FAQ - News groups

What Newsgroups are:

A "newsgroup" is the Internet equivalent of what other online systems like Prodigy or Compuserve refer to as a "bulletin board" or "discussion forum". Unlike the mailing lists described in our mailing list page, newsgroups do not operate by sending e-mail to subscribers. Instead, they allow anyone to read and submit messages to the group at any time. Note: the nice thing about newsgroups is that you decide when you want to read a message. Unlike mailing lists where they are dumped continuously in your mail box you can decide when you want to go out and find a news message that interests you.

Newsgroups are part of a system known as USENET, a term that encompasses all of the more than 25,000 newsgroups available worldwide. Some newsgroups are "moderated" to screen messages for appropriateness. Newsgroups whose name begins with "alt" (alternative) are usually unmoderated.

Local Access' policy on Newsgroups:

As Local Access subscribers you have access to over 25,000 newsgroups.  We offer our users all groups that are available to us. We are not a censor, however any newsgroups contained in the categories alt.binaries.pictures and alt.sex are password protected and can only be accessed upon the request of the adult (18 and older); person named on the account. This is because these categories contain material including graphic images that are offensive to many people, and parents might not like their children viewing them.

Local Access offers this as a tool for parents but we make no guarantee that all objectionable material will be inaccessible, just some of the more extreme cases. This is able to be done since usenet users are free to cross post their messages in any group. Both Newsgroups and the World Wide Web contain files and information that we cannot possibly monitor or restrict.

How to access the newsgroups:

In order to access the newsgroups you need to have your browser set up correctly to view them.

#1 Setting up with Internet Explorer 3.02 and higher.  (available free from Local Access)

• Go up to the icon on the top right that says "Mail" and click your mouse button. Move your mouse down to the words "Read Mail."
• After you have clicked on "Read News" you will be presented with a screen that will look a lot like your mail screen. Go up to your toolbar and click on "news," then move down to "options."
• In the options screen select the tab that says "servers." In the field marked "name" type in your name. In the field marked "Email Address" type in your email address. For a picture of this click here.
• Next you have to click on the button that says "Add" and then type in the field that says "News Server Name," News.localaccess.com. For a picture of this click here.
• If you have requested access to all newsgroups you need to click on the box that says "This server requires me to log in."
• Next you will need to put your user name (MUST BE ALL LOWERCASE) and your password that you received from us upon your request for access. For a picture this click here.
• Click on "Apply" and you are finished.

#2 Setting up with Netscape Navigator 2.02 and higher.

• Go to the toolbar and click on "options." Next go to the heading "mail and news preferences." Then click on the tab setting that says "Servers." You will be presented with a screen that looks like this.
• In the field labeled "news (nntp) server" type News.localaccess.com
• After this click on "OK" and your ready to go. (NOTE: Netscape navigator has no capabilities to input a password to access all newsgroups).

#3 Setting up with Free Agent (for windows 3.1)

• The first thing to do with Free Agent after you have it all set up in it's directory is to double click on the program icon. The first screen that you come across will look something like this. Type in News.localaccess.com where it asks for "news (nntp) server." Type mail.localaccess.com where it asks for "mail (smtp) server." Next fill in the appropriate information and when finished click "OK."
• You will then be presented with a screen that looks like this.You will then be asked if you want to download the newsgroups that are located on the news server. Go ahead and click "OK." Your program will then download the news groups off of the news server and you are ready to start subscribing.
• You will see a box in the top left that displays all of the current newsgroups. By double clicking on the line you will be presented with a screen that looks like this. Click on the appropriate option for yourself and in the top right box you will see all of the "headers" (posted messages) that are part of that news group.
• If you double click on the message header you will be able to read the message and attachments that are posted in the middle window that is displayed under the top left and top right windows. The window that you see should be something like this.
• If you have been given access to all newsgroups you must do a couple more steps. Click on the word "options" at the top of the page in the toolbar. Scroll down to "Preferences" and click on it.
• Next go to the box that says "server requires authorization log on." Then in the field provided type your username ALL IN LOWER CASE. Next check the box that says "Remember password between sessions." Then in the field provided type your password that was provided when you got access to all groups. For a picture of this click here.

# 4 Setting up with News Watcher (for macintosh system 7.5)

• coming soon...

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"Newsgroups" by Jan Michael Pearson

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