How to read and post to newsgroups:

With Tin
With Netscape 4.x

There are other programs besides tin and netscape that you can use:

On UNIX
- nn : this is available on nyquist but note that nn wrecks your .newsrc file so it can't be used with tin
- knews : also available on nyquist
- slrn : not on nyquist

On Windows
- Free Agent is probably most popular
- Many others check <http://www.tucows.com/>

Tin is a pretty good reader in my opinion and that is what I use.

Comments and/or corrections can be forwarded to Noah Aklilu <aklilu@ee.ualberta.ca>

With Tin:

For additional commands/help to what is covered here, just type "h" inside tin.

Basic Reading:

1. to start tin, type "tin" at the command prompt
   If it asks you if you want to subscribe to a newsgroup, just use "q" to skip that stage.
2. it should start up and show a list of your newsgroups, which in this case should include ualberta.courses.ee.552
3. use your UP and DOWN arrow keys to select the newsgroup you want to read and hit enter
4. now you should be looking at a listing of articles that have posted to the news group
5. use your UP and DOWN arrow keys to select the article you want to read and hit enter
6. once you are finished reading, use "q" to back up into the article listing window
7. To back up to the newsgroup listing type "q" again
8. To exit tin, use SHIFT-q

You might notice that articles you have read in the past are no longer listed, tin by default does not display "read"
articles.  To display "read" articles, you can use "r".  Tin will display "read" articles that have new followups posted
to them.  If you want to change this behaviour then you change the option in myhomedir/.tin/tinrc

show_only_unread=ON

to

show_only_unread=OFF
 

Posting a Message:

As a new article:

1. Select the newsgroup you want to post to and hit enter
2. Type "w"
3. Enter a subject and press "enter"
4. This will bring you to your article body, you type in your message here.
5. When you are done, use Ctrl-x
6. Now you can choose to post the article ("p"), spell check it ("i"), edit it again ("e") or cancel it ("q")
7. Before posting check the information on screen (i.e. newsgroup) and then to post it, use "p"
8. tin will give you a message confirming your post
9. and you are done

As a followup:

1. Select the article you want to follow up and hit enter
2. Type "f"
3. You are now in the article body, you will notice that the original article is copied into the body for you
4. Add your comment to the article
5. When you are done, use Ctrl-x
6. Now you can choose to post the article ("p"), spell check it ("i"), edit it again ("e") or cancel it ("q")
7. Before posting check the information on screen (eg newsgroup) and then to post it, use "p"
8. tin will give you a message confirming your post
9. and you are done

With Netscape 4.x:

For IDENTITY:
 

1. Click on the "Edit" menu and select Preferences
2. Preference window will pop up
3. Click on the arrow next to Mail&Groups
4. Select Identity
5. Fill in Your name and email address

1. Click on the "Edit"  menu and select Preferences
2. Preferences window will pop up
3. Click on the arrow next to Mail&Groups
4. Select "Groups Server"
5. In the Discussion groups (news) server field enter: "news.srv.ualberta.ca"

To access news:

1. click on the "File" menu and select "Open Page"
2. type in "news:ualberta.courses.ee.552" and hit enter
3. You will have the news reader window pop-up 
   Alternate: You can click on the link that is on the EE552 webpage