your session. I was able to map this 8 byte value to a FILETIME
structure to see the correct date it last updated. I cleared these and was
able to do it again.

Post by DGuess
As to the time, never thought about it but looking at it in the headers
(CTRL F3) it appears it uses GMT and then according to TZ it sets it to the
local time. The -500 would Central Time Zone DST which I'm located (actually
I'm in the I'm too tired zone but can't sleep but it doesn't qualify).

Its passing the local time based on the comparison of the registry value and
that NNTP Server trace logs of the command.

Post by DGuess
BTW: there is no logic to OE at times, that just a personal perception. :-)

I can understand that <g>

Thanks for our feedback.

[DGuess]

Post by Hector Santos
Thanks for our feedback.

Its something I never really looked into but thanks for bringing it up. It
was refreshing to see something different other than the same old same old.
:-)

dg