If you have a problem or a question on a particular topic and would like anyone in the world who might have an answer or an opinion to let you know what they think, the Internet can provide you with a wonderful utility to address this need: The Internet Newsgroups. People post messages in thousands of newsgroups, exchanging knowledge, ideas, opinions, and advice on countless topics: sports, fashion, job hunting, computer hardware and software, politics, cooking, environmental science - you name it.

This tutorial will explain what Newsgroups are, how to use them. Click on the topic you are interested in, or just scroll down and learn it all. To setup your software click on Settings for popular Newsreaders.

What are Newsgroups?

Newsgroups are discussion forums or bulletin boards - places where individuals post messages for others to read and respond to. They are discussions on a particular subject consisting of written notes by people around the world and redistributed through Usenet, a world-wide network of news discussion groups. There are thousands and thousands of public newsgroups that cover a wide variety of interests and topics from tips on buying a new PC, favourite shows on TV, sports, medicine etc. You name it, it will be there. And if it isn't there yet, you can make it happen :)

Once you find a newsgroup, you can post messages or read messages posted by others. Newsgroups are open to anyone who has access to the Internet. Your message potentially could be read by people all over the world. Newsgroups are different from other Internet discussion forums. Unlike chat, which demands your immediate attention and requires you to be fairly brief, newsgroups allow you to post and read longer, more thought-out messages at your leisure. They are different from mailing lists in that you can choose the specific articles you want to read rather than having them all sent to your mailbox and reading all one by one. While you can join newsgroup-style discussion forums at certain Web sites, WWW discussions generally are nowhere near as varied and active as newsgroups.

To help navigate through the vast number of groups, the Internet provides some basic organisation and conventions for the naming of groups. Once you learn the naming scheme, it becomes very easy to find your way around. Newsgroups are organised into subject hierarchies, with the first few letters of the newsgroup name indicating the major subject category or topic and sub-categories represented by a subtopic name, each separated by a dot (.). Here are just a few of the more common groupings, with examples:

Section	Description	Example
iinet	Groups internal to iiNet	iinet.general
alt	Alternative subjects, ranging from the serious like computers and psychology to the bizarre and unconventional like occult and alternative lifestyles	alt.alien.research alt.alt.test alt.art.scene
biz	Business subjects, including advertisements	biz.comp.software
comp	Computer related subjects including technical discussion & support	comp.forsale comp.os.linux.misc
gnu	Groups concentrating on interests and software with the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation	gnu.announce gnu.bash.bug
humanities	Groups referring to specific periods or concepts of humanity	humanities.philosophy.objectivism
misc	Miscellaneous stuff like jobs, items for sale	misc.books.technical
news	Information about newsgroups themselves	news.newusers.questions
rec	Recreational topics like hobbies, sports, the arts, movies	rec.outdoors.fishing rec.skydiving
sci	Science, discussions about a vast variety of scientific topics	sci.space.shuttle
soc	Social issues	soc.culture.australian
talk	Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature long discussions without resolution and without appreciable amounts of generally useful information :)	talk.politics.misc

iiNet Newsgroups

iiNet provides a collection of newsgroups for discussion between iiNet members

• iinet.general - iiNet newsgroup for general discussion on many topics.
• iinet.netstatus- Reports on any current network faults.
• iinet.ads - Advertisements relevant to iiNet users. No drive by spamming please!
• iinet.games - Compare notes with players of online games.

How to participate in Newsgroups

Users can post to existing newsgroups, respond to previous posts, and create new newsgroups.
To find groups and participate in discussions that interest you, you need a program designed to allow you to do this. This type of program is called a Newsreader.

What is a Newsreader

Newsreaders are programs that let you read newsgroups. They help you connect to the News Server, a server which hosts newsgroups, such as freenews.iinet.net.au. Then you can get a listing of newsgroups hosted, subscribe to the newsgroups of your choice and download messages posted to those newsgroups.

For example, if there is a group called "rec.sailing" (a group for sailing enthusiasts) that you are interested in, you would tell your newsreader to subscribe you to that group. Subscribing will find the group by searching through the full list of newsgroups on your server then tells your newsreader to put that group on your subscribed list. Your newsreader program then makes this group more accessible, shows messages posted to the group by others and stores information about which messages you have already read, etc.

When you choose to open the newsgroup, there should be a bunch of messages from various people. If not, see if your newsreader has a command for loading all messages in a group. Some newsreaders default to showing no messages for a group newly subscribed to. You might need to tell your software to show those messages. You should have something that looks like a mailbox in your email program. You can read the newsgroup messages just like email messages. The difference from email is that the message is not addressed to you. It is addressed to the newsgroup such as "rec.sailing". Similarly, if you choose to post a message in response to a message you are reading, you need to decide whether to reply to the newsgroup, reply to the author - almost all newsreaders have ability to send e-mail messages, or both. This can be a netiquette question. If someone is asking advice, You should rather respond to both the group and the person. But there are times when it is best to take things off the group, and there are some people who prefer not to get responses in their mailbox, since they will see the response in the group anyway.

