User groups provide a valuable source of information for the average user, but they can be a little limited. There's only so much information you can expect to get from the members of your user group. Even if it's a larger group, you'll see a lot less than the literally thousands of people on CompuServe who work specifically with Windows NT. The Internet and other on-line services also provide a wealth of resources to the typical user. The types of information each on-line service provides vary, but in the long run, you'll find that most of them provide a level of information superior to that found in a local user's group.
Looking Ahead: I'm not going to cover the Internet in very much detail in this appendix. We'll take an overall look at on-line resources as a whole in this appendix, and then spend some time looking at the Internet in particular in Appendix B, "Internet Service Providers." I'll also provide you with a list of some Internet providers. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is among the vendors on the list. Make sure that you look at Chapter 20, "Building Your Own Internet Server," as well if you plan to build your own Internet server.
I won't say that every person you run into when using an on-line service will be an expert. Most of them are just average users like yourself. I've had the pleasure of running into some truly remarkable people from time to time while browsing through the messages. In fact, some people are constantly looking for ways to make Windows better in their spare time. You'll usually find them in a forum somewhere, just waiting to share this information with you.
On-line services offer other things of value as well. If you talk with your local users' group, for example, you're getting the local view of Windows NT. On the other hand, talking with someone on an on-line service, such as CompuServe or the Internet, might give you the English, Australian, or Japanese view of Windows NT. This international flavor will give you a better appreciation of features you might not have considered important before. In addition, the cultural differences actually work together to help you see new ways of using features you might not have seen before.
Aside from all the talking you'll do with other users, an on-line forum also gives you access to vendor representatives. At times, I've started a conversation with three or even four people who work for the company whose product I'm using. You'll find that the expert knowledge the vendor representative provides often gets mixed in with the real-world view of the other users. The result is that you actually get better information from the on-line service than you could have gotten from the vendor's technical support line.
Is this all there is? Not by a long shot. On-line services provide many of the features you've come to expect from a vendor BBS. You can go on-line to CompuServe, the Internet, or MSN (Microsoft Network), for example, and download the latest patches for just about any Microsoft product. The same holds true for other vendors as well (although many of them provide only CompuServe or Internet access, so you'll have to check to make sure that you'll find the vendor you need on the service you subscribe to). I've often found a needed NetWare patch on the NetWire forum on CompuServe.
If you think CompuServe or any other on-line forum is all software, think again. Practical Peripherals, AST, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and other hardware vendors provide valuable services here too. I think you'll find this hardware presence useful each time you need to download a new driver or ask a configuration question regarding Windows NT. You'll find the same level of expertise in these areas that you find in the software areas.
CompuServe and other on-line services aren't all work. You'll also find several areas that deal specifically with the fun end of life. Some CompuServe forums deal with travel and hobbies, for example. Some on-line services, like the Sierra Network, specialize in games or other forms of entertainment. Other on-line sources, like Prodigy and America On-Line, have a very definite family appeal. The list goes on and on. I dare say that if you get on-line, you'll never visit every forum there is, or even scratch the surface of the knowledge you could use. An on-line forum can provide a wealth of information and enhance the way you work. If you're really interested in all these other activities, I suggest that you get one of the many books on the market that deal specifically with on-line computing.
Windows NT comes with the capability to use Microsoft Network (MSN) as part of the installed features. We took an initial look at what you could expect to find here in Chapter 18, "Talking to the Outside World." Actually, that chapter covered more of the usage end of the producthow to get something done. Let's take a look at MSN from another perspective.
Note: Even as I write this chapter, the complexion of MSN is changing as Microsoft comes to grips with the appeal of the Internet and the established base of users of other services such as CompuServe. The MSN you see will probably differ at least slightly from the one I write about here. With that in mind, think of this section of the chapter as more of an overview of the types of services you'll find rather than a precise overview of what you'll find.
The top menu is the place to begin with MSN. Like any on-line service, it uses a hierarchical format to allow you to "drill down" to the specific areas you want to find. Unlike many other services, though, using the hierarchical format is easy with MSN. In fact, you really can't get away from it because of the Explorer interface MSN uses. Figure A.1 shows what this top-level folder grouping looks like.
Figure A.1. The top level of the MSN Explorer interface tells you about the major features you'll find here.
