Thanks for the support also Pop, my only point from the beginning was that I
believe better disclosure is warranted in the ng setup instructions in the
help files. My only reason for the original post was to warn other newbies
about this undisclosed risk, and was rather surprised that my position was
attacked by those in the know. I have only used this email account on just
this one ng, nothing else, and only 2 posts before Bruce warned me about the
problem. So I do know positively that all the spam is the result of those 2
posts.That was 9 months ago and I get so much spam from those 2 posts that
some of it still gets through 3 filters including McAfee SpamKiller and the
filter at my ISP. None of my other 5 accounts have received a single piece
of spam in the same time, and I spend hours a day on the net and use the
other accounts extensively. I know I can change the address to stop the spam
completely, but I have my reasons for keeping this address, for now. I know
I'm not talking to MS here, was just hoping the advice may help a few other
new users. Like you said, I know the info is out their now, just not easily
found, and not where and when its needed.

I have seen that you volunteer, what I consider a great deal of time here to
helping others as well, and I agree that the true problem is the bottom
feeders, but the lack of action to combat this is only assisting them, and I
do think that a simple warning (education as you put it) would go along way
to help. And, I don't think this warning in an obvious place would be very
difficult or costly at all to implement. I am aware that are other web
client are guilty of the same, but I can not speak to those with which I am
unfamiliar. I've been around a little while now, but certainly I do not know
everything and I enjoy learning new things. Thanks for the link you
provided, I have educated myself to most of it previously, but every new
page I see adds a little bit more to that knowledge, and is much
appreciated.

Sorry if I was a little 'ranty', but I never imagined this would turn into
such an issue. I kinda thought most regulars here would just leave this
alone and let it be a good notice to the newbies who made the same mistake
as me. And I did state that I was not asking for advice at the beginning of
the original post, and while the posts may be rather longer than usual, no
one is obligated to read them (I'm sure one click would have 'ignored' all
subsequent posts), but some sure seemed to feel the need to respond to them
anyway. LOL.Thanks for the comment also about "sort of liking" my posts.
Unfortunately, my free time is just about up, so I'll have to let this take
its own path now. I'll try to check back to see if anything gets
interesting, but I suspect I won't have time to say much else with the
holidays on top of work.

Thank you to all of you who volunteer your valuable time here to helping
others. It truly is the spirit of the season which should last all year long
in a perfect world.

Merry Christmas and Happy and Safe Holidays to you all and yours,
Dan




"Pop`" wrote in message
...
You're a little "ranty", but I'm still glad you posted here.

First off, you're not talking to MS here; it's -just- a newsgroup.
Second, you're right about not knowing ahead of time, and you should have.
Education is the only answer to this problem and no one really tries very
hard that has the ability to reach the masses; it isn't just MS. Third,
it's hidden, but MS does have such advice; you just won't find it easily.
Education is key.
The advice to not enter your real email address is because of
bottom-feeding bass turds who scrape names from groups, as you already
know. However, that wasn't the case when such programs were originally
written.
You can use a made up name such as lid, or if you
actually want to get emails from a group (unusual and not advised), then
at best use a throw-away account from one of hte many freebie offereings
around the 'net.

Lastly, it's likely some of your spam came from ng posts here, but there
are many other sources and since you're obviously a newbie to many things
yet, there is still a lot to learn. I'd start at:
http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html
Be patient and read the whole thing.

Also: This is not a forum: It's a newsgroup. Forums are graphics based
readers for something -like- a newgroup, but are different. You can look
them up wikipedia.org.

Yes, this is a very helpful ng and Bruce is one of the best posters here.
He posts a lot, and volunteers considerable time to this group and others
too. I'm sure your comments are appreciated by Bruce.

Personally I don't consider it negligence on the part of MS. I consider
it illegal activity by bottom-feeding bass turds who have no redeeming
qualities of any kind.

And again, this isn't MS people here; most are just volunteers who went
thru the same steps you are going thru; until we get more education in the
world, it will continue too, since it's not just MS, but ALL web clients
who are guilty of this sort of "missing info"| with only a couple of
exceptions.

Pop`


Dan wrote:
This is not a request for assistance, but rather a warning for newer
users here, to hopefully prevent you from the same frustrations I
have experienced as a result of using this forum.

Let me say that I have found this forum EXTREMELY helpful for solving
problems. Bruce Hagen, if he is still around, did an excellent job
assisting me. He also alerted me to the fact that my real email
address was available to all on this forum, BECAUSE MICROSOFT FAILS
TO WARN & INSTRUCT USERS WHEN SETTING UP OUTLOOK EXPRESS TO USE THESE
NEWSGROUPS, that you should NOT, I repeat NOT, NOT, NOT enter your
real email address!!!!!!!!!!
When I set this up, it required me to enter an email address in order
to post here. Nothing warned me that my REAL address would be easily
accessible to all here, NOR did instruct me that I could enter a
false address to thwart the spammers when entering the REQUIRED email
address during sign-up!!!!

Had Microsoft offered this very simple instruction in the beginning,
I am absolutely convinced that I would have NEVER, EVER, received ANY
SPAM!!!! This is on their network afterall, and their NEGLIGENCE to
provide this security information has caused me a great deal of
headache, that now seems will NEVER go away, making me wish I had
never, ever used this newsgroup in the first place!!!

Thank you to Bruce Hagen for recognizing and informing me about this
dangerous security breach. It would have been better if Microsoft were
RESPONSIBLE enough to have given this information in the newsgroup
setup instructions and process!!!!!

The RESULT of this NEGLIGENCE on Microsoft's part is that after just
a few postings before Bruce's alert to me, I am now bombarded on this
email account daily for the last 9 MONTHS by spammers, and ONLY on
this account. I have NEVER received spam on ANY OTHER email account I
have. Many of these spams have been VIRUSES & WORMS!!!! And luckily
my Anti-Virus scanners have been able to remove them. Although I
immediately followed Bruce's intructions to change the email address
displayed, it was too late, and I don't think there is anyway for me
to remove the previous postings with the real email address. So
Microsoft has left me with breach in security which it seems I can
NEVER fix, unless I CANCEL this email account. That is really SAD!!!
and worse yet, it was TOTALLY UNNECESSARY!!!
If Microsoft were honestly SERIOUS about network security, they would
alert ALL people to this security breach before allowing them to use
these newsgroups!!

I don't even want to imagine how much worse this would be if Bruce
had not alerted me to this issue at all, but I hope this message will
possibly assist others in avoiding the headaches I have had.

And Thanks A Lot Microsoft... I thought your mission was to provide
solutions to the masses, not to cause extra problems... but what do I
know anyway.

Best of Luck to All,
Sincerely,
D.