| 3. Newsgroups |
| Newsgroups are a kind
of discussion forum categorised into topics. Some are restricted to
certain users, some are moderated to ensure that postings are of the
correct content and some are completely open. You are sure to find a
newsgroup which covers your interests as there can be discussions on
everything from who killed J.R to discussions on who your favourite Spice
Girl is. They can also be useful, for example if you have a problem with
some computer software, why not send a message to one of the software
newsgroups to see if anyone else in the World has encountered the same
problem or has found a solution! |
| Okay so there's the
introduction, let's try out some newsgroups. Once again we are using
Microsoft Outlook Express as our example.... |
| You will need to be
connected to your Internet Connection. Open up Outlook Express. Underneath
your folder list on the left hand side you should have your news server
name (a series of words and dots). For a TMnet user it should be news.tm.net.my. If you do not have this you will need to set
it up with settings for you ISP under tools, accounts,
news. If you have never used newsgroups before, or if you are not
subscribed to any, it will come up with a message to say You are not
subscribed to any newsgroups in this account, would you like to view a
list of available newsgroups now? select Yes |
 |
 |
If you have not previously
downloaded the list of newsgroups, it will do this now. It will download a
list of around 32,000 newsgroups so it may take a few minutes to complete,
depending on your connection speed. Whilst it is downloading it will give
you a counter of how many it has downloaded so far. |
| Once the download has
finished it will display a list of all newsgroups. You will notice these
all begin with alt..To do a search for newsgroups containing a
certain topic, type a topic name into the box marked Display Newsgroups
Which Contain. In this example we have typed in Movies and have
got back a list of newsgroups with Movies in the titles. To
subscribe to the newsgroup simply highlight it in your list and click the
subscribe button. Once you have finished searching and subscribing,
click OK |
 |
 |
You will now be taken
back to the main Outlook Express screen. To bring up the current list of
postings in the newsgroup you have subscribed to, click on the newsgroup
name underneath your newsgroup server name in the folder list. Outlook
Express will then download the names and titles of the last 300 postings
from that newsgroup, and will display a number next to the newsgroup name
on the folder list for the total number available. If you see a posting
that you want to read, simply click on it to view it in the bottom window,
or double click on it to open it in a new window. Only when you click on
it will it download for you to view its contents. |
| So thats
the reading of newsgroup postings covered. To post a message to a
newsgroup click the New Post button in the top left hand corner.
The name of the Newsgroup will appear in the Newsgroups field.
Simply type in a subject and enter your text into the bottom box. The
process is the same as that explained in Section 2 of our
guide. |
 |
| So that is newsgroups
covered. Hopefully you will find Newsgroups to be of use to you in finding
out new information and ideas. That also ends our guide for the moment. If
you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in this guide,
please e-mail [email protected] |
