"Oppie" wrote in message

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote in message
...
"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote in message
...
"Oppie" wrote in message
...
Is there any way to get OE6 to display the number of articles in
the newsgroup subscriptions box (or anywhere else for that matter)?


Maybe. Try an experiment? Open your list of subscriptions for
a news account (e.g. from one newsgroup press Backspace) and press
F5 (Refresh). What happens?


Yuck. All that does is Refresh the list of newsgroups.
(The equivalent of Ctrl-w,Alt-R) Who knew?

However, I was on the right track. Just wrong command.
The right command is Synchronize Account.
(E.g. click on that button or press Alt-T,n)

Then, provided all your subscriptions are marked Don't Synchronize
(e.g. unchecked in that display) you will get a warning message
that there is nothing to Synchronize but you will get the latest
estimate from the 211 Group reply for each of your subscriptions.
BTW this information is also given by the OE troubleshooting log.


FYI

Robert

Where does one find the OE troubleshooting log?

Thanks again

In the store folder with the data (DBX) files. Go to Tools | Options |
Maintenance | Store Folder. You will have to set Windows Explorer to show
hidden files and folders.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
"Anyone who prefers security over freedom deserves neither."

"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE" wrote in message
...
snip

Where does one find the OE troubleshooting log?

Thanks again

In the store folder with the data (DBX) files. Go to Tools | Options |
Maintenance | Store Folder. You will have to set Windows Explorer to show
hidden files and folders.

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
"Anyone who prefers security over freedom deserves neither."

Found the DBX files but no log. Hidden files and folders are viewed (Being
an engineer, I need these sometimes)
Since this machine was originally XP home that was converted to XP pro, a
new user was created in the update. Much of the files are still under the
original user groan. I'll poke about later.

thanks

Troubleshooting logs are only enabled when you specifically request them to
be. See the choices under Tools/Options/Maintenance and at the bottom of
the page under the Troubleshooting section. When checked, those choices
will cause an appropriately named .log file to be created in the message
store folder. (i.e., pop3.log, smtp.log, etc.)
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.


"Oppie" wrote in message
. ..

"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE" wrote in message
...
snip

Where does one find the OE troubleshooting log?

Thanks again

In the store folder with the data (DBX) files. Go to Tools | Options |
Maintenance | Store Folder. You will have to set Windows Explorer to
show hidden files and folders.

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
"Anyone who prefers security over freedom deserves neither."

Found the DBX files but no log. Hidden files and folders are viewed (Being
an engineer, I need these sometimes)
Since this machine was originally XP home that was converted to XP pro, a
new user was created in the update. Much of the files are still under the
original user groan. I'll poke about later.

thanks

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote in message
...
"Oppie" wrote in message
...
Is there any way to get OE6 to display the number of articles in the
newsgroup subscriptions box (or anywhere else for that matter)?


Maybe. Try an experiment? Open your list of subscriptions for
a news account (e.g. from one newsgroup press Backspace) and press
F5 (Refresh). What happens? E.g. do the numbers in the Total column
for any of your subscriptions change?


Answer: no they don't unfortunately.

....
Obviously, this test would be best done before connecting to any specific
newsgroups and the question is what does it do? I wouldn't trust the
troubleshooting log to show us if OE connects to the server and issues
some group requests for each newsgroup in the subscription but if it does
show you that, that would be your answer. The best diagnostic in this case
would be an independent trace of the NNTP protocol layer, e.g. using
netcap. There are other possible answers using the different NNTP
requests, which I know the troubleshooting log does not trace.


FWIW I have now completed the proposed experiment
and found that I was right after all. Refresh *is* the OE command
you would want to use and you would have to capture the response
to that request using a packet tracer such as netcap
since as I mentioned OE's troubleshooting log doesn't even
record the fact that the command is used (let alone trace the
contents of its response.)

E.g. here is what OE sends when the Refresh command is given
and a start of the response which was generated by the msnews server.

example
200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.1830 Version: 6.0.3790.1830 Posting Allowed
MODE READER
200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.1830 Version: 6.0.3790.1830 Posting Allowed
LIST

215 list of newsgroups follow
microsoft.public.academic.alliance.repository 13 1 y
microsoft.public.access 221139 206074 y
microsoft.public.access.3rdpartyusrgrp 49256 49223 y
microsoft.public.access.activexcontrol 39307 39049 y
/example


An alternative to capturing the packets for the list response which OE gets
would be simulating the above request sequence in a telnet 119 session
and capturing that transaction.


