How to Install and use the community Forums NNTP Bridge

Information :
If you choose to use the NNTP Bridge suggested by Microsoft instead of using the web interface to the forums.
http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/

1: You will have have to install two bridges if you want to read/reply in the Answers, TechNet or MSDN forums.
2: The shortcut Ctrl h is not working to filter on the threads you are in.

Personal I like the Bridge from Jochen Kalmbach below much more, check it out if you are interested.


Community Forums NNTP bridge (from Jochen Kalmbach)

Project Description :
Community project for accessing the MS Web-Forums via an open source NNTP newsserver (bridge).


Step 1 :

Sign in with your Windows Live ID first in the web forums to turn on the NNTP Bridge in the Settings,
if you not have ID you can make one if you click on ”Sign in” in one of the following links.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/categories

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/user

After you sign in click on “My Settings" on the right side and check “Use NNTP Bridge”
Note: you see that you must do it in both forums


Step 2

Then download the latest release here
http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/releases/

You only need to download the CommunityForumsNNTPServer.Setup.zip file.
Extract this file to your local hard drive and execute the setup.exe.
This will install the community NNTP Bridge into your program folder
(for example "C:\Program Files (x86)\Community\CommunityForumsNNTPServer\").
It also installs the required components for the LiveId authentication (Microsoft.WindowsLive.Id.Client.dll).

After installation, you can find the program under "Start | Programs | CommunityForumsNNTPServer".


Step 3

Starting the bridge

If you start the community forums nntp bridge (Start | Programs | CommunityForumsNNTPServer) for the first time, it might happen that you must enable this program in your firewall!

After this is done, you will see the following user-interface for version v35 after you clicked on the
button at the bottom for prefetching all newsgroups from the webservice.

Note: Check out for updates once in a while



By default, the Windows Live Id dialog will automatically appear and you must sign in with the
same Id that you used to turn on the “Use NNTP Bridge” in the web forums.
If the logon was successful, the bridge will automatically start listening for request on port 119
and will minimize to the system tray. Tip: Enable Tools | Create LiveId auto login so it automatic login.

Settings
If you want to change some settings you can go to the system tray and click once on the bridge icon.
In the main user interface, you can start and stop the bridge or Exit the Bridge, you can also
change some other settings there or in the menu, read more about this on this page:
http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/documentation



Step 4

Setup your mail program so you can use the bridge

If correct the Bride is running now, but how do we use it?
In this example below I use Windows Live mail

Click on Newsgroups and then on Add newsgroup Account
Enter your display name
Next
Enter you mail address
Next
Enter this server name 127.0.0.1
Next
Finish

You can subscribe to the forum you want the same way you did with the old newsgroups.
In the links to the WebInterface of the Forums you can find the name of the forum( before /threads)

For example Microsoft Answers have a few Forums for Excel

Creating, Formatting, Filtering and Sorting Data
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/excslcreate/threads

Using Formulas and Equations
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/excelform/threads

Using Pivot Tables, Charts, and other ways to Display Information
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/excelchart/threads

Sharing, Printing and Securing Data
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/excelshare/threads

Installing, Upgrading, and Activating Microsoft Office Products
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officeinstall/threads

Microsoft Office Customization and Programming
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officeprog/threads

Also check out the MSDN and Technet forums and your local Answers forums in the forum list

Tip: Some newsreader have a feature that will show all threads in which you are involved
(Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail, and maybe others : Ctrl-h).
This feature requires that the messages contains your email address.
By default the forums does not have any email address. To detect your client email address, you
just need to post an article one time to the forum and all your subsequent articles will have your
email address in the form field.

If it is correct you can now use the Ctrl h shortcut to filter on your own messages in every Forum.



Other information

You can also read the info on this page how to setup and install the Bridge or read my step by step above
http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/documentation

And if you like the project and want to support the maker Jochen Kalmbach see:
http://communitybridge.kalmbach.eu/

If Microsoft changes the way the bridges can access the forums, then the community bridge could be
offline/broken until it can be modified to support the changes.

Here's a link to the MS Bridges:
http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/