Newsgroup FAQs
Q:
What are Newsgroups?
A: One of the first and most-used areas
of the Internet is Usenet, a collection of discussion groups called "newsgroups."
Started in 1980, Usenet is a system that is similar to email, but that
is specifically designed to create and facilitate ongoing discussions about
specific subject areas.
Over 9,000 separate newsgroups exist, and each one covers a different topic. Groups are organized by name hierarchically under a handful of major categories, such as comp (computer), rec (recreation) or biz (business). If you do business internationally, you might read biz.marketplace.international.discussion. If you own a racing boat, you might subscribe to rec.boats.racing, and for math geniuses, sci.math.research ("sci" for science) is available.
You can write an "article" addressed to the group, and it will be "posted" for everyone to read. People can then reply to your message either by sending you a private email, or by posting a response for everyone to see.
Usenet is a tremendous resource for getting answers to questions about
virtually any subject. Just post a question, and another user is likely
to answer it.
Q: Where can I
find a complete listing of all the Newsgroups?
A: For starters, you can check the
InterNic's listing
by browsing or just search
for a specifc newsgroups.
Q: What different
programs are available for me to use Newsgroups?
A: There are several clients available
for reading the newsgroups such as:
- News Xpress
- WinVN
32-bit Clients (Windows95/NT)
- The Point Cast Network
- Free Agent
- News Xpress
16-bit Clients (Windows 3.x)