Alternate ways to access the User to User Forums

[_sysop_]

We're working on new ways to access the Adobe User to User Forums.

Right now the primary way to access the forums is via the web using an HTTP interface. But it is also possible to access the forums as newsgroups (NNTP).

[_sysop_]

To access the forums via a news reader you have to point the news reader to the adobeforums.com news server. You can also try www.adobeforums.com as the news server name.

When accessing via a news reader you have to have first set up an account in the forums. And you have to tell your news reader that the forum requires you to log in and have it send your user name and password when checking the news groups.

You can use a stand alone news reader such as Forte's Agent or you can use a mail program like Microsoft Outlook Express.

[_sysop_]

For testing using the Forums as a mailing list the Forum Comments Forum (that you are reading right now) has been set up as a mail list.

To receive and reply to messages via your email client you have to make a couple of changes in your forum preferences.

First, decide if you would like to receive individual messages, or a digest of messages. If you want to receive individual messages, decide if you want to get the full message or just an alert that there are new messages in the discussion.

Go to your forum preferences and make sure that the email address listed there is correct. Then go to the Email Notification section and check the box if you want to receive full messages in email (if you don't click the box you will just get a link back to the forum).

If you want to receive email digests instead of individual messages you can select what day(s) and time(s) you want to have the digests mailed out to you.

Scroll down and click on Accept Changes.

Then go to the list of topics in this forum ( http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6b30e ) and click on "Subscribe" or "Change Subscriptions" in the gray box above the list of topics.

In there you have the choice of how to handle your subscriptions. If you select Check Messages you will have to come to the web site and use the Read Subscription link to view your subscribed messages. If you select Email then new messages in the forum will be sent to your email address. If you select Digest you will be sent digests according to the schedule you have set in your Preferences.

[_sysop_]

There is one caveat about using the Forums as a mailing list. You will not be able to post messages via email if you have more than one Forum account with the same email address. In this case the Forum will bounce your mail back to you saying that it couldn't authenticate you and the email will have a link back to the message thread.

[_Terry_Morse_]

It's been a few months since I needed to consult Adobe user-to-user forums. My preferred method is via news reader. In the past, I have used both Photoshop (Windows) and GoLive (Windows) groups. However, only the Photoshop newsgroup appears to be working properly at the moment. The last message on the GoLive newsgroup is dated 6/1/2001. Is this newsgroup still functioning? If not, will it be soon?

Please _don't_ suggest (as others have in the past) that I would be better off viewing the forum from Adobe's website. The newsgroup version is infinitely more convenient for me.

Thanks,
Terry

[John_Cornicello_Photo]

Hi Terry.

All of the forum newsgroups are on the same server. So if Photoshop is up to date GoLive should also be up to date.

I just subscribed to GoLive Windows via Outlook Express and the newest message I see there is "Importing an Image Created in ImageReady with Image Map Rollover Settings" dated Monday, October 29, 2001 11:12 AM

What newsreader are you using? Can you tell it to refresh its view of the server?

John

[_Margie_Roswell_]

- I can't seem to get this to work as a newsgroup in Free Agent. I set the News Server to www.adobeforums.com or adobeforums.com. I put in my user name (which has a space) and my password. I clicked on Get New Groups, and I get a message saying "Sorry! An online error occured When: looking up server www.adobeforums.com

- I would much prefer a regular newsgroup that gets archived and is usable by google.com (please!?)

- even so, I can't read this is as a newsgroup in Free Agent, and any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Margie

[BigJohnD]

Hi, Margie,

> "Sorry! An online error occured When: looking up server www.adobeforums.com
>
The newsgroup is "adobeforums.com" - there is no prefix such as 'news' or
'www'. I have no trouble with Virtual Access, and in fact prefer collecting
messages with it to read off-line than to moving through all the threads
on-line.

Len in PM WIN and PS WIN used to use FA and Aandi in the Acrobat Forums still
does - I'm sure they can help with the finer points.

> user name (which has a space)
>
That's OK.


Iechyd da! John
Merseyside UK
Written at Fri, 04 Jan 2002 16:51 GMT, probably posted later.

[_Margie_Roswell_]

Must've been a firewall issue, as Free Agent works perfectly well from home (what port is this stuff on?)

