USENET
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Understanding and Using Newsgroups
Getting setup with Newsgroups
by Peter Doshi
To get started with Usenet, we're going to need to setup a
newsreader. This document
will discuss that process for Netscape Communicator as well as give
some advanced tips on how to go about finding newsgroups, given that
there are just so many of them out there.
Setting up Usenet is a multi-step process. The first step is to tell
the newsreader what news server
to access. The second step is to subscribe to particular newsgroups. After
this initial setup (steps one and two) are completed, you can go on to reading
more about how you can read articles and
post articles to a newsgroup.
The directions here are Specific to Netscape Communicator. Unfortunately, this
is the only newsreader on which I took screenshots and was able to provide detailed
information on. Netscape Communicator is just one of the many newsreaders
available. Every operating system has a wide variety to pick from. Here is a short
list, by Operating System, of popualar newsreaders (news clients):
Popular Newsreaders by OS |
Unix |
SLRN,
Pine,
Tin,
Trn,
Netscape Communicator,
Gnus,
Knews,
krn (from KDE),
rn,
Outlook Express,
StarOffice,
NewsFlex,
tass,
xvnews |
MS Windows |
Free Agent,
Forte Agent,
Opera,
Outlook Express,
Netscape Communicator |
MacOS |
YA NewsWatcher (rated #1!),
Newswatcher,
MT Newswatcher,
Outlook Express |
Other |
Acorn RiscOS,
Amiga,
Atari,
Be,
DOS, OS/2,
Newton,
Other newsreaders,
| Note: Those in bold are Freeware |
Setting up Usenet using Netscape Communicator |
Step 1: Configure for the right newsserver
- Click the Windows Start button.
Choose Programs | Netscape... | Netscape Collabra
- If there is an entry news at the bottom,
right click it and choose Subscribe to Discussion Groups...
- A new window should pop up.
See the screenshot.
- Depending on the timing and your setup, newsgroups may not arrive
because the newsserver is set to news. In that case, we need to
Add Server... which you can do by clicking on the Add Server...
button found near the bottom right hand corder of the "Communicator:
Subscribe to Discussion Groups" window.
- Another window should appear:
Fill in the Server as: news.vsnl.net.in
Click OK
- Now after you receive the groups being offered by news.vsnl.net.in
you will see a list which
looks like this.
- Continue to Step 2 below for directions on subscribing to
individual newsgroups according to your interest.
Step 2: Subscribing to groups
Finding the right newsgroup to suit your interest can sometimes be one
of the biggest obstacles for new users. Because of the known difficulty
in doing that, techniques have been devised to make it a bit easier. One
method is searching, which can be done by clicking on the Search tag
of the Communicator: Subscribe
to Discussion Groups window. This technique has a great limitation, though,
as it will only match groups which contain exactly what you searched
for. For example, if you searched for "comedy" you would not find
the relevant newsgroup rec.humor.funny.
A more failsafe method for finding appropriate groups is using
DejaNews.com a web-based Usenet facility.
DejaNews will let you search for appropriate forums, yet another
synonym for newsgroups.
Assuming you have found a group you want, here's how to proceed. Let's take
phl.forsale (a forum where people post goods they have forsale in
the city of Philadelphia) as an example.
- Type the group name, phl.forsale , in the Discussion
Group field of the Communicator:
Subscribe to Discussion Groups window.
- Highlight the group when found
- Click the dot in the Subscribe column OR
click the Subscribe button.
- Follow the above steps for all groups you want to subscribe to.
- Click OK when done.
- You are now subscribed to phl.forsale. We need to start
reading the contents of the forum now. To do that, start reading
Reading messages in a Newsgroup.
An alternative, quick way to subscribe to a newsgroup if you already
know the correct name of the group is to fill it in the Location:
field of the Netscape browser, like this:
Yes, that's a colon between news and comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
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