You'll find much of what you'd expect here. Forums are devoted to writers, musicians, artists, comedians, and a variety of other fields. You can also find out about television, radio, and the theater here. In fact, you'll find just about any artistic endeavor that also deals with entertainment. There's also a well-designed section devoted to movies. It includes not only a forum for aspiring movie makers, but a movie review BBS and other movie-related features. I was happy to see sections specifically devoted to kids, teens, and adults. Two special sections allow you to voice your opinion about movies in the theater or on video. A special science fiction section grabbed my attention. I had hoped to find special sections for current events and the like. What I found was a general forum and three specialty forumsa lot less in the way of information than I had anticipated.
My first thought about this area was that it would offer access to The Wall Street Journal and other sources of financial information. (Admittedly, there is a rather anemic section called "Investing" that doesn't really tell you much except the stock prices for the day and some business news.) Don't get me wrongthis section does contain a lot of interesting entries. If you run a small business out of your home, for example, you'll find a forum specially designed to meet that need. A folder in the Small Office/Home Office area contains all kinds of business services. (You can find the same Business Services folders in the main Business and Finance folder.) You'll find an Ask a Lawyer forum here, as well as access to TRW. I was also very pleased to see a both a Federal Express and a UPS forum. You can schedule packages for pickup or check on the status of a package while on-line. One of the more unusual offerings was access to the PhotoDisk service. Once I got out of the Small Office/Home Office folder, I found that the Business and Finance folder includes an area where professionals of various persuasions could meet to discuss their trade. It includes 15 professional category folders, such as real estate and accounting. Each category folder contains professions as diverse as airline pilots, doctors, and the fashion designers. Overall, the Business and Finance folder seems tuned to the needs of a small business or a home user. This area needs a lot of work if you plan to find anything of a high-end or serious nature.
You'll want to come to this area of MSN to talk with other people. I'm not talking heavy business discussions, but the kind of light conversation you might have with your next-door neighbor. In fact, there's even an Atrium Restaurant you can visit. There are seats here for two, five, or ten people, just so you can have an intimate discussion with someone without having the entire world barge in on your conversation. If you prefer a garden to a restaurant, Chat World has one of those too. If you want a little more open discussion, you can go to places like the Games and Casino section. Section names like the "CheyAnne Dance Hall" and "Karaoke Bar" don't really say much about what's going on, but they do inspire the imagination.
This forum contains the sections you'd expect: hardware, software, computer games, and access to more than a few magazine vendors, such as Pinnacle Publishing, Windows Source, Computer Gaming World, and PC Magazine. Of course, you'll also find Microsoft Press here. It's the other forums you'll find interesting. One section is devoted to multimedia and another to telephony, for example. You'll also find sections for desktop publishing and MIDI. I was happy to see a computer classified ad section where you could look for a piece of used hardware or software or get rid of one that has been cluttering up your closet. The Altair Pavilion is a good place to go if you have questions about your computer or the computer industry in general. It appears that they have an on-line chat section where you can ask questions during a live session, but it wasn't active when I checked. You'll see announcements in MSN Today regarding the various seminars and other services provided at the Altair Pavilion. Overall, you'll find everything a home user will need if all you're looking for is help from other users. On the other hand, if you need help from a vendor, you'll probably have to use an on-line service such as CompuServeat least in the interim until Microsoft garners the support it needs. There were only two hardware vendors and 16 software vendors as MSN neared its opening date of August 24, 1995. Today, you'll find at least 46 software vendors and 14 hardware vendors at your disposala vast improvement over the past few months, but still far short of the offerings provided by other on-line services like CompuServe.
I hope this area eventually takes off, because it already shows some promise. To begin with, you'll find editions of Microsoft Bookshelf, Cinemania, and Encarta on-line. You'll also find sections devoted to colleges and universities, fields of study, and computer education. Another section is specifically designed with educators in mind. It offers a forum in which they can discuss important issues and a BBS they can use to download files. Parents can talk with primary and secondary educators here. I was intrigued by the section for home schooling as well. International students will find a section specifically designed for their needs. It includes the usual files and chat sections. The International Exchange Program folder looked pretty interesting too. Looking into this folder, you'll find many of the things that an international student would need. One forum deals with student housing and another with pen pals, for example. The International Language Learning forum will certainly come in handy for those who don't know how to speak the language of the country they're going to. I also thought the Phone Home Tips and Tools forum was a nice idea because it's difficult to know the best way to contact those at home after you make the move.
