This area contains information on problems that have nothing to do with email, connecting or web sites.
This area contains information on:
Connecting to Usenet newsgroups
To read Usenet News (also known as Internet newsgroups), you need a news client program. Several commercial, shareware and freeware newsgroup clients are available, but it is worth knowing that Outlook Express, which anyone running Windows will have installed, has a built-in newsgroup client.
We'll go on to describe how to set up Outlook Express to connect to the Cymru 1 news server (the server that provides you with access to the news groups) in a moment. But for users of any other type of news group client, the Cymru1 news (NNTP) server is
news.cymru1.net
This is the only information you'll need to know - there are no passwords or usernames to worry about. However, please note that you can only connect to the Cymru 1 news server if you connect to the Internet via Cymru 1 and not via another ISP.
Connecting to the Cymru 1 news server using Outlook Express
1) Launch Outlook Express.
2) If you don't use Outlook for sending or receiving email, click on the No button if Outlook Express asks you if you'd like to make it your default email client.
3) Click on the Tools drop down menu, then select Accounts.
4) You should now see a new window with several tabs across the top - All, Mail, News and so forth.
5) Click on the News tab.
6) If there is already an entry for Cymru 1 in the list that appears, Outlook Express has already been configured to connect to the Cymru 1 News server. Check Outlook Express' online help facilities (click on the Help menu option) for details of how to use the program to read the newsgroups.
If you can't find a Cymru 1 entry in the News list, you'll need to create a news account. Do this as follows
7) Click on the Add button and select News from the list that will appear.
8) A Wizard will appear asking for some details. The first thing it will want to know is your name. This is the name that will be sent along with any posts you make to any newsgroups. Just enter your name and click on the Next button
9) The next question it will ask is what your email address is . TO AVOID SPAM (junk email), we suggest you enter spam@go.away.spammers here. rather than your real email address. This is because spammers tend to trawl the newsgroups looking for posts and automatically harvesting the attached email address. You may alternatively enter something that a human can understand but an automatic email harvester cannot. For example, if your real email address is david@cymru1.net, you might want to enter nospam@david.at.cymru1.net. Be aware that doing so will still result in unsolicited email finding a way to get to you.
10) Click on the Next button
11) Now comes the most important question of all - the name of your News (NNTP) server. For Cymru 1 users, this is
news.cymru1.net
12) Make sure the My news server requires me to log on is NOT ticked.
13) Click on Next.
14) You should now see a screen telling you that you've successfully set up the news sever connection. Click Finish.
15) Click on the Close button to close the Internet Accounts listing window.
16) Outlook Express will ask if you want to download the newsgroups from the news account you added.
If you click on Yes, Outlook Express will download the names and descriptions of ALL the newsgroups available. You have to do this eventually, so now is as good a time as any. But be warned - downloading the names takes a LONG time - there are thousands upon thousands of them. It can take up to half an hour, and in some cases a little more, to download all of them.
If you click on No, you'll have to download the names and descriptions of the available newsgroups later.
17) Full instructions on how to use Outlook Express with a news server is provided in the Outlook Express online help. Just click on the Help menu button and select Contents and Index.