John Barnett Computer Journalist
XP Help and Support

Newsgroups are communities where people can express their opinions or ask for advice regarding specific topics. Not all are particularly friendly beasts and some users’ can be particularly argumentative. This guide is how to set up Outlook Express to receive Microsoft newsgroups. Obviously there are other newsgroups available and the principle for accessing them will basically be the same.

While newsgroups are a great source of information they do have their own rules and regulations and also ways of posting. If you are new to newsgroups do a Google search for Netiquette to give you an idea of how to post.

To begin follow the instructions below:

1/ Open Outlook Express

2/ On the Main toolbar click the Tools option

3/ From the drop down menu click Accounts

4/ The Internet Accounts Windows will open (see fig: 1)

Fig 1: Internet Accounts Window

5/ Click the Add button and, from the drop down menu, click News

6/ The Internet Connection wizard Window now appears (see fig: 2)

Fig 2: Internet Connection Wizard

7/ In the Display name dialogue box type in your name and then click the Next button

8/ The next windows to appear is the internet news E-mail Address Window

9/ In the E-mail Address dialogue box type the email address you are going to use for the newsgroup (see fig: 3)

Fig 3: Insert a false email address for added security

10/ Now here lies a word of warning: UserNet Newsgroups are open to the public and, as such, are regularly scanned (or trawled) to gather email information for the purpose of ‘spamming’. For this reason ‘never’ use your real email address. Always use a false address. If you make the mistake of allowing your real email address to appear on any newsgroup you can expect to get a whole lot of unsolicited ‘spam’ email.

11/ in the next window you need to type the Internet News Server name. As we are going to be using Microsoft's own newsgroups, simply type news.microsoft.com into the dialogue box (see fig: 4) and then click Next

Fig 4: Type in the news server name

12/ If you are using an alternative news server and it requires you to log in, then make sure you tick the ‘My news server requires me to log on’ box. Another window will appear to allow you to insert the relevant log on details, such as user name and password.

13/ If all has gone well the next window (see fig: 5) should inform you that you have successfully entered all the required information. All you need do now is click the Finish button

Fig 5: Click the Finish button to complete

14/ You will now be returned to the Internet Account Window. In this window just press the Close button

15/ A message will now appear asking ‘would you like to download newsgroups from the news account you added?’ Press the Yes button (see fig: 6 )

Fig 6: Press Yes button to download newsgroups

16/ Assuming you have entered the server name and any user name and password, if required, correctly the list of newsgroups should now begin to download. (see fig: 7 )

Fig 7: Downloading the Newsgroup list

17/ Once they have all downloaded – this may take a few minutes – scroll down the list and select a newsgroup you are interested in.

Fig 8: Subscribing to a NewsGroup

19/ After you have finished subscribing to the relevant newsgroups click OK to close the window

20/ In the right hand pane of Outlook Express you will now see a list of the newsgroups you have subscribed to (see fig: 9)

Fig 9: Outlook Express news window

21/ Under the Settings button you will see a small box next to each subscribed newsgroup. Click your mouse on the first box to place a tick in it. Next click the settings button and, from the drop down menu, select ‘headers only’. Do exactly the same for all of your subscribed newsgroups.

22/ After you have finished changing the synchronisation settings for each newsgroup to ‘headers only’ click the Synchronize Account button to start downloading the newsgroup posts (see fig: 10  )

Fig 10: Synchronising the newsgroups

23/ You have now finished. All that remains is for you to read any posts and, if you so desire, reply.