Nothing has hit the news more in the past few years than the need to keep physically fit. The benefits of exercise have been touted in a variety of ways. The perils of doing things wrong have also hit the newsstands, making physical fitness into a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This section provides a lot more than I originally anticipated that it would. Not only can you find out the latest news about exercise equipment, but there are two sections devoted to the medical side of physical fitness as well (one for preventative medicine and another for those times when preventative measures didn't do the trick). You'll also find sections where you can get help in the form of counseling. Taking care of your mind is at least as important as your body, so this forum rounds out a well thought-out area of MSN.
The potpourri of subjects offered here should keep just about anyone happy. There were sections for teenagers and children and a lot of different hobby-specific areas. The pet forum looked like it was the most active when I visited. Besides the usual cat and dog sections, I found sections for fish, birds, reptiles, and something called "wee furry folk." These forums contained the usual chat and file sections. I found it interesting that they also included special sections for the care and feeding of your pet and another for pet pictures. Besides the pet areas, you'll find sections on home improvement, gardening, and genealogy in the Home and Family area. The Home and Garden folder contains a wealth of information. You'll find separate forums for improving, building, and buying a home. There's even a Gardening for Kids forum. The '90s-specific forums include topics such as work-at-home dads and working mothers. I thought these added just the right "updated" touch that might separate MSN from other on-line offeringsat least in this area. The Home and Family Town Hall folder provided an area where you could talk with others about home and family-related topics. This is also the area where special guests, as listed in MSN Today, will appear to talk about home and family-related topics.
Would you like to find out about the latest paranormal activities in the world? This is where you should go. I expected to find some of the more mundane hobbies here, such as gardening and crafts, and they were present, but there were some unusual offerings as well. Besides the other interesting forums, such as Games and Gaming, you'll find a forum devoted to magazines. It wasn't very active when I looked, but it probably contains the usual chat and file sections along with a magazine review area. The Travel forum also contains an unusual entry: Theme Parks. Here, you can find out about your favorite theme park. Disney had its own special section. Perhaps the most helpful feature of this entire area was all the pictures of the various theme parks. Some of them numbered in the hundreds when I checked. By the time you read this book, you should be able to download a picture for just about every aspect of the major theme parks. The pictures are usually followed by a description of what you're seeing. This is one way to find out in advance what you'll see. Some of the other folders in this area follow:
We'll take a complete look at this area in Appendix B, but let me give you a quick rundown of it. The Internet Center allows you to access the Internet. It also provides quick access to many of the news services the Internet provides. It's especially important to look at the Read Me! icon in this folder because it provides special news and information regarding the Internet. The document you download will also contain an icon that requests full access to the Internet resources MSN provides, including adult material that you won't normally see. Not surprisingly, this was the most active area on MSN during my visits there.
One of the things that's most attractive about on-line services is their international appeal. One of the ways that I feel MSN is ahead of the game is in this particular area. Unlike other on-line services where you may be stuck trying to work in English even if you speak German, this section allows you to access sections in other languages. Instead of a Health and Fitness section, for example, the German Categories listing contains Gesundheit and Fitness. In other words, you get to use MSN in the language you know best.
Just like any other mall, you'll find a lot of stores here. I found a few unexpected offerings like Gourmet Gift Net, with stores like Bella Java and Sweet Decadence. For the most part, though, you'll find the expected offerings, such as American Greetings and Columbia House. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a mall without an MSN Gift Shop; you can buy T-shirts and other MSN gifts here. The MSN Mall is a lot smaller than I anticipated. I'm attributing the size to the relative newness of the on-line service at the moment. Hopefully, Microsoft will entice other businesses to frequent the mall as well.
This looks like a relatively new offering on MSN. At least, it has the feel of a new offering. You'll find the expected MSN-specific news and weather forums here. I was a bit surprised to find that MSN also offers both NBC News and USA Today. Time Warner also has a hand in this section. Overall, you'll find a fairly well-stocked news area at your disposal.
