Windows Vista: How to Read News with Windows Mail

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News in this article refers to Internet discussion forums, called newsgroups, a very loose collection of discussion areas based on the Network News Transport Protocol NNTP. A newsgroup consists of the messages and sometimes attachments that people post to the list. These messages, often referred to as posts, are available to anyone who chooses to take part in the group or, in a moderated newsgroup, anyone the moderators allow to take part. Internet newsgroups encompass most every topic under the sun, the moon, and the earth. In the olden days of the early 1990s, newsgroups were divided up into a relatively formalized informal structure based around a dozen or so hierarchies of newsgroups with names such as alt alternative topics, biz business topics, comp computer topics, and assorted others, with many subgroups under each hierarchy. Nowadays, in concert with the near anarchy into which the Web has grown, newsgroups are often named capriciously, so the best way to find a newsgroup covering topics you’re interested in is to search for keywords or get a recommendation from a friend. This article discusses how to use the newsreader features of Windows Mail to read messages posted to Internet newsgroups and to post messages yourself. It assumes that you’ve already read the previous article and are familiar with Windows Mail’s mail features. In this article, you’ll need to do a little more setup, configuring Windows Mail to access the right news server.

Understanding the Dangers of Newsgroups

Before you dive into Internet newsgroups, there are several things that you should keep in mind - even if you’re fully up to speed on the dangers of the Internet and the Web in general. First, Internet newsgroups are public. In most cases, anyone who can get online can post to them. If you dip into the right newsgroups or maybe the wrong newsgroups, you’ll sooner or later run into the full range of online humanity. Some of these people post things that most people would much rather they didn’t. Sooner or later probably sooner, you’re likely to run into such posts.

Members-Only Newsgroups Tend to Have Higher Standards

In addition to public, free-for-all newsgroups, you may be invited to join members-only newsgroups. Such newsgroups usually expect a high standard of participation from their members. Second, much of the information you find in newsgroups is incomplete, inaccurate, wrong, misinformation, disinformation, lies, or advertising. Evaluate any information carefully before deciding to trust it. Third, newsgroups tend to get archived. For an example of an archive, point your web browser at Google Groups, http://groups.google.com/, where you can search through millions of posts. This archiving means that every throwaway post has a good chance of remaining available more or less forever - or at least long enough to severely embarrass the poster. Before you dash off an inflammatory post, remember that it may stick around to haunt you for years. Likewise, don’t post any personal information that you don’t want to share with the whole wired world. Fourth, spammers use bots robot programs to harvest e-mail addresses from newsgroups, both for direct use and for selling to other people. Perhaps you’ve already received spam offering you 2 million valid e-mail addresses for only $29.99? Many of those e-mail addresses have been harvested from newsgroups. This harvesting means that if you expose your real e-mail address, you’re likely to get spam almost immediately from the current crop of spammers. Many people who post to newsgroups change their e-mail addresses in a way that will defeat bots but enable humans to establish the real e-mail address with a minimal application of sentience. For example, if your e-mail address is peterpiper@pacbell.net, you might post with an address of peterpiper@removethis.pacbell.netand add a note saying “remove removethis from the address when replying.” This type of custom addition to an address is enough to defeat most bots while remaining manageable for anyone with even minimal command of English. Another option is to set up a free e-mail account that you’re prepared to dump at any time if it starts receiving unwelcome attention. Other people consider it unwise to include any form of their e-mail address in public newsgroups. Others yet are happy to expose their real addresses. Fifth, many of the more specialized newsgroups tend to attract an expert audience that doesn’t tolerate off-topic or ill-considered questions well. Before posting, be sure to read the Frequently Asked Questions list the FAQ for the newsgroup, and check through its archives to make sure that the topic of your posting a is on topic for the newsgroup, and b hasn’t been answered several times already in the last three months.

Setting Up Windows Mail to Read Newsgroups

When you set up Windows Mail for e-mail, it automatically sets itself up with a news account for the Microsoft Communities newsgroups. This account gives you access to a wide range of Microsoftrelated newsgroups. For wider reading, you’ll probably want to set Windows Mail up to read newsgroups provided by your ISP or another online service provider. To set up Windows Mail to read newsgroups, take the following steps:

1. Open Windows Mail as usual for example, choose Start E-mail.

2. Choose Tools Accounts. Windows Mail displays the Internet Accounts dialog box.

3.Click the Add button. Windows Mail displays the Select Account Type screen .

4. Select the Newsgroup Account item, and then click the Next button. Windows Mail displays the Your Name screen.

5. In the Display Name text box, type the name you want to use for your posts. Depending on whether you’ll be posting personally or professionally, you may want to use a pseudonym or a variation of your name.

