Outlook Express newsgroups 101
Published: April 21, 2005
By Tom Koch
Since last month's column on Mastering Newsgroups addressed mainly power newsgroup users in Outlook Express, it seemed a good idea to address some tips to those just starting out. The world of newsgroups is vast and constantly growing, so jumping in for the first time can be confusing and nerve-wracking. But as a long-time user and an outspoken supporter of newsgroups, I'm going to hold your hand a little bit and urge you to dive right in. The water is fine!
The basics of newsgroups
A newsgroup is a community of people engaged in an ongoing conversation about a particular topic or a particular range of topics. Sometimes the participants are conversing in real time, but often hours or even days might pass between replies in a conversation.
Netiquette
As in any community, you will find some people in newsgroups are pleasant, some are rude, some are clever, some are dull, some are serious, and some are flippant. Also as in any community, there is some kind of code of what constitutes appropriate behavior. This is what is meant by Netiquette, in other words, Network Etiquette. The most comprehensive guide to Netiquette is RFC 1855 (the RFCs, or Requests for Comments, are documents that define Internet protocols and rules). Netiquette for newsgroups is found in Section 3: One-to-Many Communication. While the RFC has many specific suggestions, they can be summed up in a few lines:
| • | Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive. |
| • | Don't post to groups that don't deal with the subject of your message. |
| • | Make sure the Subject line of your message actually includes the subject of your message, and not just "Help!" or "I have a problem." |
| • | Don't type in all capitals because that means YOU ARE SHOUTING. |
| • | Remember that there are real people reading and writing those messages. |
| • | Bear in mind that the RFC is a set of guidelines, not a set of rigid rules. |
Public and private news
Newsgroups are found on both public and private servers, access to which may be either paid or free. Private servers are those which do not share their messages with other servers. Public servers however do share messages with other servers in a process called news propagation. The propagation of messages from one server to another happens automatically but not instantaneously. It is therefore possible to connect to a newsgroup on one server and find messages that are not yet present in the same newsgroup on another server. It can take days for a message to be propagated to all connected servers around the world, although it can also take as little as a few minutes. Remember that public and private refer to propagation, not to who may or may not access a server. Hence a private server might be freely accessed by the general public or by registered members, or it might be accessed only by paying members.
Organization of newsgroups
Newsgroups are organized into hierarchies based on subject, and then into more specific interest groups within a hierarchy. The original public hierarchies, known as Usenet, are still widely used today.
| • | .comp: anything related to computers, like hardware, programming, operating systems, etc. |
| • | .humanities: art, music, literature, philosophy, etc. |
| • | .misc: miscellaneous topics that don't fit in any other hierarchy |
| • | .news: administration and discussion of Usenet software, protocols, policies, etc. |
| • | .rec: recreation and hobbies |
| • | .sci: academic discussions of science |
| • | .soc: social studies, history, culture, religion, politics, lifestyle, etc. |
| • | .talk: general debate and extended discussion, often heated |
Other hierarchies have been created over the years for specific areas.
| • | .alt: the largest and most diverse hierarchy, covering almost any topic you can imagine. Anyone can create a newsgroup in this hierarchy, so you will see some pretty useless, comical, offensive and humourous newsgroup names here, for example, alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die for non-fans of the Star Trek character. |
| • | .biz: for business and commercial topics |
| • | .clari: a sort of Usenet newspaper which requires a license fee |
| • | .k12: for teachers from kindergarten to grade 12 |
| • | .microsoft: created by Microsoft for peer-to-peer technical support and discussion (and where you will find most of the Microsoft MVPs) |
There are also local hierarchies for some specific countries, states and cities, as well as hierarchies for specific Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Within a hierarchy you may find hundreds or thousands of newsgroups, each group focusing on a specific part of the hierarchy's subject. For example, Word is a Microsoft product, so the public newsgroup for new users of Word is microsoft.public.word.newusers. Star Trek on the other hand is a television program, which does not belong under any of the original Usenet hierarchies, but is perfectly suitable for the .alt hierarchy. Sure enough, there is a group named alt.startrek, along with alt.startrek.books, alt.startrek.klingon and scores of similar groups.
The Microsoft public news server – The .microsoft hierarchy contains a large number of newsgroups for Microsoft products and technologies. While many ISPs carry some of the .microsoft newsgroups, I've always found the best way to access them is by creating a separate news account for the Microsoft server itself. This server carries only the .microsoft hierarchy, and messages remain on the server for much longer than most ISPs allow.
To set up an account for the Microsoft public news server,
1. | On the Tools menu, click Accounts. |
2. | Click the Add button, and then click News. |
3. | Enter your name and e-mail address. |
4. | For the name of the news server, type "msnews.microsoft.com." |
5. | Click Finish. |
6. | Click the Close button. |
7. | Outlook Express will ask if you wish to download the list of available newsgroups. Make sure you are connected to the Internet and answer 'yes'. When the download is finished, you can subscribe to any group by double-clicking its icon. |
Usually you read a newsgroup by downloading messages into a newsreader like Outlook Express. Since a newsgroup might contain hundreds or even thousands of messages, almost all newsreaders first download only message headers and not message bodies. This allows you to scan the Subject lines of various conversations and read only those that sound interesting to you without downloading all those messages you want to skip.
