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April 1997 |
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In this month's WebTV Tips, find out all about newsgroups, new to Club WebTV members! Also check out Speakeasy for information about what goes on in newsgroups and how to enjoy them!
1. What are NetNews and Usenet? NetNews (also called Usenet) is made up of the many thousands of newsgroups available on the Internet. WebTV Networks gives you access to NetNews under Discuss, found in Explore. 2. What's a newsgroup? A newsgroup is a place on the Internet where you can read people's opinions or thoughts on a particular topic and post a response if you so choose. Some newsgroups, such as those under alt.binaries, include graphics. Some of the most popular newsgroups are:
3. Alt.sex.stories!? How do I keep this material away from my children? Only accounts that are free from access restrictions and email blocks can access newsgroups. Access to NetNews is denied to accounts with any access restrictions such as Surfwatch, Kid-Friendly, or blocked email. Please put one of these in place on your children's' accounts if you are concerned about them finding inappropriate material in NetNews. Quite honestly, itÕs very easy for them to find such newsgroups if you do not restrict their usage in some fashion. 4. How does newsgroup naming work? A typical newsgroup name would be something like: rec.arts.movies.reviews. Each part of the name is part of a path. The most common major paths are alt, soc, rec, and talk. The example above starts out on the rec path, takes a turn at rec.arts, goes to rec.arts.movies, and finally reaches the specified newsgroup by selecting rec.arts.movies.reviews. 5. What do the three little dots at the right side of the screen mean when I'm looking at a list of groups? Those three little dots mean that this link is to another list of groups further down the path, all of whom have that part of their name in common. For instance, there are a large number of groups listed under the path of alt.binaries, so clicking on that link would take you to a listing of the groups that fall under the heading alt.binaries. 6. How do I go directly to a newsgroup? Remote control users can press the Options button, and choose go to. Keyboard users can just press the Go To button. When the screen comes up, erase the http:// and type in news: followed by the exact newsgroup name. Also, see Question 10 for how to save newsgroups to your Favorites list. 7. What does "RE:" mean in the title of some postings? News articles are sorted by thread. A thread is a series of postings that all have the same topic. RE: means is that this particular posting is in response a previous post on that topic. 8. How are postings to newsgroups displayed? Each post is sorted by thread, with the postings listed chronologically. The order the threads are displayed is based on how recently something was added to that thread. The more recently a posting was added to a thread, the earlier that entire thread appears in the display. This means that old but still active threads will be shown before new threads in which there is no recent response. 9. Why is some of the text smaller and indented when I read an article? The smaller text you see is most likely "quoted text". It is text from a previous posting, included to clearly show which part of the post is being responded to. 10. Can I save a newsgroup to my Favorites list? Yes, you can. When you click on that image in your Favorites, it will take you to that newsgroup, displaying the most current items, not the items that were there when the newsgroup was saved to Favorites. 11. How do you reply to the author of a posting, instead of the entire newsgroup? When reading an article, you are given a choice between "Mail to" and "Respond." "Mail to" sends a reply to the author of the article. "Respond" is used to add a posting to that newsgroup in response to that article. 12. What does "moderated" mean in a newsgroup's description? In a moderated group, a person or a number of people will read each post before allowing it to be added to that newsgroup. Articles posted to moderated groups will almost always take longer to be visible than those articles posted to unmoderated newsgroups. 13. I just posted an article, but it isn't listed when I go back to the group's articles list. Why not? It takes between half an hour and an hour for postings to show up on NetNews. Patience is all that's necessary. Just give it a little while to be integrated into the system. However, for groups that are moderated, the wait time may be much longer -- you need to wait for the moderator to read and accept the post, before it actually gets posted. 14. What if I don't have a infrared keyboard? Can I use a standard PC keyboard? Are the commands different? If you'd like to use a computer keyboard, a PS/2 can be used with WebTV Internet terminals. The commands are:
Many thanks to the club member who shared this with us! 15. I bought a WebBear from FutureNet. How does this differ from WebTV Internet terminals? FutureNet's WebBear connects to the WebTV Network in exactly the same way Sony and Philips/Magnavox Internet terminals do. You have the same access numbers, features, services, and fees. WebBears are sold by FutureNet representatives. WebTV Internet terminals are sold in stores. 16. Can I change my email address? If you are the primary user, your email address cannot be changed. Since you may have up to six accounts, including the Primary User, the easiest solution would be to add another account, using the email name you'd prefer. If you'd like this new account to be the Primary User, please call us so we can make this change for you. Please note, however, that whichever email account is listed as the Primary User will have the user's first and last name attached to outgoing messages. All other accounts can be changed, added or deleted, or have the first and last names changed or removed. 17. My real name appears next to my email address. Can this be removed or changed? If you are the Primary User, your name cannot be removed. Add a user, and when prompted for a first and last name, simply choose "Continue." When you want to send mail without a name attached, send mail from this new account. If you are an additional user, you must sign on as the Primary User and choose "Setup," then "WebTV users." Click on the name of the account you want to change. Then click on the first and last name, and delete or change the name as you wish. 18. What if I don't know which category my interest falls under in Explore? You can now choose "Look for" from the sidebar menu on the left. You can also use ÒLook forÓ under Discuss to find specific newsgroups. 19. When a site is no longer a Spotlight, how can I go back to it? Anytime you find a Spotlight, either in Explore or on your home page, scroll down and click on "Archives" for the a listing of all previous Spotlights. For newbies, we've put together a short glossary of some useful Internet terms. For a more expansive glossary, take a look at the ILC Glossary of Internet Terms.
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