How to Use Newsgroups Guide

Introduction to Newsgroup Access

 

"Usenet" or Newsgroup access has been around since the beginning of the internet. Usenet was created to facilitate a central point of contact for discussion on a wide range of topics.

Many web sites employ several different techniques for feedback and discussion about content. Tons of "news" sites use forums for posting the latest and greatest content and allow their viewers to provide feedback. From using complicated forums to the basic PHP scripting that is required, anything can and will happen. Forums can come in many different flavors, including "basic" read and post to fancy boards with per user stats and custom "avatars" or icons. Most, if not all mail clients also can read and post usenet articles with little hassle.

As of this writing, I use Outlook Express 6, but most "newer" E-Mail clients have the same or similar type of features. In reality, the E-Mail or News client you chose could be much better than OE in many respects. I would love to use a more "feature rich" E-Mail client, but, sometimes I am rather hard set in my ways.

You also need to note two very important things:

• I DO NOT EVER display the "Preview Pane." This is a HUGE security issue.
  • In OE 6, select View --> Layout --> Layout Tab --> uncheck "Show preview pane."
• I DO NOT view "HTML stationary" (or any other inlined images) as the sender intended. I view ALL E-Mail and Newsgroups as "plain text." This also reduces the chance of executing "malicious" HTML spam and makes for easier reading of high volumes of E-Mail and Newsgroups from many different people.
  • In OE 6, select Tools --> Options --> Read Tab --> check "Read all messages in plain text."

1) Shall we begin? (Image 1.1)   In Outlook Express 6.0, choose Tools --> Accounts... or you may select Set up a Newsgroups account... from the message pane.

2) Internet Accounts. (Image 1.2)       By default, all currently active accounts are displayed. Select the Add > button and then News...

3) Internet Connection Wizard: Your Name. (Image 1.3)       Here, you have the opportunity to adjust what your "display name" will be. This will appear in the From field for all of your messages. After choosing your name, select Next.

4) Internet Connection Wizard: Your E-Mail Address. (Image 1.4)       A dialog box requesting your E-Mail address is now displayed. To access newsgroups, use a "valid" E-Mail address in your newsgroup posting. This is not to attract SPAM of any kind, it is to allow the readers of your content to contact you directly without the "public" reading the discussion. If you are worried about posting your E-Mail as "myemail@mydomain.com," instead, post it "human readable" like: myemail AT mydomain.com myemail@mydomainDOTcom myemail AT mydomain DOT com myemail@REMOVEmydomain.com myemail@NOSPAMmydomain.com After entering your E-Mail address, select Next.

5) Internet Connection Wizard: Your News Server. (Image 1.5)       In the "News (NNTP) server" box, place news.myisp.com in the field, where "myisp.com" is the News server that your ISP has offered you. Depending on your ISP's settings, you may need to leave the My news server requires me to log on check box empty. Contact your ISP for details. Other public newsgroup servers will have different settings. After entering your News server, select Next.

6) Internet Connection Wizard: Finish. (Image 1.6)       Select Finish to conclude the Internet Connection Wizard.

7) Download Group Listing. (Image 1.7)       A dialog box asking if you wish to download all available newsgroups from the newly added account will be displayed. Notice on the left hand side a new section is included in the left pane named "news.myisp.com." Choose Yes to see all of the newsgroups that are currently available for access on the server.

8) Newsgroup Subscriptions. (Image 1.8)       All available newsgroups will be displayed. Select one by highlighting it and then choose the Subscribe button. This will allow you to download all messages from the selected newsgroup to your computer for viewing and reply to posted messages. You can add and subtract Newsgroups at any time. 9) Newsgroup Subscriptions. (Image 2.1)   Which ever Newsgroup you subscribed to will now have an icon displayed next to it. You may now subscribe to additional Newsgroups or you can close the Newsgroup Subscriptions window by selecting Ok. 10) New Post. (Image 2.2)       Highlight the Newsgroup you wish to post a new message to and select the New Post button in the upper left. 11) New Post: Create Message. (Image 2.3)       Include a subject line and enter your message in the resulting window. After you have completed entering your message, select Send to post it to the Newsgroup server for others to download and view. 12) New Message. (Image 2.4)       When a new message is posted, the newsgroup appears in bold type with the amount of new messages displayed on the right hand side of the group name. Select the Newsgroup to access the new messages. 13) View all messages in group. (Image 2.5)       Upon selecting the Newsgroup, all new messages and their subject lines will be displayed. Choose one to view it. 14) View Posting. (Image 2.6)       After highlighting the message, the text will appear in the preview pane or, upon double clicking the message, it will appear in a new window. Again, I do NOT recommend leaving the preview pane active. 15) Reply to Group. (Image 2.7)       To reply to the poster, highlight the message by selecting it and choose the Reply Group button. If you choose the Reply button, an E-Mail will be constructed directly to the poster and not be viewable on the newsgroup server. However, if the poster took my advice and created a "human readable" E-Mail address, you will not be able to reply to them directly. You must create an E-Mail manually and enter in the proper address in the TO: field. 16) Reply Message. (Image 2.8)       Enter in your text in the resulting window. After all of your message text is complete, select the Send button to post the message to the Newsgroup server. 17) New Message. (Image 3.1)   Again, when a new message is posted, the newsgroup appears in bold type with the amount of new messages displayed on the right hand side of the group name. Select the Newsgroup to access the new messages and view the message content. 18) Options. (Image 3.2)       To adjust your viewing options in Outlook Express, select Tools --> Options... 19) Preview Pane. (Image 3.3)       In the Window Layout Properties dialog box, uncheck Show preview pane to tighten up security on your computer. The preview pane should never be displayed. 20) Outlook Express. (Image 3.4)       After the preview pane is gone, much more area is available to view new content posted in the Newsgroups. I hope this guide has helped you feel more comfortable with accessing the various public News Servers available.