It was almost a disappointment to get to this section. MSN currently supports only a few of the items you would see on other on-line services. There's a section for men, another for women, and one if you want to discuss religion. The Culture forum turned out to be one of the highlights here. It contains several ethnically related sections, including one for African Americans and another for Jews. It wasn't clear why MSN didn't provide sections for other cultural groups, but they definitely should. There also are forums for Holidays and Special Occasions (where you can discuss the holidays or other events practiced by your culture or a culture in another country) and Genealogy (which contains the usual chat and file-download sections, coupled with a genealogy library you can use to research your background).
You'll find a lot of forums relating to government and world affairs here. I found the same types of access to the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives here that I've found in other on-line services. There are also forums for the Armed Forces. Three folders allow you to react to the current political situation in the United States: Voter Report (an area devoted to reporting the latest government happenings), Voter Alert (an area where special interest groups can tell you about the government's misdeeds), and Weekly Survey (an area where you can respond to a survey about current issues the government is considering). For those of you who really like researching our government by looking at what the politicians had to say, there is a Famous Speeches and Text forum. You can download any speech from the eighteenth, nineteenth, or twentieth centuries. I found the Monroe Doctrine and the Gettysburg Address in the 19th Century area. Two special areas are Hot Topics (under the GoverNet: The Political Machine folder) and Journalism World (under The Media folder). The Inferno forum contained everything from home emergencies to living in the wild. If there's a disaster or emergency topic, you'll find it here. The Journalism World forum contains sections for just about every topic imaginable. There are separate sections for radio, television, and newspaper journalists. You can also find jobs or items for sale in two other sections of this forum. If you're a journalist or aspiring to become one, this is the place to go to meet your colleagues.
This area held very few surprises for me. It included all the forums you would expect, such as biology and astronomy. You'll also find sections on electronics, chemistry, communications technology, medicine (the scientific end of it, not the practical end), physics, transportation, engineering, geology and geography, and social sciences. The one forum I didn't expect was devoted to math. It seems as though each math discipline has its own set of equations to memorize, so I expected to find math discussions in those forums, but I didn't expect to find the wealth of other information I found there. There was one thread on how to create your own 3D-graphing calculator, for example, and another that dealt with solutions to Rubik's Cube. The Edison Auditorium is another question-and-answer forum. All you do is leave your science or technology question and then return for the live session in order to get your answer. I was very happy to see a specific forum on the environment. Of all the forums, the Astronomy and Space forum seemed the most active. There were several libraries here, including one for astronomy pictures (those taken from a telescope) and space pictures (those taken from a spacecraft or the Hubble Telescope). You'll also find a library devoted to NASA press releases and another to Astro Magazine. Of course, this folder also contains the usual chat and user library sections as well.
This is where you would look for real-time discussions of any events listed in MSN Today. It includes an area for Babbage Auditorium and a forum where you can test your communications skills. Babbage Auditorium is a general question-and-answer chat section. It is used for special guests; some of the guests are listed in MSN Today. At the time I looked, there were also special forums for Super Bowl XXX and Valentine's Day (even though the actual day was already past, the forum was still present). This section also contained a special forum for chat tips for new users. Obviously, this is one of the most volatile areas of MSNits contents could literally change on a daily basis.
If you like sports of any kind, this is the forum for you. I found areas for water, winter, indoor, outdoor, field, court, and motor sports. This forum is also appropriate for people who want to stay in shape but don't necessarily want to become the next boxing champion of the world. You'll also find forums designed to inform you of health and fitness issues. There's also a separate sports medicine area, where you can find out how to get rid of the leg cramps you get after running or other types of sports injuries. I also appreciated the special section for people with disabilitiessomething missing on all too many other on-line services.
It's not too difficult to see that MSN is a work in progress. There are still a lot of features to add before this will provide nearly the same level of service other on-line products provide for the large business user. The home and small business user will find a wealth of information here that should make computing with Windows 95 a lot easier. To its credit, MSN does offer something for everyone. The fact that you have such easy access to it through Windows NT is a real plus. You'll likely find that the level of support you'll receive will get a lot better if MSN product matures. That's a big if right now, however, because Microsoft seems to be having more than its share of troubles garnering support for MSN. Look at the extreme lack of software and hardware vendor participation, for example. You'll probably want to take a good hard look at MSN before you commit to it.
