Tutorial

Practically

O.K. Looks smart, but practically how can I do?

• The newsreaders
  First of all you must get a newsreader. If you employ Netscape Communicator you already have one, you only have to open a new window as newsreader (look at those buttons below on the right ...), if you are employing Windows 95 you'll probably have installed some version of Outlook, also this last one may work as a newsreader.
  If you don't have this software, here you have some links that bring you directly to lists of newsreaders for some of the most widespread operative systems:
  
  

  Windows9x

  Windows 3.x

  Mac

  Linux

  OS/2

  
  
  Which is the best newsreader for my operative system? I don't know, simply take one and begin a discussion about news.software.readers... )
  
  
• Configuration
  Generally the only information you must supply to your newsreader is the address of the news-server to download the groups from. Often it'll have an Internet address of the kind news.provider.com... (ask to whom gives you the access to Internet). Your name and ,eventually, a nickname and you e-mail address, so that you can also get answers privately, are optional. However if you give your e-mail you need to take some precaution to avoid SPAM.
  All these info will be placed into your newsreader proper menu or configuration file (option, setting, configuration panelor similar).
  However you must not take for granted that your provider will give you access to USENET, and still less that it'll give you access, among thousands, to the very group you are interested in. If it doesn't there are alternative ways to get to USENET.
  
  
  
  Here above you see the window of one of the most widespread newsreader for Windows, Agent (available also in a free version Free Agent). Here below we show the content of the different areas of it's main window.
  
  
• Newsgroups list
  After having shaped your newsreader you have to make it to take the list of all the newsgroups available on your newserver. This might require some time, as the news groups may be thousands, anyhow once you have downloaded this lista your newsreader will probably keep it, so you'll be able to ask it to download only further newsgroups.
  
  
• "Subscribing" in a newsgroup
  By now you know which are the groups you can accede to. Glance through the list and select the ones you are interested in. This operation of selecting is often called "subscribe" and this is often the name in the menu (or on a button) used to inform the newsreader of which are the groups we mean to follow. The word might somehow make you think that you must fill some sort of form. Not at all: "subscribe" only is the command to tell your newsreader you are intentioned to follow that very newsgroup, it's to say to download regularly its posts.
  
  
  
  The portion of Agent window with the number 1 contains the list of newsgroups whose posts we want to download, without anymore having to look for them among the thousands. In this case several newsgroups have been "subscribed" and it.science. has been selected.
  
  
• Taking posts
  As well as the e-mail messages the posts are composed of a (header) and a(body). In the header, beside technical info, there are three elements: the name of the author (the one supplying the newsreader of the post-writer), the date it was posted (idem) and the subject given by the post-writer, this one, as for e-mail messages, should describe the content of the post. The best thing is to ask your newsreader to download the headers of the messages that are on the "subscribed groups". It's wise to download the headers first because often the messages of a single group maybe hundreds and probably only a small portion of them will be interesting for you; the subjects in the headers may help you to understand the topic and to avoid waiting longtima to download them all.
  Once you have made the selection it'll be sufficient to find the command to say to your newsreader to download them entirely.
  
  
• Sending a post
  To send a post is equally easy to do and easy to learn. But before beginning to write on must know thoroughly fundamental behaviour rules in USENET. If you won't follow these rules your posts won't be considered at all, and, worse, you might meet hostility from other users of the newsgroup!
  When you send a post of yours you may either send it as a new message or as "Follow up" (answer) to an existing one.
  The first is very like sending a mail,it's sufficient to say to your newsreader you intend to send a new post, to point out the proper newsgroup,to write a subject as clear and complete as possible, then write the text and send the whole.
  The second case is similar to the reply of a mail, the subject will automatically be inserted by your newsreader as "Re:subject_of_the_post_you_intend_to_answer",this makes your post ligible in relation with the subject your are answering to and going in the same "thread" of speech. When you unload posts from a newsgroup you'll see some of them are collected together, these are all the messages originated by a sole post that was followed by several "follow up". A long thread, of course, means that the original post was a success, not necessarily that it is interesting....
  
  
  
  The area of Agent's window that we marked with number 2 shows a tipical list of the messages of a newsgroup (in this case it.scienza that was the newsgroup selected in area 1list). The messages marked in red haven't yet been read and are all "Follow up", amswers to the original messages that gives the name to the thread and that placed aboe all the others.
  
  
  
  The area marked with number 3 shows the content of the message selected in area 2.
  
  

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