What is a Newsgroup?

Newsgroups are like bulletin boards. It is an area of the Internet where you can search for a specific interest and find postings, or messages, that relate to that specific interest. You can view these postings, respond to a posting, or submit your own postings.

The advantages to this type of medium is that the messages stay on the "board" for others to view and respond to for approximately 24hrs to 1 week. What topics are available? You name it. From computer products for sale, to medical technologies, to the last happenings on your favorite daytime soap.

So, what do you need to use newsgroups? Simple, a newsgroup reader. This is a program designed specifically for access to newsgroups. You have to set up the software to point towards your ISP's (internet service provider's) newsgroup server and of course have an internet account. If you do not know what the newsgroup sever address is (usually something like news.yourispname.com), just contact your ISP and ask how you can access newsgroups.

Where do you get the software? If you are using the full version Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or better you should have received a program called Internet Mail and News. This is for email and newsgroup access. If you do not have this you can download it for free from the Microsoft homepage (while your there you might as well update your browser to 3.02). Not a fan of Microsoft? Don't fear. Netscape also has a newsgroup reader built into it's browser. I know that Navigator 3.0 has a newsgroup reader, but you'll have to do some research to see if the latest version comes with one... I'm sure it does. But you can check that out at Netscape's homepage. And if Netscape is not a favorite for you, you can download a shareware newsgroup reader from a shareware site like www.windows95.com or www.download.com.

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