ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies®

23.5. Get Free Peer-to-Peer Support

Microsoft sponsors Web-based forums where community members, such as Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and Microsoft employees, provide free support and advice on ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer, and Visual Studio.

23.5.1. Join forums.asp.net

To reach the official ASP.NET forums, navigate your browser to this site:

http://forums.asp.net/

You can peruse the site anonymously, but create an account and a profile if you want to post questions.

Enable the E-mail Subscription feature on the forums. The forum software sends an e-mail message whenever someone replies to your question. That way, you don't need to remember to revisit the forums to check for answers.

For those who prefer to use a specialized newsgroup reader (such as Outlook Express) on the ASP.NET forums, the setup instructions are here: http://forums.asp.net/nntp.aspx.

23.5.2. Find experts at msnews.microsoft.com

Many top ASP.NET experts hang out in Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) newsgroups rather than browser-based forums. (Power users often find Web forums slow and clunky.) To get to the action, you need a newsreader, such as Outlook Express. Follow these steps to subscribe to microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet.

1. Launch Outlook Express.

2. Choose ToolsAccounts.