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Usenet newsgroups are Internet discussion groups on just about
any topic you can imagine. There are more than 50,000 newsgroups,
and more are added all the time. The first way students and scientists
using ARPANet (early version of the Internet) started sharing their
interests and hobbies was to create newsgroups. In newsgroups students
and scientists placed information about their interets and as the
number of newsgroups began to expand, the Internet administrators
grouped all newsgroups together to form a category known as Usenet.
To start with Usnet and the newsgroups within were just text based
communities and it took the creation of HTTP (hypertext transport
protocol - changed the way computers transmit and recieve information)
to change this. Usenet.com state that there are currently over 80,000
discussion categories (known as newsgroups) available on Usenet.
Usenet is, by nature, a text-based system, however binary files
such as movies, pictures, music files, and programs can also be
shared among Usenet surfers, making it an excellent file exchange
medium.
You can find newsgroups that interest you by searching for them
on the Google.com Web site. Google.com is a good place to learn
more about newsgroups in general.
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- How to post and read on Newsgroups
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To post and read on newsgroups you need a news reader program.
A news reader program allows you to collect articles from
newsgroups, display them, in subject and date order for
you to read. It will also allow you to send posts to a newsgroup
as well. Below is a list of news reader programs you could
use,
- Netscape
Communicator - easy to use news reader program where
you select COMMUNICATOR from the tool bar, and choose
the option NEWSGROUPS from the submenu.
- Outlook Express
- email program that also allows you to access Usenet.
Select TOOLS from the tool bar, and choose the Option
ACCOUNTS from the submenu.
- Also check this address for some of the best news reader
programs available - news
reader programs.
- The help file that comes with your news reader program
should explain how to download posts from a newsgroup
to read, how to subscribe / unsubscribe to a particular
newsgroup and how to read and post on a newsgroup with
that particular news reader program.
- Types of Newsgroups
- Newsgroup Netiquette
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When posting on newsgroups you should try to follow a few
basic guidelines, often referred to as "Newsgroup Netiquette",
below is a list of some of these guidelines,
- Signatures - provide information about how to
get in touch with the person posting the article, including
their email address, phone number, address, or where they're
located.
- Posting Emails - posting private email messages
on newsgroups is seen as bad taste.
- Test Messages - if you are new to posting, its
a good idea to post a "test" message.
- Hoaxes - you should take posts with a pinch of
salt if they are meant to be about or from a celebrity
or famous person.
- Summaries - if somebody posts a summery you should
respond by email rather than post a reply because this
defeats the intention of the author.
- Responding to posts - avoid trying to tedious
when pick apart an article, address it in parts or as
a whole not word by word.
- Spelling and Grammar - if your spelling and grammar
is poor you should check your post with a dictionary or
spell checker first.
- Subject Lines - makes sure it describes your
post.
- Racism - avoid any posts that are abusive.
- Newsgroup Spam
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Spam is when someone sends the same message to a large
amount of newsgroups. Spam can be reported by going to web
sites such as,
It is not a good idea to try and personally email someone
who has spammed a newsgroup because the email address may
be fake and may result in your email address being spammed.
Below is the homepage of Usenet, which is the central location
of newsgroup information.
- Usnet - homepage of Usenet
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