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" wrote in message
...
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 softwa 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" wrote in message
...
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_R...:_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/...moving_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" wrote in message
...
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