6. Click the Next button. Windows Mail displays the Internet News E-mail Address screen.

7. In the E-mail Address text box, type the e-mail address that you want to use for your posts. As discussed in the previous section, you may want to use a variation of your real e-mail address to throw off spammers.

8. Click the Next button. The wizard displays the Internet News Server Name screen.

9. Type the name of your news server in the News NNTP Server text box. If you don’t know the name, consult your ISP.

10. If you need to log on to the news server, select the My News Server Requires Me to Log On check box. Many news servers don’t require you to log on.

11. Click the Next button. If you didn’t select the check box in the previous step, the wizard displays its Congratulations page. Go to step 13.

12. If you did select the My News Server Requires Me to Log On check box, the wizard displays the Internet News Server Logon screen. Enter your account name and password. Select the Remember Password check box if you think the convenience of not having to enter the password outweighs the marginal risk of storing it. Then click the Next button. The wizard displays the Congratulations page.

13.Click the Finish button. The wizard closes, returning you to the Internet Accounts dialog box.

14. Click the Close button. Windows Mail displays the Subscribe to Newsgroups dialog box, shown here:

15. Click the appropriate button:

• If you want to use Windows Mail’s Communities features which include the ability to see message ratings and rankings and download a list of newsgroups, click the Show Available Newsgroups and Turn on Communities button. At this writing, many newsgroups do not support Communities, and in others, the Communities features appear not to be fully implemented - but matters may have improved by the time you read this.

• If you just want to download a list of newsgroups, click the Show Available Newsgroups, but Don’t Turn on Communities button.

• If you don’t want to download the list of newsgroups now, click the Don’t Download Newsgroups Now button. You’ll need to download the list of newsgroups at some point, but if you’re currently using a dial-up connection, you might prefer to leave the download until later.

16.If you chose to download the newsgroups, Windows Mail displays the Downloading Newsgroups dialog box while it downloads them. Skip ahead to the section “Downloading the List of Newsgroups.”

Changing the Properties for a News Account

You can change the properties for a news account you’ve set up by working in its Properties dialog box. For example, you might want to change the name that Windows Mail displays for the news account to something more descriptive, or you might need to change your password or connection information. To display the Properties dialog box for the account, take either of the following actions:

• Right-click the news account in the Folders pane and choose Properties from the context menu.

• Choose Tools Accounts. Windows Mail displays the Internet Accounts dialog box. In the News section, select the account, and then click the Properties button.

General Page Properties

The General page of the Properties dialog box for a news account contains the following options:

News Account area In the text box, enter the name that you want displayed for the news account. Changing the name doesn’t affect the server.

User Information area Enter or adjust your name, organization, e-mail address, and reply address in the four text boxes. Select the Include This Account when Checking for New Messages check box if you want Windows Mail to check this account’s newsgroups for new messages each time you check for new messages. Doing so tends to slow down checking for mail.

Server Page Properties

The Server page of the Properties dialog box for a news account contains the connection information for the server that you entered during setup. Change this information if necessary to connect to the server. For example, your ISP might start requiring you to log on or to use Secure Password Authentication.

Connection Page Properties

The Connection page of the Properties dialog box for a news account lets you specify which connection to use for connecting to the account. In many cases, you won’t need to change the settings on this page.

Advanced Page Properties

The Advanced page of the Properties dialog box contains the following options:

Server Port Number area If necessary, change the port number in the News NNTP text box from the default setting 119 to another port specified by your ISP. Also if necessary, select the This Server Requires a Secure Connection SSL check box. Again, your ISP will let you know if you need to apply this setting.

Server Timeouts area If Windows Mail is timing out when you feel it shouldn’t be, drag the slider to increase the length of the server timeout interval.

Descriptions area Select the Use Newsgroup Descriptions check box if you want Windows Mail to download newsgroup descriptions. Doing so can be informative but slows down the downloading of the list of newsgroups.

Posting area Select the Break Apart Messages Larger than NN KB check box and enter an appropriate value in the text box if you want Windows Mail to automatically divide large files you post into a number of smaller parts. This setting is primarily useful if you’re posting large attachments, but it will also help protect the readers of the newsgroups if you start posting million-word theses on a regular basis. Select the Ignore News Sending Format and Post Using check box and select the HTML option button or the Plain Text option button if you want Windows Mail to override the format in which you compose your messages. When you’ve finished choosing options in the Properties dialog box, click the OK button. Windows Mail closes the Properties dialog box and applies your choices.