You should also be aware of the difference between online and off-line newsreaders.
Online newsreaders assume you maintain an Internet connection during the time the program is running. When you run the newsreader, it polls the server to see how many new messages there are in the groups to which you are subscribed. You can then enter a group, and the newsreader downloads just the message headers, and you see what looks like a mailbox. The messages themselves, however, are not on your machine yet. As you access a particular message, the newsreader gets it from the server. When you are done reading a message, it is not stored on your machine, unless you save it specifically. Users with untimed accounts such as the Explorer, Freedom, Voyager or DSL accounts can take advantage of the online newsreaders.
Off-line newsreaders, on the other hand, connect to the server, download all new messages for the newsgroups to which you are subscribed, upload any posts you wrote since the last time you connected to the server, and then disconnect from the news server. You can then read the messages as you wish, composing replies and new posts to be uploaded next time you choose to connect. If you have a Discovery or Atlantis account, you might might want to use an off-line newsreader, which doesn't require for you to be connected in order to read the newsgroups you are interested in.

Settings for popular Newsreaders

Windows	Macintosh
Free Agent Netscape 6.x + Netscape 4.x Netscape 4.0x Netscape 3.x Outlook Express 4 Outlook Express 5	NewsWatcher Netscape 4.x Netscape 3.x

What is Usenet

Usenet is a collection of written notes on many subjects which are posted to servers on the Internet. Each collection stored by subject is known as a newsgroup. There are many thousands of newsgroups and new ones can be created by you. Newsgroups can be hosted on servers that are not part of the Internet.

Usenet is the main source of newsgroups and newsfeeds. Sometimes people refer to Usenet as newsgroups and vice versa, but strictly speaking, this is incorrect. There are other sources of newsgroups that are widely distributed. For example, Clarinet which is carried by many ISPs and subscription-based newsfeeds. Also there are many semiprivate newsgroups that are not propagated beyond their own server. You need to point your newsreader to that server rather than the one you normally use.

Usenet uses the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP).

What is NNTP?

NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used by computers both servers and client for managing the written notes posted on Usenet newsgroups. NNTP replaced UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Protocol (UUCP). iiNet news server freenews.iinet.net.au is an NNTP server. NNTP manage the global network of collected Usenet newsgroups. An NNTP client is included as part of a Netscape, Internet Explorer, or you may use a separate client program called a newsreader such as Free Agent.

Netiquette

Netiquette is the etiquette on the Internet. The Internet changes rapidly so does its netiquette. The need for a sense of netiquette arises especially when sending or distributing posting on Usenet groups. The practice of netiquette might depend a little on understanding the Usenet actually work or are practised. So a little preliminary observation can help. Poor netiquette because you're new is one thing, but such practices as spam and flaming are another matter. Read the newsgroup postings before sending your own to get a feel for the environment and to gain an understanding on what is expected in the newsgroup.

All newcomers to newsgroups are requested to learn basic Usenet netiquette and to get familiar with a newsgroup before posting to it. Most newsgroups will have a FAQ provided. Sometimes the rules can be found when you start to enter the Usenet through your browser or an online service. Some newsgroups are moderated by a designated person who decides which postings to allow or to remove. Most newsgroups are unmoderated.

Here are some guidelines when posting to newsgroups

• New users to newsgroups often try out posting before actually taking part in discussions. Often the mechanics of getting messages out is the most difficult part of Usenet. Please do not post to normal newsgroups. There are a number of groups available, called test groups, that exist solely for the purpose of trying out a news system, reader, or even new signature. They include alt.test or misc.test some of which will generate auto-magic replies to your posts to let you know they made it through.
• You will find at the end of articles a small blurb called a person's signature. It exists to provide information about how to get in touch with the person posting the article, including their email address, sometimes phone number, address, or where they're located. Even so, signatures have become the graffiti of computers. People put song lyrics, pictures, philosophical quotes, even advertisements in their ".sigs". However, the advertising in your signature will more often than not get you flamed until you take it out. Remember that a Four line signature will suffice. It is not necessary to include your signature, if you forget to append it to an article, do not worry about it. Do not re-post the article just to include the signature.
• It is impolite to post Personal Messages to Newsgroups.
• It is impolite to forward personal email to newsgroups without the original author's permission.
• Focus on one subject per message and always include a pertinent subject title for the message, that way the user can locate the message quickly.
• Keep paragraphs and messages short and to the point.
• When quoting another person, edit out whatever isn't directly applicable to your reply. Don't let your mailing or Usenet software automatically quote the entire body of messages you are replying to when it's not necessary. Take the time to edit any quotations down to the minimum necessary to provide context for your reply. Nobody likes reading a long message in quotes for the third or fourth time, only to be followed by a one line response: "Yeah, me too."
• Add your comments throughout or underneath the original article, not above.
• Capitalise words only to highlight an important point or to distinguish a title or heading. Capitalising whole words which are not titles is generally termed as SHOUTING!
• *Asterisks* surrounding a word can be used to make a stronger point.
• The line length limit should be 70 - 75 chars, with 72 ideal.
• Be careful when using sarcasm and humour. Without face to face communications your joke may be viewed as criticism. When being humorous, use emoticons to express humour. Use :-) = happy face for humour.
• Acronyms can be used to abbreviate when possible, however messages that are filled with acronyms can be confusing and annoying to the reader. Such as: IMHO= in my humble/honest opinion, FYI = for your information, BTW = by the way Flame = antagonistic criticism.
• A number of groups include Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) lists, which give the answers to questions or points that have been raised time and time again in a newsgroup. They're intended to help cut down on the redundant traffic in a group. For example, in the newsgroup alt.tv.simpsons, one recurring question is Did you notice that there's a different blackboard opening at the beginning of every Simpsons episode? As a result, it's part of the FAQ for that group.
  For a list of FAQs visit: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/