How to use newsgroups

[idoyoganaked]

I just started using Outlook Express and I've been playing around with newsgroups. Any one have experience in this? I need to know how to find what server a newsgroup is on, and whether or not I need a username/password to access it. If anyone knows how to do this, maybe use alt.sex as an example? Then I can go on to set up all the newsgroups I need for work. Thanks

 

[Etoile]

I'm not familiar with using Outlook for browsing Usenet, but I can tell you that it's your ISP that will carry the newsgroups - they're not on any particular server like websites. I've never heard of a password-protected newsgroup, either.

I just use Google Groups myself.

 

[arkavatar]

Hope this helps

It really depends on your ISP, you'll need to find out the server name. For example earthlink users news.east.earthlink.net

But first you need to setup outlook with the server your ISP uses, you can do this in tools, accounts, news tab, click add, news. You'll need to enter the server name and may or may not need to enter username or password (again depending on the ISP)

Once you have it set up, it may ask you to download the list of new groups, if not there should be a newgroups button. This may take a while depending on your connection. After that you'll have a list of newgroups. Simple choose alt.sex (for example) and click on subscribe, it'll have to download the various threads.

There are other options besides using outlook if it just won't work. I think google groups

Hope this helps.

 

[idoyoganaked]

Thank you both for the info, I got a list from my ISP

 

[MagicFingers]

I just started using Outlook Express and I've been playing around with newsgroups. Any one have experience in this? I need to know how to find what server a newsgroup is on, and whether or not I need a username/password to access it. If anyone knows how to do this, maybe use alt.sex as an example? Then I can go on to set up all the newsgroups I need for work. Thanks

It's NNTP
ie: if you were on Earthlink, you would use pop.earthlink.net for incomming mail, smtp.earthlink.net for outgoung mail, and
nntp.earthlink.net for newsgroups.

LOTS of garbage and spam there. You can spot which messages to avoid after a while, some by the size of the message, some by the subject, some by the format of the name who sent it.

I use it sometime, especially ASSM for stories. (Alt.Sex.Stories.Moderated) (But LIT is better) Some pictures are now in yEnc, which is a compression format which OE will not unencode. I got Xnews, which was free, but not real friendly to install and get set up properly. It handles yEnc well.
(EDITED 8/24)
Damn! It's always been NNTP, which stands for Network News Transfer Protocol. Now my ISP changed their server and Xnews doesn't work for me any more because I use one domain to log in to the internet and they require a different one for the server. Think I'll PM WH>

 

[Wulf7]

I agree for pic's/files etc. Xnews is the best/easiest (once you learn how it works) to download stuff. I still use outlook for reading posts on usenet mainly because its just easier and a nicer interface.