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Participate in newsgroup discussions with Microsoft® Outlook Express!

Did you know that you could publish a message on the Internet on just about any topic of interest and receive comments and feedback from other users around the world? You can find information on just about anything in the newsgroup discussions!

To start browsing through the newsgroup discussion topics, from the Microsoft® Internet Explorer menu...

click on Tools, select Mail and News, then highlight and click on Read News.

The very first time you attempt this, a dialogue box/form will appear where you will have to enter some information to create a newsgroup account profile. You will have to fill-out the information that will appear on your published messages (name, email) as well as the address you'll be connecting to to receive newsgoup messages. This address depends on your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This address is usually "news.your_isp's_name.com". You can always obtain this address from your connection package documentation or by calling your ISP.

When you're done

click the Finish button and...

the Microsoft® Outlook Express window will appear, alongside a dialogue box ...

click on the Yes button.

Yet another dialogue box will appear, stating that you are receiving the newsgroups... This may take 5 to 10 minutes (depends on your connection speed) given that there are thousands of newsgroup topics available (40.000 last time we tried.)

When the download is complete, the Subscribe to newsgroups window will appear. From this list you can select the newsgroup discussion topics you want to "subscribe" to. As you probably have guessed, it may be a bit difficult at first to make a selection as there are thousands of topics to choose from! We've already selected a newsgroup for you, entitled "alt.ascii-art".

Drag the scrollbar all the way down until your see the "alt.ascii-art" entry, click on it and then click the Subscribe button

You are now subscribed to this newsgroup.. You can repeat the process as many times as you wish and subscribe to as many newsgroups as you want. When you're done..

click on the OK button

...and you'll see the newsgroup (alt.ascii-art) you subscribed to on your list of folders.

Click on the alt.ascii-art folder

and all messages belonging to this newsgroup will appear, just as your email messages do. You can read, send and reply to a message in the exact same way you do with your email.

The following time you open the Microsoft® Outlook Express window to view newsgoup messages, right-click the newsgoup folder and highlight and click on Catch Up. This is how you'll receive all the new messages posted!

Now you know how to participate in newsgroup discussions using Microsoft® Outlook Express!

Screen shots reprinted by permission from Microsoft Corporation. Microsot® Internet Explorer and Microsot® Outlook Express are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.