Newsgroups are the internet's talking shop. Whatever you like to talk about, there is probably a group for it, somewhere between alt.abortion and zipnews.gov.world.politics. If not, you can start one.
Although they are called "newsgroups", there is rarely any news in them. Content is made up of email messages or "postings" from anyone who can be bothered to send them. The stream of messages is passed from server to server as a "newsfeed". New postings replace old ones, which eventually disappear.
To participate, you need a program called a newsreader. One of the best known is Agent, which is also available in a free version, Free Agent. However, a serviceable newsreader is included free with browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, so these are what most people use.
Outlook Express - which is part of Internet Explorer - treats news exactly the same as email. If you can send and receive email, then you can handle Usenet newsgroups, too.
The first job is to establish a connection to a news server. This will probably be the one run by your ISP (internet service provider), though there are also public (free) and paid-for alternatives. The only thing you need to know is the address, which will be something like news.btclick.com
To set up news in Outlook Express, go to Tools and select Accounts from the pull-down menu. When the tabbed dialogue box appears, click on Add in the top right hand corner, and select News. This will start a wizard to take you through the process. Just fill in your name and email address (or accept the ones offered) and type in the address of the news server.
It is a good idea to set up a separate mailbox on Yahoo or Hotmail for newsgroup use only, in case you are deluged with spam (junk email). If you want to do this later, go back to the dialogue box and click on the News tab, then click the button on the right for Properties.
When you close the dialogue box, you will be asked if you want to download newsgroups. Say yes. There are tens of thousands, so this may take some time. When the list appears, you can choose which you want to subscribe to. This is done by highlighting each group and clicking the Subscribe button on the right. Press OK to finish, and the names will be added to the Folders section below your mailboxes.
If you want to add groups later, select Tools|Newsgroups or press Ctrl-W. This will bring up the list of groups that has already been downloaded and saved on your hard drive.
To control each newsgroup, right-click on its name and select Properties.Click on the Synchronize tab to select what you want fetching, and click on the Local File tab to delete messages you no longer want.
The Synchronize tab lets you download just the headers of messages, or whole messages (headers and bodies). With low volume newsgroups, you may as well download the whole lot. With high volume and binary newsgroups, it is best to download only the headers. You can then scan them offline, and decide which ones to mark for downloading later.
"Binary" newsgroups are the ones where large files are posted, often in multiple messages. Examples include alt.binaries.doom and comp.binaries.ibm. The large files may be computer programs, MP3s, pictures or video clips. Not all of them are pirate software or pornography, but many are.
Next, select the newsgroup folder (eg news. btclick.com) in Folders, and Internet Explorer's right hand pane will show your list of newsgroups and three buttons. Click the left button, Synchronize, and Outlook Express will download the new messages (and any bodies) that you have asked for. Again, this may take some time.
Once your account as been synchronized, you can read and respond to messages in the normal way. However, if you are new to newsgroups, wait a few days before posting any messages. Newsgroups vary in tone and style, and other users may not take kindly to "newbies" who don't take the trouble to fit in.
Most newsgroups also have a FAQ or file of Frequently Asked Questions. The idea is to avoid repeating stuff over and over. If you can't find the FAQ, look for it on the web at www.faqs.org/faqs.
When you have finished scanning messages, you can mark them all as read: go to Edit|Mark All Read. If you want to do anything with a particular message, right-click on it and select from the list of options.
Newsgroups can quickly fill up even the biggest hard drive. You will therefore need to go back to each group's Properties sheet and select the Local File tab. This lets you Remove Messages (which deletes the bodies but keeps the headers) and Delete (which removes both). After deleting, click on the Compact button to remove the deleted messages.
As with email, Outlook Express lets you set up rules to help avoid spam: go to Tools|Message Rules|News. However, since most of Usenet is junk, it is hardly worth the effort.
