Reading Netnews with Netscape Navigator

1. If you haven't already done so, type netscape to run a Netscape browser.

2. From the browser's top menu bar, click on Communicator and select Newsgroups. This should bring up a separate Message Center window.

3. You should see an entry for cslab.monmouth.edu in the bottom part of the Message Center window. If you do, double click on it and go to the next step. If you don't, follow these step:

   1. From the Message Center's top menu bar, click on Edit and select Preferences. This should pop up a Mail & Newsgroups control panel in a separate window.

   2. Click the Newsgroup Servers entry in the Column panel on the left; this changes the panel on the right to Newsgroup Servers. Click Add in the Newsgroups Servers panel; this should pop up an entry window. Type cslab.monmouth.edu in the server field, followed by a return (or skip the return and click OK).

   3. If you feel like it, click on the cslab entry in the Newsgroups Servers window and make it the default server by clicking Set as Default.

   4. Click OK to save your changes and eliminate the Mail & Newsgroup control panel.

   5. Now double click on the cslab entry in the Message Center window.

4. You may (or not) see a list of news groups under the cslab entry in the Message Center window. If you see the news groups you want, skip on to the next step. Otherwise, you'll have to subscribe to some news groups by following these steps:

   1. On the Message Center's top menu bar, click File and select Subscribe; this should pop up a newsgroups window.

   2. You should see an entry for Monmouth University's news groups, which should be labeled something like "mu.* (33 groups)". Double click on that entry.

   3. You should now see an entry for the Computer Science department's news groups, which should be labeled something like "mu.cs.* (33 groups)". Double click on that entry. You should now see a list of the department's news groups. If you are subscribed to a news group, you'll see a check-mark to the right of the news-group name; if you see a dot it means you're not subscribed to that news group. To subscribe to news group, click on the dot and turn it into a check-mark; to unsubscribe to a news group, click on the check-mark and turn it into a dot.

      You can also double click on entry to toggle the subscription. You can also select the entry and click on the Subscribe or Unsubscribe button.

   4. After you've finished adjusting your news group subscriptions, click on the newsgroup window's OK button; this will save your changes and eliminate the window. The Message Center window should how show the changes you've made to your subscribed news groups.

5. Double click on one of the news group entries. This pops up a Mail & Newsgroups reader window. The list of messages available in the news group appears above and to the right in the window. Clicking on one of the messages selects it for display below and to the right in the window.

   Once you're comfortable with this procedure, you can short-cut directly to the Mail & Newsgroups reader window by clicking Communicator and selecting Messenger rather than Newsgroups in step 1.

Coming soon: How to post to news groups using Netscape. See the Netscape Handook if you want to learn more about using Netscape Navigator to handle news groups.

Questions, comments, and suggestions should be sent to rclayton@monmouth.edu.

This page last modified on 4 September 2002.