Windows Users Group Network (WUGNET) isn't an on-line service, but it's an important group to get to know. They have a forum on CompuServe and many users' groups throughout the United States. WUGNET also has its own newsletter, Windows Journal. They encourage people to contribute articles. If you're interested, contact Howard Sobel at 76702,1356 or at sobel@libertynet.org. Sobel will also be your contact on CompuServe for many forum-related activities.
WUGNET was founded in 1988 as an independent organization devoted to providing technical resources for Windows users. Their main goal is to communicate trends and developments in Windows programming and usage to the user community on an international level. They also get involved in some standardization efforts, but their actual participation is not as easy to see here as it is elsewhere.
What will working with WUGNET buy you? They provide presentations about Windows in general through CompuServe, conferences, trade shows, publications, trade books, and various membership interactions. You can access their forum by using GO WUGNET.
Note: Joining WUGNET is easy. All you need to do is fill out a membership form that you can download from the CompuServe forum. They offer a range of membership levels, including both personal and corporate rates. WUGNET also provides a few points of contact outside of CompuServe. Here's the information for their main membership contact:
Jim Herndon
Windows Users Group Network
126 E. State St.
Media, PA 19063
E-mail: CompuServe 76702,1356
Internet e-mail: sobel@libertynet.org
Telephone: (215) 565-1861
Fax: (215) 565-7106
Direct membership enrollment: 800-WIN-USER
(1-800-946-8737)
After you become a member of WUGNET, you'll receive a toolkit. It contains a variety of things, including on-line Windows help versions of the Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups resource kits, WUGNET System Engineer (available soon), and a support-oriented CompuServe forum with a private library for members. System Engineer is the most interesting tool of the group. It allows you to decipher the myriad entries in the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files on your machine. (Even though Windows NT doesn't require either SYSTEM.INI or WIN.INI, more than a few applications still use them, so knowing what these files contain is still important.) System Engineer also provides a variety of performance- and resource-monitoring tools. Overall, you'll find this a helpful tool for any version of Windows, but it's admittedly Windows 3.x-specific for the moment. Hopefully, they will come up with a version of this valuable tool for Windows NT. Of course, this toolkit also includes Windows Journal, which I mentioned earlier.
In addition to the direct benefits you get from being a WUGNET member, there are other bonuses. The one most people will really appreciate is reduced prices for software and hardware from a variety of vendors. Some of these vendors include Lotus, Artisoft, Knowledge Garden, hDC, and Micrografix. This is just a short list, but it shows the wide variety of vendors who provide support for WUGNET.
There is also a CD offering for Windows 95 users in the works. Windows NT uses will also benefit from this CD because it contains WIN32-specific utilities. It contains a wealth of shareware and freeware utilities. These are demo versions of programs from people you don't know. In addition to the shareware and freeware, you'll find some fully functional utilities from name-brand vendors as well. Some of the companies who provide software for this CD include Attachmate, American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), Micrografix, and yours truly. Yes, that's right: You'll see a Personal Training Systems ProductPeter Norton Presents Windows 95 Made Easy Tutorialas part of the WUGNET Windows 95 CD.
Before I get into a full-fledged look at CompuServe in general and the Microsoft offerings in detail, I'd like to look at one special Microsoft forum called the Microsoft Knowledge Base. This isn't a standard forum like the others you'll find on CompuServe. Instead, it's a library of articles, white papers, and other sources of information you'll need in order to use specific Microsoft products. We'll see later how this special forum fits into the overall scheme of things.
Right now, I'd like to cover why it's important and how you use it. I often look at the Microsoft Knowledge Base for information about the future direction of Microsoft products. I was able to find a white paper called "Program Manager Issues in Windows NT" (a similar white paper helped people make the move from Windows 3.x to Windows 95). You can also find out a lot about problems people are havingpeople just like youand Microsoft's suggested solutions. One white paper told me about "Windows 95 and After Dark 2.0 Issues" that I could expect. Some of these same issues will affect the latest version of Windows NT because it uses the Explorer interface and the WIN32 API. Finally, you can find out the technical details of a product. I found a white paper that provided an "Explanation of System Resources in Windows NT" while browsing through the Knowledge Base. It's not too difficult to figure out that the Knowledge Base is more like a fax support line than anything else. The method you use to interact with it is a lot different, however.
