What are newsgroups and how do I access them?
You will often see references on this site to newsgroups such as rec.arts.movies.erotica and may be wondering what they are and how you can view them. Basically newsgroups are part of USENET, a global bulletin board system. USENET is not the web. To access a newsgroup you use a separate piece of software called a newsreader. You may already be using Outlook Express for e mail and this also includes a built in newsreader. Before you can use it to read newsgroups however, you will need to tell it the name of a news server. Your Internet Service Provider may provide a news server and that is often the best choice when getting started (you can find out what it’s called by asking your ISP). If you have a support service with your ISP, this is also the sort of thing you can ask them how to set up. While there are websites, such as groups.google.com, where you can read USENET news over the web, such sites don’t usually carry binaries (i.e. the pictures, audio, video, executables, etc. – anyth