Binary newsgroups
In addition to discussion groups there are also groups devoted to sharing pictures, music, videos, software, and anything else than be downloaded. These are what are called binary groups. Internet news itself is a text-only medium, so anything that is not plain text, for example, a binary file, must be encoded as text before it can be posted to a newsgroup. This encoding is not particularly efficient so the resulting file size of a picture, for example, will be up to 30% larger than the original image file. Despite this inefficiency, newsgroups remain one of the most popular ways to share rich media files.
Because messages in binary groups are actually encoded binary files, they are usually too big to include in a single news message. They are therefore usually broken into parts that you must reassemble before you can decode the file. Furthermore the individual parts are not meant to be viewed individually but only after being combined with all other parts.
For best results in binary groups in Outlook Express, turn off the Preview pane so that no individual part will be opened.
1. | On the View menu, click Layout. |
2. | Clear the Show Preview Pane check box. |
To download a complete binary file that has been posted in parts
1. | Select all the parts of file, which are usually numbered to show the order in which they should be combined, like 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, or 01, 02, 03 etc. |
2. | On the Message menu, click Combine and Decode. |
3. | Verify that the parts have been put in the correct order, click OK. |
Outlook Express will then download all the parts and combine them into a single message window. The binary file itself will appear as an attachment which you can save to your hard disk.
Multi-part binary files are usually numbered in some way to show the order in which they should be combined.
Setting up a news account in Outlook Express
If you have never used newsgroups before, you might first want to read about getting news from newsgroups and viewing and posting in Outlook Express. Basic steps are also supplied in the Outlook Express help file, accessed by pressing F1 or clicking Contents and Index on the Help menu. Rather than repeat those instructions here, I want to jump ahead to what follows after you find a newsgroup of interest.
Downloading a newsgroup in Outlook Express
When you open a newsgroup, Outlook Express automatically downloads new headers. If you are using the default settings, only the most recent 300 headers will download. If there are more than 300 unread messages, you will see an estimate of the total number highlighted in blue in the Folder list next to the group's name.
If you wish to download more than the default 300, click Get Next 300 Headers on the Tools menu. But if you find that you have to do this regularly, you might want to increase the number of headers downloaded at one time.
1. | Click Options on the Tool menu. |
2. | Click the Read tab. |
3. | If you want to download all headers each time you open a group, clear the check box labeled Get 300 headers at a time. |
4. | To raise or lower the download limit, change 300 to any number from 50 to 1000. |
Customize how many headers Outlook Express will download when you open a newsgroup.
If a group has lots of old messages that you are sure you will not want to download, you can use the Catch Up feature to mark them as read. Simply right-click on the group in the Folder list and click Catch Up.
Entering a newsgroup for the first time
If you entered a room and found several people involved in a conversation, you would not simply interrupt them to announce your arrival or to express your opinion on whatever they had been discussing. You would listen first to get a sense of the participants and wait for a suitable moment to join in the discussion. You should use the same strategy when you first enter a newsgroup, even if you have been actively participating in other groups for a long time. Every newsgroup develops its own customs and cast of characters. To the current participants you are a "newbie," newsgroup jargon for a newcomer, so don't feel offended if you see the word. Though it can be used in a negative context, it is usually meant in a friendly tone.
The best way to ensure a good reception to a newsgroup community is to spend two or three days reading the group before you begin posting messages yourself. This is what newsgroup regulars refer to as "lurking." Lurking is not in any way negative in the newsgroup world, and is in fact highly recommended in technical support groups. If you have a technical question, the chances are very high that the question has been asked and answered before. So lurking will very often result in finding an answer faster than if you posted your question. Many newsgroups that see the same questions asked repeatedly have assembled a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document which is posted either to the group or to a Web site. Reading the FAQ is always recommended. Another helpful tool for searching newsgroups is the Google newsgroups archive.
It is probably inevitable that you will eventually read a message in a newsgroup that upsets or angers you. If you are lurking, this is not the time to make your presence known! There might very well be a history between the participants of which you are unaware. What you read as an insult might be an inside joke to the group members. Or the customs and netiquette of the group might be very different from yours. Before you react publicly, remember that you do not own the newsgroup. Neither does any other individual. If you are not comfortable in a group, just leave it. If you are uncomfortable with a specific participant, use the Block Sender feature on the Outlook Express Tools bar, or just press the Delete key. If you reply in anger or outrage, you will very likely launch what is called a "flame war," a back-and-forth exchange of insults and personal attacks. Sometimes a person will purposefully post something inflammatory, hoping to ignite a flame war. Such persons are called "trolls," and that term is almost always meant to be derogatory. Replying to a troll is a bad idea, and should you do so, someone will probably post a reply to you saying "Do not feed the trolls." That is usually meant as a gentle reminder to every participant in a conversation. Flame wars can destroy a community, so it is in the community interest that all participants just ignore attempts to start one.
