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.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"GO" wrote in message
...
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" wrote in message
...
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