Newsgroups are Internet discussion groups with specific topics. The
discussions take place via email and subscribing to a group is very
easy. You don't even have to post messages if you don't want to; you can
just "lurk." There are a great many newsgroups on the Web with topics ranging from politics to
computer games to random strange thoughts.
To join a newsgroup, you first need to set up a newsgroup account. Click on your mail
account name in the sidebar and select Create a new
account from the options that appear on the right of the
screen. The New Account Setup screen appears.
Select Newsgroup account and click on Next.
Enter your name and email address on the next screen and click
Next. On the following screen, enter the name of
your news server (if you do not know the name of your news server,
contact your Internet service provider for this information). On the last few
screens, you can determine the name that this account will be referred to
and review your settings.
Now the newsgroup account you just created will appear in the sidebar of the
Mozilla mail screen. Right-click on this
account name and select Subscribe. A dialog box
appears, listing all the newsgroups available. Select the ones you want
and click on Subscribe. When you are done, click on
OK.
Now, click on the arrow next to the newsgroup account name
and the list of groups you are subscribed to will appear beneath. Select
the newsgroup you want to access and a dialog box appears with information
about downloading and reading existing messages. Posting to
a newsgroup is just like writing an email, except that the newsgroup name
appears in the To field rather than an email address.
To unsubscribe from a newsgroup, right-click on the group name and select
Unsubscribe.