The problem with using automated support in most cases is that unless you really know what you're looking for, it's not very likely that you'll find it. I've been through some fax support lines that are so unfriendly you won't get any information at all unless you know a specific article name or its number. Microsoft Knowledge Base is different. It provides a search engine you can use to actually find the information you're looking for.
So how do you use this nifty Microsoft offering? The first thing you need is a CompuServe account. You'll have to follow the specific guidelines from your software vendor for getting an account set up and your communications software installed. After you get all that done, you need to get on-line in terminal mode. (Products such as CompuServe Information Manager use this mode as a default. Other products, such as TapCIS and OzWin, require you to enter a special command to get into terminal mode.) After you get on-line, use whatever command your communications package provides to GO MSKB.
When you get there, you'll see a menu with the following options:
The Search the Knowledge Base selection is probably the most likely choice unless someone from Microsoft directs you to a specific article or you use the search engine quite a bit. After you choose this option, you see a menu of choices for limiting the number of articles Microsoft Knowledge Base displays. This menu allows you to choose the following criteria: product name, product version, publication date, operating environment, document type, document text, and title text. The last two options allow you to display all the articles Microsoft Knowledge Base found and then to start a new search.
CompuServe is absolutely huge. I don't think I've ever really seen everything it has to offer. There's something here for everyone, no matter what your occupation, hobbies, or interests. Seeing really is believing. In fact, it's so large that most people seem to stick to one or two areas because of the number of features CompuServe offers. Besides news, weather, and the stock market, you can shop on-line and access other services, such as Delphi. I even use CompuServe to access the Internet and look for reference materials in Books in Print.
One of the biggest areas CompuServe offers is software. I've seen vendors here that you would never expect to see on-line. Just about every game and utility vendor that has any market share at all is here. Many shareware vendors are here as well. You'll also find big companies, such as Borland, Computer Associates, and Lotus. Some companies have more than one forum to offer. Both Computer Associates and Novell occupy more than one forum area, for example.
It would be difficult to describe in an appendix what some entire books have a problem describing. Some of these books are as large as or even larger than this one and still can't provide a complete listing of all the features CompuServe provides. With that in mind, I want to concentrate on one area. Because this book is about Windows NT, I'll tell you what kinds of services Microsoft has to offer.
Microsoft offers a wide range of services to all its product users and support technicians. Besides the standard publication of magazines and books, Microsoft offers on-line services as well. There are two basic services: Microsoft On-line and Microsoft's forums on CompuServe. (You can also gain access to some Microsoft information through the Internet.) With these services, you can use your computer to stay in touch with Microsoft. The Microsoft On-Line service is by subscription only, so I won't cover it here. This section does cover Microsoft's CompuServe forumsa vast array of places you can use to get answers for every conceivable question. These forums also offer download services that give you free updates to your Microsoft products. (Of course, you'll see this service only when the update is free of charge.) Figures A.2 through A.4 provide an overview of Microsoft's CompuServe forums.
Figure A.2. A hierarchical view of Microsoft's CompuServe offering.
Figure A.3. Microsoft's CompuServe offering, continued.
Figure A.4. Microsoft's CompuServe offering, continued.
As you can see from these figures, Microsoft's CompuServe offering is hugeand this doesn't even include all the beta forums Microsoft supports. If you feel a little overwhelmed by the number of services Microsoft offers, you're not alone. You could spend days just trying to find the right forum for your particular needs. For that matter, unless you use a product such as WinCIM (a Windows-based communications program specifically designed for use with CompuServe) to maneuver through the labyrinth of CompuServe menus, you might not even reach your destination. Using Figures A.2 through A.4 should make your job easier and allow you to use more cost-conscious tools, such as TapCIS to find your way through CompuServe. Microsoft also offers some special forms of WinCIM that include all the required GO words as part of the Favorite Places listing. One these appear on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).
