Using USENET
Summary:
NNTP newsserver: newsstand.cit.cornell.edu
Message upload format: MIME-compliant encoding
CS280 Newsgroup: cornell.class.cs280
Background:
USENET is a very old part of the internet.
USENET
is a collection of discussion areas where people can post textual
information,
readable by anyone who has an access to a newsserver (an NNTP
server).
It has existed for a very long time, and has evolved greatly. When it
was
originally conceived, its purpose was to provide a means for efficient
exchange of information for educators and researchers at educational
institutions
across the United States. It quickly grew into a world-wide system of
newsserver
exchanges, with the topics of discussion ranging from comp.os.linux.setup
(a Linux setup discussion group), to rec.toys.lego
(a Legos discussion group). There are over 15,000 discussion groups on
USENET today, and the number is growing.
If you want to find out more about USENET and other fun
stuff, follow
this link to Zen
and the Art of the Internet. It is an old but trusty resource,
clearly
written for beginners on the Internet.
Accessing USENET:
Getting a newsreader
In order to read the newsgroups on USENET,
you
will need a newsreader. A newsreader is a program that has the
ability
to connect to the newsserver, retrieve a list of newsgroups, and then
retrieve
messages in the newsgroups of your choice. The choice of the newsreader
depends largely on the operating system on your computer. A nice
newsreader
that is available for all major systems (Windows, Macintosh and UNIX) is
the one that comes with Netscape 3.00 and above. Follow the link to Netscape
Corporation to get it. There's also a newsreader with
Internet Explorer.
Setting up the newsreader
Now that you got yourself a newsreader, you need
to
set it up. Please, go into the Preferences, Options, or
Configuration,
or WhatHaveYou section of the newsreader that you have. Look around,
familiarize
yourself with it. It will be your friend for this course. You need to
find
the place where it asks you for a newsserver. It may be called an
NNTP server, or a discussion server, or anything along that line.
There, you will enter
newsstand.cit.cornell.edu.
This is the (so-so) newsserver that Cornell
U. runs. You will also need to enter a certain amount of data about
yourself, such as your name, e-mail address, social security number,
blood
type... (Just kidding. Name and e-mail.). Note, it may provide two
different
spaces for the e-mail address. One of them is "Reply-To:" and
another is "From:". The difference is that the reader of the
message you post will see the "From:" name, but when the
reader
on the other side replies to you, the message will be sent to the
"Reply-To:"
address. Finally, find the setting where the newsreader wants to know
what
format to use for uploading messages that you write to the server. You
will want MIME-compliant encoding. The keyword is MIME --
the newsservers may not be all the same, but they will contain this
word.
You need it. Do not choose uuencode, for some reason,
newsstand
chokes on that. You are nearly done.
Subscribing:
Now, for the easy part. Once everything is set, go into the part of
the
newsreader that lets you subscribe to newsgroups. Either you will have
to type the group you want to subscribe to in, or you will choose it
from
thousands available. You want cornell.class.cs280.
In fact, if you configured everything beautifully, when you click on the
link above, you should be taken to that newsgroup. From here on, using
the newsgroup is exactly like reading your e-mail. You read the
messages,
you post them to the newsgroup. (Alternatively you can reply to the
author,
but that way the concept of healthy discussion is killed off at
birth.)
You are done. If you have any questions, please e-mail
adm
(this is Computing Facilities Support for the Computer Science Department.
Misha
Kapushchevsky
3/11/97