Re: OE6 newsgroup reader problem...

You're welcome, and you didn't waste my time. And don't be so hard on yourself. Using Outlook Express can kill more brain cells than old age and alcohol combined! <VBEG>
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:OmFxNyZ9HHA.5404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok....I'm a complete idiot. I forgot I made a backup of the dbx when I
first saw the "(1)" file. So out of curiousity I copied it to the OE
message store folder, re-opened OE and low and behold all of my messages
(watched messages too) were intact. Wish I had an excuse for this, like old
age or being drunk or something! Stupid brain!! :)
It still leaves the mystery of the (1) file but I can knock that off as just
a hiccup without much worry.

Anyways....thanks for all your help and sorry for wasting your time. ;)


Cheers,


Greg



Bruce Hagen wrote:
Well, partially solved anyway. I'm still not sure what exactly caused
the second dbx file to be crated, but the one with the (1) would be
the one in use and the other should have been deleted. The (1) is
harmless and I /believe/ the only way to get rid of it would be to
unsubscribe, close OE and make sure the file has been deleted then
open OE and resubscribe.

"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%230PqPqY9HHA.4752@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bruce Hagen wrote:
In View | Current View, is Show All Messages & Group Messages By
Conversation checked?

Oh my! How embarrassing. That was indeed the problem, at least for
*today*. I frequently toggle back and forth between "Show all
messages" and
"Hide read messages" so I have the Views drop-down box on the
toolbar. I accidentally selected "Show download messages" instead
of "all messages". Ooooops.

Regarding the suffix (1). For some reason, when you unsubscribe
from a newsgroup, OE occasionally *forgets* to remove the dbx file.
Maybe it is possible that if you resubscribed, OE created a second
dbx file with the suffix. Just a WAG here.

My little brain fart still doesn't explain what happened yesterday.
A new dbx was created with a "(1)" at the end, and I hadn't done
anything to any of the groups such as unsubscribing. I thought by
closing OE and deleting the (1) file it would force it to continue
to use the old one. Maybe it does, but now with my little faux pas
today I honestly am not sure what viewing mode I was in yesterday,
since the file has now been recreated.



"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ekIw0UY9HHA.484@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. I would like to clarify the
problem and
possibly find a solution as it just happened again today (with the
vista.general group again).

OE creates a local store for *newsgroup* messages in the form of a
.dbx file. This dbx keeps track of read and watched messages. Now
for some reason OE has lost track of these messages and when I open
the group it shows none of the original messages and only the
new/recent headers that have been downloaded. When it happened
yesterday a new dbx was created with
a "(1)" appended to the file name. Today, no new file was created
so I am assuming it has just started overwriting the existing one.

I hope that clarifies the situation.


Greg

Bruce Hagen wrote:
Now, I am lost. We are talking about using OE as your newsreader?
And you are talking about losing news and not e-mail? If you are
only relying on the server, you will lose messages when they are
deleted from the server, (Not your choice, but MSNews).

Once you Refresh, Compact, Reset, Download X headers, etc, you
lose any posts older than the days of the retention limit, unless
you saved them elsewhere.

Sorry if I am not on the same page as you.

"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ugLOn2O9HHA.1204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oops...sorry. I didn't make that very clear, did I? I was
referring to the
original problem with OE "losing" my messages.


Bruce Hagen wrote:
I just checked in another identity. This group, OE General, is
60 days. OE6 newsgroup is 90 days. Irregardless, there is
nothing you can change. It is not your choice, but the server's.

I'm not sure what you are asking about this:

<QP>
In the grand scheme of things it's not really a huge problem
but I like to find out what's going on when these types of
things occur. </QP>

When what occurs? When messages are removed from the server, you
will not see them any more, unless you copied them to another
folder for archiving.

"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23NloWWO9HHA.4180@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yeah, I am aware of that but never thought to mention it.
Current retention
level in OE is 60 days, and I believe that's the default as I
don't think I've ever changed it. Under normal circumstances
I'll witness some of my older watched threads disappear as they
go beyond the retention period. In
the grand scheme of things it's not really a huge problem but I
like to find
out what's going on when these types of things occur.


Greg

Bruce Hagen wrote:
From this reply, do you realize that once messages are removed
from the server, they will not be viewable by you unless you
saved them to a user created local folder?

I /believe/ the current retention for MSNews is 90 days using
OE as your newsreader.

IOW, if you reset, sync, or whatever, anything over the
retention number of days will be lost. Does this shed any
light on your current problem?

"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:erJlPqN9HHA.1416@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Bruce,

Thanks again for your assistance, it's greatly appreciated.

I understand what you were getting at now with the "Get XXX
headers at a time", that is, to download all the headers
again. I was originally thinking that you were saying that
this option could be the cause of the problem. But
downloading all the headers leads back to my original
problem,
not that it's a huge deal but it is an annoyance, is that I
lose what messages have been read and/or watched. And from
what I understand this is
being monitored by the .dbx itself. The file is still there
and I'm assuming still contains all the original data, I was
hoping there was a way
to get OE to recognize and/or recover it again.