Figures A.2 through A.4 are arranged in a hierarchical format. This means that the upper level menus appear first. The actual forums appear at the bottom of the hierarchical tree. Notice the GO words in parentheses beside each menu or forum name. A GO word provides a shortcut on CompuServe. If you know the GO word, you can go directly to the menu or forum you want to see. Not every menu entry has a GO word, but enough are provided in Figures A.2 through A.4 to greatly decrease your search time. Every forum has a GO word, making it easy to get to any forum you want to visit. You type GO <Forum Name> to get to your destination. Some software, such as WinCIM, OzWin, and TapCIS, automate the GO part of the command for you, but you still need to provide the forum name. Most of the CompuServe-specific communications software will allow you to add the forum name to a list so that you don't have to remember it each time you want to access the forum.
Notice that the upper level menu doesn't list product areas or forums. This level does provide access to Microsoft forums in various languages, though. This allows you to communicate with Microsoft even if you don't understand English. Unfortunately, not every language provides all the services that the Microsoft U.S. section does, so you might need to use this section in some cases.
There is one special GO word that these figures don't contain. You can use GO MSP to get to the Microsoft Press section of the mall. Think of the CompuServe mall as an electronic form of the mall you visit to go shopping. You'll find a wide variety of stores here beside Microsoft Press. You can use the Microsoft Press forum in the CompuServe mall to order books or a catalog. Using it saves you a trip to the bookstore by providing you with a complete list of the books you can order. Even the best-stocked bookstore in the world might miss a selection or two out of Microsoft Press' vast array of books. The following text describes the sections you'll find in the Microsoft U.S. section.
This section offers four services:
You can download any of these four services for future reference. Each one tells you about a different component of Microsoft. Unfortunately, this section doesn't provide any interactive capability. Microsoft provides these services through the plethora of forums described in the following section. Overall, this section provides you with quick references. Essentially, it contains the telephone numbers you need to obtain further information.
We covered both of these selections earlier in this appendix. I'd like to provide a couple of additional paragraphs about the Microsoft Software Library because it appears by itself in some areas. It provides some additional features when it appears by itself that it doesn't provide when shown as part of the Microsoft Knowledge Base. You'll see what I mean when you actually start using Figures A.2 through A.4 to find various areas of interest on CompuServe.
The Microsoft Software Library provides access to a wide assortment of Microsoft-tested and approved software. This is differentiated from the software you normally download from forums, which Microsoft might not have tested. The Software Library uses a search engine similar to that used by the Knowledge Base. Of course, there are a few differences due to the differences in the tasks performed by these two services.
After you find the software you need, the Software Library gives you the opportunity to download it. There's no real difference between the download procedure for the software library and any other service on CompuServe. All you need to do is provide a file name for your computer and specify the download protocol. In most cases, your communications software will take care of the rest.
The Microsoft Services menu entry contains two submenus: Microsoft Developer Services and Microsoft Technet Services. The Microsoft Developer Services entry provides access to all the developer-related services, such as the Microsoft Developer Network forum. A developer is someone who writes applications using any number of tools, including compilers and debuggers. This particular forum is heavily tied to the Microsoft Developer Library (formerly, the Microsoft Developer Network) subscription service. This is a CD-ROM packed with information, Knowledge Base articles, books, and even some software. You can even download a special version of WinCIM in this area. This version provides special menu entries that relate to the Microsoft developer services.
Like the Developer Services area, the Microsoft TechNet Services area revolves around a CD-ROM subscription service. In this case, the subscription is called the Microsoft TechNet CD-ROM-based information service. This service is designed for people who require in-depth information on Microsoft products and how to support them. This differs from the programming language and operating system support provided by the Developer Network. The TechNet forum allows users to exchange ideas and provide feedback to Microsoft. It also provides access to TechEd information. TechEd stands for technical education and refers to Microsoft's education services outside the programming or operating system arena. As with the Developer Services area, you can download a special version of WinCIM for this area. This version provides special menu entries that relate to the Microsoft TechNet services.
This area of Microsoft CompuServe support provides access to all the user-oriented tools, such as Word, Excel, Access, and FoxPro. In fact, these four products have their own special forums. FoxPro rates two forums: one for developers and the other for users. You can usually obtain information about the other Microsoft applications by going to the Microsoft Applications forum.
Four special menu entries allow you to access the Knowledge Base, Software Library, Sales, and Programming Applications forum. All four entries work just like their counterparts in other areas.
