Newsgroup Setup Information
by Reshma Khatri
Revised by Andrés Santiago Pérez-Bergquist (2000)   

The Dean's Scholars newsgroup is
news:utexas.nat-sci.deans-scholars

1. What is a newsgroup anyway?

A newsgroup is a discussion forum. It's a place where people can post information or ideas and others can respond to them. Most newsgroups are accessible to anyone with Internet access, but UT newsgroups must be accessed from within the utexas domain (from a computer lab on-campus, dorm ethernet, Telesys dial-up account, etc.). For those of you with a broadband connection (DSL, cable modem) or with a national ISP, they've added a new login feature, which you can read more about at http://www.utexas.edu/cc/usenet/extnews/. For those of you with computer science unix logins - simply use that unix login with news.cs.utexas.edu for the news server (keep reading).

2. How do I get onto a newsgroup?

There are several ways to get onto a newsgroup, but all require some sort of newsreader. Netscape Communicator and Outlook Express both have one built in, as does pine on Unix systems. Many people prefer standalone newsreaders because they tend to provide more features. One such newsreader is at http://www.forteinc.com.

• If using a browser that supports newgroups, do the following:
  • Start your browser.
  • Somewhere in the preferences or setup area, make sure your news server is set to newshost.cc.utexas.edu if on campus, ext-news.utexas.edu if a non-CS account and news.cs.utexas.edu for a CS account. Note that off campus use requires some sort of authentication to be turned on so you can use your name/password.
  • Go to the URL box of your browser, that is, where it says, "http://www..." and delete whatever it says there.
  • To go to the DS newsgroup, type in "news:utexas.nat-sci.deans-scholars" and hit return/enter.
  • You should now see a list of messages appear in a window. That's it, you're in!
• If not using a browser, just set your newsreader to read the utexas.nat-sci.deans-scholars group.

Once you have successfully gotten onto the newsgroup, you can do several things. First of all, if you are using your own computer, you'll want to subscribe to the newsgroup. In some newsreaders, this is automatic. In others, it may involve clicking a box next to the name of the newsgroup, dragging the newsgroup to another window, or selecting an option from one of the menus. Subscribing allows your newsreader to "remember" your favorite groups so you can go to a newsgroup without typing it in every time; it also keeps track of which postings you've read and which you haven't. Just enter "news:" in the URL box to get into the newsreader and read all of your subscribed groups.

3. What can I do after I have subscribed?

Read a message: As a first time user, you should probably just read all the messages to begin with (or maybe just the recent ones). This generally involves simply clicking on each message.
Respond to a message: There are several ways to respond to a message on the newsgroup. These options are usually separate toolbar or menu items:

• Reply to the newsgroup -- This means your reply will appear on the newsgroup for all to read. When responding to a newsgroup message it is considered polite to include edited text of the previous message ABOVE the text you are about to send (not BELOW your text). Please edit the quoted text to include only relevant portions.
• Reply by E-mail -- Send your reply directly to the author of the message you are replying to.
• Reply to group and by mail -- Post your reply to the newsgroup as well as send it to the author you're replying to by E-mail.

Post your own message: If you want to post your own original message, select "To: News", "New Message", "Post", or something similar, depending on the newsreader you are using.

4. Some final notes:

• If you have trouble accessing the newsgroup, you may need to make sure your news server is correct. Going into your preferences and entering "newshost.cc.utexas.edu" as your news server should work.
• If you see a bunch of junk messages (such as advertisements), or no messages, that means you're outside the domain and can't see the "real" messages posted by people at UT. You will have to access the newsgroup while on campus - or change the way you get to the news server.
• Some newsreaders will remember which messages you have read and not display those messages when you reload the newsgroup. This can generally be turned on and off.
• If you share a computer with someone else or use a lab that doesn't reset computers after each use, make sure your name and E-mail address are specified correctly before posting to a newsgroup or sending mail. In Netscape, go to preferences (under Options or Edit depending on the version), and enter your name and E-mail in the Identity section of the mail and news preferences. Remember to change them back when you're done. (This used to be a big problem in the dorm labs before they started using logins.)
• Now that you have no excuses, please start using the newsgroup. It's an effective way of exchanging information about DS (and non-DS) events as well as a great place for discussions. You can take an extra minute or two when checking your E-mail to check the newsgroup, too. And remember, while reading the newsgroup is good, contributing to it is even better. Discussions tend to end really quickly with only a few people involved, and then the newsgroup lies idle for weeks. Fortunately, this doesn't happen quite as often as before, and hopefully it'll happen even less in the future. Hope to see some new names on the newsgroup soon!
  [:-)]

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