How to Read Newsgroups

In Netscape Communicator:

Click on Communicator from the top menu and then click on Messenger. This will open the Netscape mail and news application.
Go to the menu at the top of the browser and click on Edit and then click Preferences in the Edit menu.
On the lefthand side there is a listing of Categories. Click on the + left of Mail & Newsgroups.
Click on Identity in the list of categories beneath Mail and News Preferences. Check that correct information is entered for your Identity.
Then in the lefthand menu click on Newsgroup Servers.
To the right of the opened menu you will see a button that says, Add. Click on it. When the window opens you will see a place to enter the name of your news server, news.orst.edu
The port number should already be entered. Once you enter the server name, click OK. Near the bottom you will see the checkbox, Ask me before downloading more than ? messages. You might want to check the box and put in something like 200 that way if it's a big group, you're not bombarded with hundreds of messages all at once.
Next you will see the heading Create a newsgroup directory. You can enter this by clicking on the Choose tab and browsing for the directory. For instance you could put c:\Program Files\Netscape\your name\news. Once you are done click OK.
Now that you're back to the Messenger window and ready to receive newsgroups, be sure you have selected news.orst.edu in the list of folders on the left. Go to the top menu and click on File, then choose Subscribe.
In the All tab of the Communicator: Subscribe to Newsgroups window it will take a while but eventually the complete list of newsgroups will download from the server.
Once the newsgroups have been loaded click on the Search tab. In the place where it says Search for: type in the name of the subject you're interested in.
For example if you want to see what's available in science, type in science. If you're looking for things to buy and sell, type in forsale.
Once you've entered the name of the subject, click on the tab Search Now to the right. Do a search and it will bring up the names of the groups available on news.orst.edu
Subscribe to the group by highlighting it and clicking on the Subscribe button. You will see a check mark appear. Then click OK and the server will download that newsgroup. You unsubscribe by highlighting the newsgroup and clicking on the Unsubscribe button.
You should now see the newsgroup listed at the bottom of your mail menu. Double click on the name of the newsgroup and the server will begin downloading the message headers for that particular newsgroup.
If you see a spool icon beside a message it means that there are other messages beneath it. Click on the spool and it opens the rest of the thread.
You post to a newsgroup by clicking on New Msg. The name of the newsgroup will automatically appear in the To: line. Write your message and then click Send and it will post the message to the group.
You can respond to a message by opening the message and clicking on Reply or Reply All. Reply responds to the group. Reply All means your message will be sent to both the author and the newsgroup.

In Outlook Express:

Click on Tools and then Accounts.
A small window will pop up. Once this window is open, click on the Mail tab.
On the right you will see an Add button, click it. Once you have clicked on Add, click on News.
You will be prompted to enter your Display name:. Enter your name the way you want it to appear on all outgoing newsgroup messages. Click Next to continue.
This window asks for you to enter your e-mail address. This way people can reply to the message you post directly rather than posting to the whole newsgroup. Click Next to continue.
You are now prompted to enter the address of the news server. Enter news.orst.edu and the Click Next to continue.
Now you are asked to enter the Internet news account name: for the account you are creating. If it isn't already entered by default, just give it the same name as the news server i.e. news.orst.edu and click Next to continue.
It will now say, Choose Connection Type. If you connect through a network click on Connect using my local area network. If you are connecting through a phone line, click Connect using my phone line and so on. Click Next to continue.
Click Finish and Close in the lower right corner of the small window that previously popped up. You may have to click on the Connect tab on the top menu before the newsgroups will be downloaded.

Now that you're back to Outlook Express window and ready to receive newsgroups, be sure you have selected news.orst.edu in the list of folders on the left. Click on the Newsgroups button on the right.
You can now subscribe, search or post to groups in the same way that was described for Netscape users.

Using Google Web Interface:

Google now offers a much easier web interface to access newsgroups. In addition to a user friendly interface, Google also has 20 years worth of archives which can be browsed.

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