What's interesting now is that the information contained in the list response
only contains an implicit "estimate" of the number of messages available
(e.g. by subtracting the two numbers given with each newsgroup name.)

The real "estimate" is still given by a 211 response to group request:

example
group microsoft.public.access
211 14748 206077 221139 microsoft.public.access
/example

and that, as I showed earlier, is what you could get by
"synchronizing" newsgroups which you didn't want synchronized.


HTH

Robert
---

Thanks Jim - I had missed making that connection. Good to know for future
investigations.
Oppie

"Jim Pickering" wrote in message
...
Troubleshooting logs are only enabled when you specifically request them
to be. See the choices under Tools/Options/Maintenance and at the bottom
of the page under the Troubleshooting section. When checked, those
choices will cause an appropriately named .log file to be created in the
message store folder. (i.e., pop3.log, smtp.log, etc.)
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.


"Oppie" wrote in message
. ..

"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE" wrote in message
...
snip

Where does one find the OE troubleshooting log?

Thanks again

In the store folder with the data (DBX) files. Go to Tools | Options |
Maintenance | Store Folder. You will have to set Windows Explorer to
show hidden files and folders.

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
"Anyone who prefers security over freedom deserves neither."

Found the DBX files but no log. Hidden files and folders are viewed
(Being an engineer, I need these sometimes)
Since this machine was originally XP home that was converted to XP pro, a
new user was created in the update. Much of the files are still under the
original user groan. I'll poke about later.

thanks

at last me too.

--
VINITA SHARMA
"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote in message
...
"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote in message
...
"Oppie" wrote in message
...
Is there any way to get OE6 to display the number of articles in the
newsgroup subscriptions box (or anywhere else for that matter)?


Maybe. Try an experiment? Open your list of subscriptions for
a news account (e.g. from one newsgroup press Backspace) and press
F5 (Refresh). What happens? E.g. do the numbers in the Total column
for any of your subscriptions change?


Answer: no they don't unfortunately.

...
Obviously, this test would be best done before connecting to any specific
newsgroups and the question is what does it do? I wouldn't trust the
troubleshooting log to show us if OE connects to the server and issues
some group requests for each newsgroup in the subscription but if it does
show you that, that would be your answer. The best diagnostic in this
case
would be an independent trace of the NNTP protocol layer, e.g. using
netcap. There are other possible answers using the different NNTP
requests, which I know the troubleshooting log does not trace.


FWIW I have now completed the proposed experiment
and found that I was right after all. Refresh *is* the OE command
you would want to use and you would have to capture the response
to that request using a packet tracer such as netcap
since as I mentioned OE's troubleshooting log doesn't even
record the fact that the command is used (let alone trace the
contents of its response.)

E.g. here is what OE sends when the Refresh command is given
and a start of the response which was generated by the msnews server.

example
200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.1830 Version: 6.0.3790.1830 Posting Allowed
MODE READER
200 NNTP Service 6.0.3790.1830 Version: 6.0.3790.1830 Posting Allowed
LIST

215 list of newsgroups follow
microsoft.public.academic.alliance.repository 13 1 y
microsoft.public.access 221139 206074 y
microsoft.public.access.3rdpartyusrgrp 49256 49223 y
microsoft.public.access.activexcontrol 39307 39049 y
/example


An alternative to capturing the packets for the list response which OE
gets
would be simulating the above request sequence in a telnet 119 session
and capturing that transaction.


What's interesting now is that the information contained in the list
response
only contains an implicit "estimate" of the number of messages available
(e.g. by subtracting the two numbers given with each newsgroup name.)

The real "estimate" is still given by a 211 response to group request:

example
group microsoft.public.access
211 14748 206077 221139 microsoft.public.access
/example

and that, as I showed earlier, is what you could get by
"synchronizing" newsgroups which you didn't want synchronized.


HTH

Robert
---