Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

Newsgroups

Newsgroups have nothing to do with news; in fact, they’re Internet bulletin boards. There are at least 50,000 of them, on every conceivable topic: pop culture, computers, politics, and every other special (and very special) interest; in fact, there are several dozen just about Windows. Use Outlook Express to read and reply to these messages almost exactly as though they were email messages.

Furthermore, Outlook Express lets you use multiple news servers (bulletin-board distribution computers), subscribe to individual newsgroups, filter messages in your newsgroups using rules, and post and read messages complete with attachments.

Note

If a news server (not an individual newsgroup) is selected in the Folders list, then the rightmost portion of the Outlook Express interface displays a list of newsgroups available on that server.

UP TO SPEEDNewsgroups Explained

Newsgroups (often called Usenet) started out as a way for people to conduct discussions via a bulletin-board-like system, in which a message is posted for all to see and reply to. These public discussions are divided into categories called newsgroups, which cover the gamut from miscellaneous photographic techniques to naval aviation.

These days, Usenet has a certain seedy reputation as a place to exchange questionable pictures, pirated software, and MP3 files with doubtful copyright pedigrees. Even so, there are tens of thousands of interesting, informative discussions going on, and newsgroups are great places to get help ...