Archive-name: usenet/microsoft-faq Archive-title: [FAQ] How to add the microsoft.* hierarchy to a news server Last-modified: 2007/08/02 Posting-frequency: near start of every even month The « microsoft.* » hierarchy is the international Usenet hierarchy which deals with Microsoft products, technologies and topics in lots of various languages. For further information, please refer to , from which the first two answers of this FAQ are extracted. Information about the « microsoft.* » hierarchy can also be found here: . Note that if you carry that hierarchy, it is better to lighten your filtering rules for it since lots of articles are posted in HTML. I, Julien ÉLIE , wrote this FAQ in the hope of helping news administrators all over the world to properly configure the « microsoft.* » hierarchy on their news servers. I will post it every two months to both « news.admin.hierarchies » and « microsoft.public.news.server ». If you have any comments or if you find any errors, please do tell me so that I can improve this FAQ. What is exactly the « microsoft.* » hierarchy? ---------------------------------------------- Microsoft created Microsoft public discussions covering many Microsoft products, technologies, and topics because of the value of finding out what your peers think and getting information from people who use the same products and technologies you use. The Microsoft public discussions have been available to anyone on Usenet for a number of years. Thousands of Microsoft customers at all levels of expertise post in these groups today, creating the content, sharing information and contributing ideas. There are currently over 2,000 public discussion groups dedicated to discussing Microsoft products. Is Usenet the only way to have access to the « microsoft.* » hierarchy? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- No, there is also a web-based newsreader which allows you to enter into discussion groups where people who are passionate about Microsoft technologies share their thoughts, help, support, and ideas. The URL is: . Please note that I also maintain a more handy web page where you can find a link for each Microsoft newsgroup to its corresponding web interface. Who administers the « microsoft.* » hierarchy? ---------------------------------------------- The hierarchy is administered by Microsoft and their public news server is available from everywhere and allows a bidirectional feed of articles within « microsoft.* ». Besides, their news administrators often add and remove groups from their news server. However, they do not send control articles to propagate such changes. In fact, they used to; but it has been years since they last did that. That is why, I made up my mind in April 2007 and decided to send such control articles myself. I send a checkgroups control article at the beginning of each month; And, meanwhile, newgroup and rmgroup control articles when needed (that is to say when a newsgroup is created or removed, according to the official list of Microsoft newsgroups which can be found on their news server. By the way, as I do not continuously watch the active file of , please allow some time (usually not more than a couple of days) before control articles are actually sent. How should I configure my news server to honour these control articles? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, I want to remind you that is up to you to decide which newsgroups you carry. However, in order to have a « full feed », you should accept the control articles I send for the « microsoft.* » hierarchy. They will always reflect the current and official Microsoft newsgroups. For technical details and a list of public Usenet keys, you can see: * ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html (English) * http://www.trigofacile.com/divers/usenet/articles-controle.htm (French) All control messages for the Microsoft hierarchy are sent from and signed with the PGP key available from : Type Bits/KeyID Date User ID pub 2048R/E60E2FAA 2007-03-30 control-microsoft@trigofacile.com -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) mQENBEYM5lkBCACzpBm74ObU7a3+YYzr4+u/tmHZSEflAsZxN0qUU5/ZdB+Qncau HG2Sjy8CThTb48K1uf5P0sSGGdyPEGt+REv641fWiPZntqcfc0xWAzfmSHgRGH1b I8vpHfLu86yHpa8d+xJFTSGZRejaDUZXP4ZexlVuJ1dItUZTKHfgui4RoSWvmcGb OgE/Qc4QePXeZXWPfdZ3j/HSeM+wCCaCVrFZ25FMH3oySLV70CiqzP3EDAzxmm4F y2/jwCa9tu5pfKt1SR2U/nmfO4alBcSUnh40xuF2cBbTLeG/PFyKaER/DQKkirVg tFACzWI62XA73BX0L2V92TQAAD+imsjkxZDZABEBAAG0IWNvbnRyb2wtbWljcm9z b2Z0QHRyaWdvZmFjaWxlLmNvbYkBNgQTAQIAIAUCRgzmWQIbDwYLCQgHAwIEFQII AwQWAgMBAh4BAheAAAoJEGOpjRPmDi+qgWMH/3YTRBTs2nVFDFAM8Uw3iFV3XYdh urs/mLlPmI/LbHxoHuGL4TqmOW3RTriEKwsgphQqY1qFuIv2cnekqH7eGrf5fQzL E+TO9SGk76mo0qKC75HhBIZtyATBDrBiH97FiMXNgaOi6oiYikeZ11eURatVWzZl ul6f6dr1+DpP6qDZGA+OON2baYuIYYG1LkWtu/Zg46vmGXiL6P3vQnJToLhtTtmF xe2DftW/vVVu3i0FLBoNtTtP2fkTvux26j/2zohPWj43X9jXjW9lppLkBi0fCILX 0KLPC3zBDaI74nGooxgCE1QeMw03/BwHx3Wf7VDg4Dwbfp6iK6SM2qd1Mj8= =IfrI -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- The corresponding entry for the INN « control.ctl » file is: ## MICROSOFT (Microsoft Corporation, USA) # # Control articles for that hierarchy are not issued by Microsoft itself # but by a Usenet active participant in order to improve the quality of # the propagation of Microsoft newsgroups. Their official URL is: # http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx # # Contact: control-microsoft@trigofacile.com # URL: http://www.trigofacile.com/divers/usenet/clefs/index.htm # Admin group: microsoft.public.news.server # Key URL: http://www.trigofacile.com/divers/usenet/clefs/pgpkey-microsoft.asc # Key fingerprint = DF70 5FC9 F615 D52E 02DB A3CB 63A9 8D13 E60E 2FAA # Syncable server: msnews.microsoft.com newgroup:*:microsoft.*:drop rmgroup:*:microsoft.*:drop checkgroups:control-microsoft@trigofacile.com:microsoft.*:verify-control-microsoft@trigofacile.com newgroup:control-microsoft@trigofacile.com:microsoft.*:verify-control-microsoft@trigofacile.com rmgroup:control-microsoft@trigofacile.com:microsoft.*:verify-control-microsoft@trigofacile.com The C News' « controlperm » entry is: microsoft any cnr nq microsoft control-microsoft@trigofacile.com cnr pv control-microsoft@trigofacile.com And the DNews' « control.conf » entry: newgroup:*:microsoft.*:drop rmgroup:*:microsoft.*:drop checkgroups:control-microsoft@trigofacile.com:microsoft.*:doit,pgp newgroup:control-microsoft@trigofacile.com:microsoft.*:doit,pgp rmgroup:control-microsoft@trigofacile.com:microsoft.*:doit,pgp Where can I find the current list of Microsoft newsgroups? ---------------------------------------------------------- The current list of valid Microsoft newsgroups can be found either in their news server (the only official and authoritative source) or in the checkgroups file I maintain. The current list is also monthly posted in « news.lists.misc ». I generated the descriptions according to the names of the newsgroups. They were not provided by Microsoft. Anyway, the real topic of each newsgroup is contained in their self-explanatory names. -- Julien ÉLIE Web version of this FAQ: .