By the way, the Indesign Scripting forum doesn't seem to be coming through on Free Agent. There's the Windows, Mac, the SDK, and the Service Provider forums under Indesign, but seems I can only access the scripting one via the web?

Margie

[_Aandi_Inston_]

News readers use the NNTP port - TCP port 119.

Aandi Inston

[John_Cornicello_Photo]

Margie, the Scripting forum is available as a newsgroup. It should be called "adobe.scripting.indesign" (it is a subforum of the scripting forum).

John

[_Barry_Shaklan_]

Several days ago I signed on and registered in the forums for the first time. I then went to my newsreader and was able to configure it with the password and sign-in name to access the newsgroups at adobeforums.com. Had no problem for several days both reading and posting messages....but today the forum seems non-accessible from the newsreader. Being new I wasn't sure if this was just a coincidence and it is down for maintenance, a problem on my computer, or in fact you have shut it down permanently from newsreader access. Wonder if you could give me a clue.

Thanks

[Guest]

Barry, they did a significant server upgrade today which may have affected things for you.

I don't have any real answers... but I can relieve a bit of anxiety anyway. It's likely not you.

Stay tuned, we'll very probably hear from other NR users.

[_Larry_Grohman_]

Dorothy, et al,

I've use newsreader for Adobe forums for better than a year. And as of today, I also can not get access.

Trust this will get fixed soon. Access via newsread is very nice.

Larry

[_Cyndee_Meystel_]

I have been reading these forums through MS Outlook Express set to adobeforums.com for a long time, but for the last day or so haven't been able to to get to them that way.

I am getting a message from Outlook Express that "an unknown request was received in response to a request for information from the news server 'adobeforums.com'.

I tried to remove the account and re- add it (remembering this happening once in the past) but that only results in the same mesage.

Does anyone know what happened or what to do to fix it? Thanks.

[John_Cornicello_Photo]

I have a call into the server folks to find out what's up with NNTP access this morning.

John

[_Cyndee_Meystel_]

Thanks John. I'm so used to reading the forums offline that I miss it.

[John_Cornicello_Photo]

I'm reading and replying right now from Outlook Express via NNTP. So it does
seem to be working again.

Thanks for your patience!

JohnC

[_Tom_Geschwender_]

It's still hiccupping in the broswer this morning. It loads very slow until you get about half a download, then it just speeds up and pops into view. I'm on a T3 line so it's not ISP delay. Last night on my telephone modem it was really driving me nuts (not a very long drive, I know. Perhaps more like a putt!).

[_Cyndee_Meystel_]

Yes, it is now working for me too.

[_sysop_]

Glad to hear it!!

Thanks!

[_Barry_Shaklan_]

I was told that they are revamping their servers. Yesterday connectivity returned for most of the day but disappeared again last night. I guess it will straighten out when they finish whatever they are doing.

[_Tom_Geschwender_]

It's virtually flying this morning!

[_Barry_Shaklan_]

This morning (1/17/02), I reviewed the last 85 messages placed on the Acrobat Reader Forum. Of those 85, 18-20 of them were written by Aandi Inston (wonder what his real name is) who I suspect works for Adobe....possibly had something to do with the 5.05 upgrade of reader. There appears to be a real problem with 5.05 as many messages in the past 2 weeks have mentioned the same thing. Almost all of Mr. Inston's answers are DEFENSIVE, SARCASTIC, UNHELPFUL, IRRITATING AND FRUSTRATING to your users (just read the forum) and will only serve to drive everybody away from Adobe. I would suggest that if he works for you still, that you move him off the forum and utilize his talents to fix the program. In any case some counselling as to the bad affect of taking a defensive point of view, asking multiple further questions to the user (many of which were already implied or answered) and hardly coming up with a ray of hope that the problem has been identified and will be fixed, as I mentioned, will divert your users to more rewarding activities.

[BigJohnD]

Hi, Barry,

> Aandi Inston (wonder what his real name is)
>
That is his name, and he's up in Scotland.

> works for Adobe
>
He is independent. And one of the most respected, skilled and knowledgeable
people in the field.

Far from driving people away from the forum, they seek him out.

It's time to review your attitude.


Iechyd da! John
Merseyside UK
Written at Thu, 17 Jan 2002 19:33 GMT, probably posted later.