Subscribing to Groups and Reading Postings

To read a newsgroup you must first subscribe to it. Your Internet service provider (ISP) usually provides a feed of newsgroups as part of your account. Some ISPs, however, don't provide a so-called full newsfeed of the tens of thousands of newsgroups now in existence.

The best way to read newsgroups is to use a stand-alone newsreader program, although you can use the newsreaders that are included with your web browser or e-mail program. Specialized programs allow you to manage the huge volume of messages in many newsgroups. The ones built into web browsers are more limited in what they can do.

Once you have downloaded your ISP's newsfeed into your reader software, select the newsgroups you wish to subscribe to. Then visit those newsgroups whenever you like. You can check just one or all of the newsgroups you've subscribed to. The simplest approach is to download all of the new responses from all newsgroups at the same time and then read them. If you subscribe to a lot of newsgroups, this is the time to have a large cup of coffee!

The newsreader software will display a list of all new responses. The best way to manage this is to thread your reader so that it groups related responses together. To do this, order the postings by subject. That way you will see the postings and the responses together.

Last update: Jan 11, 2010