As for my non-updated OE: I realize doing so can put me at a
higher risk but I am confident enough that my computer is
sufficiently secured and that
my safe computer habits will and have kept me malware/virus
free (but out of
paranoia I still run AV and anti-malware software). And I
also don't believe this would be the cause of the problem as
I would have seen it a long time ago.

And regarding the installation of new software: This
computer my "working"
computer is fairly static, ie it rarely gets any new software
installed or any other changes.

Ultimately I just think it is some hiccup with OE as I
subscribe to numerous
other newsgroups and it has only happened to two of the .dbx
files, both of
which are the largest in terms of file sizes, possibly just a
coincidence.

Bruce Hagen wrote:
<Inline>

"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23twMT$L9HHA.1188@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the reply.


I've done this and a completely new .dbx has been created.
But is there any way to recover and/or read the contents of
the original .dbx? Any idea
what would trigger this problem? Could something have
corrupted the dbx? Is there a file size limit for dbx's?
That's the only thing that's similar
between the two incidents. They were two different dbx's
but both around 20MB in size.


You /were/ talking about newsgroups. correct? OE only
mirrors what is on the server, so there is nothing to
recover in the normal sense.

Tools | Options | Read. Uncheck: Get XXX headers at a time.
Then, right click on the newsgroup in the Folder Tree |
Properties | Local File | Reset. Switch to another folder
and then back and all available messages will be downloaded
again.

It would be a good idea to compact your folders when you're
done.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no
folders are open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click
Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact
all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is
completed.



Make sure get xxx headers at a time is not checked.

I'm not sure what this will accomplish (other than the
obvious :) I've had
this feature checked since I've started using OE. What is
the benefit of doing this, or what is the problem caused by
leaving it checked?


You will get all messages currently on the server. If you
want to limit the ammount:

If you want to download newsgroups, but don't want
hundreds, or thousands, of messages, you can create a
message rule such as this:

Tools | Message Rules | News.

Box 1: Where the message was sent more than days ago
Box 2: Delete it & Stop processing more rules
Box 3: Click on "Days" and choose the # of days you want.
Name the rule.

In Tools | Options | Read - Uncheck: Get XXX headers at a
time. When you go to, or subscribe to a newsgroup, it will
only download the messages for the number of days you
selected.

Opinions on this vary, but in Tools | Accounts | News |
Properties | General, I have Include this account when
checking for new messages checked. When OE automatically
checks for mail, (however often you have it set for), it
will also download any new news messages at the same time.



But before you do anything, get over to Windows Updates.
I'm not sure what your Windows version is, but from your
message headers:

X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000

you are obviously running an outdated and less secure
version of OE, and that may be part of the problem.

Yeah, I'm aware OE is not up to date and unfortunately will
have to remain that way (the updates breaks several things
in OE). I am running Win2k and
other than that my system is up to date as far as security
patches. OE is locked down sufficiently that I have no fear
of being comprimised.



I can't
see this as causing the problem though as I would have
encountered it much sooner.


Look for the obvious. It may not be the cause, but if
updates break OE functions, you have two possible remidies.

1: Turn off your anti-virus program when you download and
install /anything/. Your AV can prevent a clean install.

2: You may be infested with some type of Hijackware.

Courtesy of MVP Robear Dyer (PA Bear):

Checking for/Help with Hijackware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878


http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_Removal_and_Prevention:_Introduction
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

When all else fails, HijackThis
v1.99.1(http://aumha.net/downloads/hijackthis.zip) is the
preferred tool to use. It will help you to both identify and
remove any hijackware/spyware.

**Post your log to http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30,
http://castlecops.com/forum67.html,
http://forums.subratam.org/index.php?showforum=7, or other
appropriate forums for expert analysis, not here.**


Thanks again,

Greg


"GO" <aa533@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ODZalXL9HHA.4612@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

I'm using OE6 to access the MS Usenet groups (primarily
MS's own servers, news.microsoft.com) and this is the
second time this problem has occurred so I'm hoping I can
find some help. When I "opened" the newsgroup
(vista.general) it seems to have ignored my existing .dbx
file and creating
a new listing of all messages (losing all my watched and
read threads). Looking in the message store location
(\D&S\<username>\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{very-long-string}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express) I see that it has made a new .dbx file. So I
now have two:
"microsoft.public.windows.vista.general.dbx" and
"microsoft.public.windows.vista.general (1).dbx". I
closed OE and deleted the new, smaller one
(...vista.general(1).dbx) and restarted OE but it didn't
seem to make any difference. The original file is still
there but the message listing is brand new, and it did
not make a new file this time around. All other
newsgroups I read are fine and have not experienced this
problem. Is there something that would trigger this
into happening? Is there any way I can get OE to read
the contents of the old .dbx? I'm assuming the contents
are still there as the file is close to 20MB. I've been
using OE for Usenet for years and have never experienced
this before, other than now and about a month ago.


TIA,


Greg



.

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