Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

Updated: February 19, 1999

One of the best ways to solve problems and learn valuable techniques is by discussing issues and questions with people who are using the same technologies as you. Various companies sponsor many mailing lists and newsgroups where you can interact with your peers. New areas are frequently opened and old ones closed, so be sure to search for current ones. Here's a sampling of some interesting areas, and instructions for locating others.

Mailing Lists
Newsgroups

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists send messages to you through e-mail, and you send messages to the list the same way. They work with most e-mail programs, though some may have problems with certain options. Most mailing lists offer digest subscriptions, which send all of the messages for each day in a single large message. Please read the Microsoft Mailing List User's Guide for detailed instructions on using Microsoft's mailing lists.

Click on the list names below for further information on each mailing list, including subscription instructions.

List Name	Subject
ASPlists	Active Server Pages (ASP) technology
ActiveServerPages	ASP server scripting
ADV-HTML	Advanced HTML authoring
ATL	Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) technology
Authenticode	Microsoft Trust Verification Services
CIFS	Microsoft Common Internet File System (CIFS)
CryptoAPI	Cryptography using the Microsoft Cryptographic API
DCOM	Microsoft Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM)
IE-HTML	HTML and scripting for Internet Explorer
IIS 4.0	Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 (IIS 4.0)
ISAPI	Writing ISAPI applications and filters
Java-COM	Using Java and COM together
MFC	Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC)
Windows Media Technology	Windows Media Technology
MSDN Wire	MSDN Online Community news
VISBAS-Beginners	Visual Basic beginners
VISBAS-L	Visual Basic

You can easily search for other mailing lists through:

L-Soft CataList, the catalog of LISTSERV® lists (http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html )
Liszt: Searchable Directory of Mailing Lists (http://www.liszt.com/ )

Newsgroups

For your convenience, we've compiled a list of Usenet newsgroups that focus on Internet technologies, Windows-based programming, and content development.

We also provide links to the Microsoft Product Support area of the Microsoft Web site where you can quickly search for Microsoft's Usenet Newsgroups where Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) work to support users.

For tips on using Usenet, searching through groups, finding specific groups, or just to find out more about newsgroups, see the Deja News site on the World Wide Web.

Peer-to-peer newsgroups are available to help you interact with other users of our products, including Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). A Microsoft MVP is a professional who voluntaily provides assistance to users through online forums. For more information, please visit the Microsoft MVP page .

In addition, Microsoft MSDN Online members have access to developer newsgroups with the Online Special Interest Groups' Web-based newsgroup reader.

Section	Newsgroups
Internet browsers	comp.infosystems.www.browsers.ms-windows Web browsers for Microsoft® Windows® comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc Web browsers for Microsoft Windows Microsoft newsgroups for Internet Explorer Internet Explorer for all platforms, plus Netmeeting, scripting, Java, Internet mail, and news
Internet servers	comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows Web servers for Microsoft Windows and Windows NT® Microsoft newsgroups for Internet Information Server Setup, usage, ActiveX™ server, and dbWeb
Web content development	comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html Writing HTML for the Web comp.infosystems.www.authoring.images Using images and image maps on the Web comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc Miscellaneous Web authoring issues
Authoring tools	Microsoft newsgroups for FrontPage Client, UNIX®, and Windows NT Extensions
Programming, general	comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.controls Controls, dialogs, and VBXes comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc Programming Microsoft Windows comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.ole OLE 2, COM, and DDE programming Microsoft newsgroups for ActiveX and Java ActiveX SDK, controls, programming, and Java Microsoft newsgroup for Microsoft Agent Programming interactive personalities within the Windows interface
Languages and tools	comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32 32-bit Windows programming interfaces comp.lang.c The C language comp.lang.c++ The object-oriented C++ language comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.mfc MFC-based development for Windows comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.misc Windows development tools comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.winsock Windows Sockets programming tools comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.controls Controls, dialogs, and VBXes comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.ole OLE 2, COM, and DDE programming comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32 32-bit Windows programming interfaces alt.lang.basic General coverage of the BASIC language comp.lang.basic General coverage of the BASIC language comp.lang.basic.misc General coverage of the BASIC language comp.lang.basic.visual.3rdparty Add-ins for Visual Basic® comp.lang.basic.visual.announce Official information on Visual Basic (moderated) comp.lang.basic.visual.database Database aspects of Visual Basic comp.lang.basic.visual.misc Visual Basic in general alt.lang.vrml VRML discussion Microsoft newsgroups for Visual Basic Controls, databases, OLE, and the Windows API Microsoft newsgroups for Visual C++ MFC, events, utilities, and ActiveX Microsoft newsgroups for Visual J++ Installation, compiler, development, and debugger Microsoft newsgroups for Win32 Development Kernel, MAPI, TAPI, RPC, multimedia, and OLE Microsoft newsgroups for Win16 Graphics, printing, kernel, and networks Microsoft newsgroup for XML Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Databases	comp.databases.ms-access Microsoft Access database discussion comp.databases.ms-sqlserver Microsoft SQL Server and related products Microsoft newsgroups for SQL Server Connections, ODBC, programming, and replication Microsoft newsgroups for Access Tables, queries, forms, modules, ODBC, security, and more Microsoft newsgroups for dbWeb (See page for Internet Information Server)
Windows, networking	comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.networks Network programming comp.os.ms-windows.nt.announce Windows NT announcements (moderated) comp.os.ms-windows.announce Announcements relating to Windows (moderated) comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.winsock Windows Sockets programming comp.os.ms-windows.networking.misc Windows and other networks comp.os.ms-windows.networking.tcp-ip Windows and TCP/IP networking comp.os.ms-windows.networking.windows Windows built-in networking
Windows NT and network administration	comp.os.ms-windows.networking.ras Windows RAS networking comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.misc Windows NT system administration comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.networking Windows NT network administration comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc General discussion on Windows NT Microsoft newsgroups for Windows NT Domain administration, netware, printing, communication, and more
Encryption and security technologies	comp.security.announce Security technology announcements comp.security.misc Computer and network security issues sci.crypt Cryptography