Microsoft differentiates between single-user and multi-user operating systems. This area deals with single-user or personal operating systems. Three operating systems are in this category: MS-DOS, Windows, and Windows for Workgroups. The menu entries for each area are pretty self-explanatory.
Notice the special entry for the Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Download Area. Going to this entry allows you to download the MS-DOS 6.22 setup software free of charge (except for connect time). As with the other areas described in this appendix, Microsoft provides access to its Knowledge Base and Software Library in this area as well.
There's a special area besides the Developer Network section for application developers. The Development Products area is much more general in nature. It gives you access to all the language products Microsoft provides. Note the special forums for BASIC users and multimedia developers.
If you're a developer, you'll probably want to visit more than one of these forums. If you develop Windows applications, for example, you'll probably need to visit the Languages forum and the Windows SDK forum. Sometimes you might want to visit three or four forums. Talk about information overload! If you don't monitor your time carefully, you could easily spend all your time gathering information instead of performing useful work. Fortunately, you'll probably find that you won't need to read all the messages on the forumjust the few related to your specific areas of interest.
Microsoft set aside a special area for users of advanced operating systems. Currently, only one operating system, Windows NT, falls into this category. You can see from the figures, however, that a lot is going on with this one product. Notice the special areas for SNA and SQL Server. Like the other areas described in this appendix, this one also contains access to the Knowledge Base and the Software Library.
If you're a developer, you'll probably want to visit more than one of these forums. If you develop Windows NT applications, for example, you'll probably need to visit the Windows NT and Networks forums.
An application user can probably get by with just one forum. In most cases, a visit to the Windows NT forum gives you all the information you need. Unlike the developer, you work with the operating system to a greater extent in getting applications to work together properly. As a result, you'll probably want to download all the messages in this forum. Check the section titles carefully; you might find that you can eliminate one or two of them from your list. Remember that you'll probably want to visit this forum in addition to application-specific forums.
This is a temporary forum (just how temporary remains to be seen) that allows you to submit your photographs to the Microsoft Scenes contest. There are a few limitations and some rules you must follow in order to enter.
This is a special area for the computer press. You won't need to go here in most cases unless you're interested in press releases and so on.
Many people discount the value of shareware software, but Microsoft doesn't. Shareware can provide the same or better quality than an off-the-shelf commercial product, and at a greatly reduced price. It always pays to check this area for special needs. You never know when you'll find something that a client has asked for in the past but you couldn't find.
The Windows Shareware Forums area is split into two forums: Windows Shareware Forum and Windows Fun Forum. Both forums are designed to provide a venue for you to talk with shareware authors who create Windows products. The main difference between the two forums is that one is for application products you can use for serious work and the other provides items such as screen savers that you can use for fun.
This group of five forums is a place for smaller commercial product vendors to provide their services. Each vendor occupies one section of the forum. (There are 18 sections in each forum, but at least one section is private in most cases.) This includes one message and one library area. They all share the conference rooms. You might want to check each area to see whether a vendor of a product you use is present.
Some people will find the cost of using an on-line service such as CompuServe just a bit too high for what they get out of it. They like to frequent local BBSs and find information that way. Not only is this information free, but the cost of calling isn't very high, either.
Trying to find a Windows-specific BBS in your area won't be hard at all. The best place to start looking is your local user group. Most larger cities also have a local computer magazine or two. You'll find these free magazines in your local software stores and some of the larger technical bookstores. Near the back of such a magazine, you'll usually find a listing of all the local BBSs. Although these listings usually don't provide a lot of information, the BBS name usually implies its orientation.
If these methods of finding a local BBS fail, you can always try to call the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) at (914) 876-6678. This number will at least help you find a user group in your area. Many of them run their own BBSs as well. Finding a BBS this way could actually double the benefit you receive, because then you'll know how to contact the user group as well.
A local BBS has limitations that an on-line service doesn't, but I mentioned most of them in the early part of this appendix. I usually tell businesses that they'll make back the cost of using an on-line service with increased employee productivity and better sources of information for problem resolutions. The payback for a home user isn't as easy to see, though. You'll probably want to at least try both an on-line service and a BBS for a while to see which one meets your needs better.