News groups

News groups are similar to (Usenet News) mailing lists. You can write to the news group and read news, other people posted. Biggest difference between mailing lists and news groups is, that all people, who are subscribed to the surtane mailing list, receive all mails sent to the list into their post-box and the member of the list can read or delete those mails as usual. News group mails stay in one exemplar on the news group server and won-t be sent to the members post-boxes.

Some of mailing lists have news groups mirrors (especially those, which have big traffic).

News groups names begin:

  • ee.* — Estonian news groups
  • comp.* — computers
  • sci.* — science
  • alt.* — alternative news groups
  • * means, that those news groups have sub news groups

ee.koolid (on the news group server of University of Tartu news.ut.ee)mirror of mailing list koolid (on the amiling lists server of University of Tartu lists.ut.ee)

ee.arvutid.vestlus (on the news group server of University of Tartu news.ut.ee)mirror of mailing list arvutid.vestlus (on the amiling lists server of University of Tartu lists.ut.ee)

news.announce.newusers - announcements for beginner news group user

Reading newsgroups with Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, Mozilla etc.)

Write into the address bar:

news://<server>/<news group>.

If in the Options meny Preferences is news group server determined, then you can into the address bar insert just

news:<news group>.As news group server you can use e.g. news.ut.ee (there is over 60000 news groups). Suggestible is look for news group theme, you are interested in at first from nearest news group server (to preserve communication resources).

If you want to download all news group names and to find suitable for yourself, you can do it through browsers mail program (accordingly Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger etc.). Choose 1..n and subscribe into, download as many news headers you want to and read news. And write to news group or mail sender or both, choosing reply to or new news message.

Before sending a mail your mail account settings should be correct:

Meny Options - News and Mail Preferences - Your Name and Your e-mail should be filled

Netiquette

  • If you want to send the same e-mail to different news group, then send it on the same time (fill CC line). Then this news will be marked as read, when person, who reads all those news groups, have opened it one's in one news group.
  • When you subscribed into news group, then at first listen the tone and the content of messages, before you start to speak with. Maybe the theme, you are interested in, was discussed just couple days ago. If news group has a FAQ, then examine at first those answers.