Chapter 4: UseNet NewsGroups - The Internet BBS

Newsgroups or UseNet newsgroups are like public access bulletin boards. They are very similar to ListServs except you don't automatically receive the news. You have to use a newsreader program to read the news from a community mailbox residing on a news server. The newsgroups are organized by topic and usually consist of running dialogs on a variety of subjects within the newsgroup topic. These newsgroups can be read using newer versions of Netscape or Microsoft Explorer as well as dedicated news readers like Trumpet and FreeAgent.

4.1 Organization of Newsgroups

Newsgroups are organized by categories. Currently, there are over 25,000 newsgroups. The first three or four letters identify the newsgroup's category Table 1 lists some of the larger newsgroup categories.

Top Domain Category Name	Description
alt (alternative)	Discussions on everything imaginable ex. alt.cows.moo.moo.moo
comp (computers)	Discussions about computers (hardware & software) ex. comp.lang.c++
k12 (education)	Discussions on education issues in K-12 ex. k12.ed.comp.lit
soc (social)	Discussions about social issues ex. soc.culture.malaysia
misc (miscellaneous)	Discussion on miscellaneous topics ex. misc.jobs.resumes
rec (recreation)	Discussion on recreation and the arts ex. rec.outdoors.fishing.fly
sci (science)	Discussion on the sciences ex. sci.psychology.research

4.2 Reading the "news" Using the Trumpet News Reader

1) To access a newsgroup, you will need to use the TRUMPET program.

a) Enter the Windows program and find the TRUMPET program.

b) Double-click on the icon.

c) Make sure the news server is set to your newsserver (i.e. VOLTA.NMHU.EDU) and your mailserver is set (i.e. VENUS.NMHU.EDU (for NMHU)) or ask your administrator.

2) To select a newsgroup for reading,

Either double-click on the newsgroup or highlight the newsgroup and press the View/List button at the bottom.

3) To read an article from the selected newsgroup,

a) Double-click the newsgroup to bring up a list of all topics in the newsgroup.

b) Double-click on the newsgroup article you wish to read.

c) As you read each message, it will be marked as read.

d) You can I) Post a new message to the group,

ii) Followup to an existing message,

iii) Reply to the author of the message,

iv) Save the message to your disk

or v) Print the message.

4.3 Subscribing to News Groups

If you want to subscribe to a news group that is not displayed:

a) Select the Subscriber option from the Group menu

b) To add a new group, click on it in the "Unsubscribed Groups" window

c) to delete a newsgroup, click on it in the "Subscribed Groups" window

4.4 General Newsgroup rules

Remember that there are probably hundreds of subscribers to a newsgroup. Here are a few rules to follow when posting messages to a newsgroup.

a) Be concise.

b) Be on-topic.

c) Watch your tone of voice (it is easy to be misunderstood in a letter).

d) "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all."

e) Look for FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) files and read them.

4.5 News Groups

There are thousand of news groups that you can subscribe to, but keep in mind that all the news for a group must be kept on a computer and it will require a lot of disk space if you subscribe to a large number of news groups. The appendix contains a list of a few suggested news groups that you might find interesting. Some are very active and some are not. Try subscribing to just a few.

4.6 Using the Netscape Browser to access News Groups

Earlier versions of Netscape (before version 2.0) have a Newsgroup button on the Button bar at the top of the screen. By pressing this button, a window listing the subscribed newsgroups will appear and another button that allows the viewing of all newsgroups. If an error appears after pressing these buttons, check the Mail and News Preferences under the Options menu and make sure that the News Server is pointing to the correct computer. [volta.nmhu.edu at NMHU].

With Netscape version 2.0 and later, News Groups are accessible through Netscape News under the Windows menu. Again if there are problems check the Mail and News Preferences under the Options menu.