All of the different venues for posting/reading/replying to messages
are really nothing more than web-based front ends to the vernerable
NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol) protocol for UseNet message
systems. UseNet has been around a *lot* longer than the web. All else
that you may see in your "community" (or "forum" or "discussions" or
whatever they decide to call it) is eye-candy running on top of
UseNet. For the most reliable (and, in my opinion, easiest and
user-friendliest) connetcion and access to UseNet is to (1) use a
real news reader such as Forte Agent or Gravity, or, to a lesser
extent Outlook Express -- aka Windows Mail in Vista), and (2) connect
directly to the Microsoft servers (msnews.microsoft.com) rather than
going throgh all the hoops of your ISP's UseNet connection and all the
hoops of the web pages that try to "webify" UseNet.

Google Groups is Google's attempt to splatter HTML all over UseNet.
Google Groups does have a very nice search facility for archived
newsgroups (think the late Deja News).


Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group, 1998 - 2009
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)


On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:08:00 -0800, Ross
wrote:

Hi
Just a question...What is Google Groups? And yes, I'm getting the same
problems everyone else is. Also, the background color has changed from white
to gray...strange

Thanks