Chapter 7 • News TCP/Connect II uses the NNTP protocol to provide a news reader that allows you to post and read articles on USENET newsgroups.   NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used to transfer news between servers on the Internet. It is also used to provide clients access to the server’s database to retrieve news.   USENET (USEr NETwork) is a public access networked database on the Internet that provides users with news.   Newsgroups are special interest electronic bulletin boards accessed on a subscription basis as part of a news database. TCP/Connect II offers two ways to read news: online and offline.   Using news online means your Macintosh is constantly connected to the news server while you perform news functions. Your connection is closed when you close the News Reader window.   Using news offline means your Macintosh connects to the news server long enough to download new articles in the newsgroups you subscribed to. When all the necessary articles are downloaded, the connection is automatically closed. 7.1 Configuring TCP/Connect II to Use News Set parameters in the Mail configuration panel before using news.   See Section 6.1, Using the Mail Configuration Panel , for more information on necessary configuration. 7.2 Connecting to a News Server Online To connect to a news server: 1. Choose News… from the Services menu. √ The Open a news session dialog is displayed. 2. Choose a news session from the NNTP Server Name pop-up menu if you do not want to use your default news server.   To read news online, the Offline News option should not be selected. 3. Click QuickStart to reduce the time needed to set up the connection to the news server specified.   QuickStart is a process by which only the newsgroups a user is subscribed to are checked upon startup. If QuickStart is not enabled, all newsgroups on the server are checked for new news and any alterations since the last connection.   If this is your first time connecting to a news server, do not enable QuickStart. An entire list of newsgroups must be downloaded upon the first connection to any news server. 4. Click Connect to connect to the server you specified. (Or click Cancel to close the dialog without connecting to the news server.) √ The News Reader window is displayed with the name of the session listed in the title bar of the window.   To disconnect from the server at any time, click the close box in the News Reader window. 7.2.1 Subscribing to Newsgroups We suggest subscribing to newsgroups while you are connected to a news server. To get an up-to-date list of all newsgroups, subscribe to the newsgroup news.lists. To subscribe to a newsgroup: 1. Choose Edit Newsgroups… from the Services menu. √ The Newsgroups dialog is displayed. 2. Select the newsgroup to subscribe to from the Unsubscribed scrolling list on the right side of the dialog.   Click the triangle to the left of a newsgroup to expand the newsgroup. Click the triangle again to compress the newsgroup. 3. Drag the newsgroup and drop it in the Subscribed scrolling list on the left side of the dialog. √ You are subscribed to the newsgroup. 4. To unsubscribe from a newsgroup, select the newsgroup to unsubscribe from in the Subscribed scrolling list. 5. Drag the newsgroup and drop it in the Unsubscribed scrolling list. √ You are unsubscribed from the newsgroup. 6. Click OK to save your newsgroup subscription. (Or click Cancel to close the dialog without saving your changes.) 7.2.2 Reading News Online Once subscribed to a newsgroup, the articles posted to that newsgroup are available for you to read. To read a news article from within the News Reader window: 1. Select a newsgroup from the Newsgroups pane on the left side of the window. √ Articles are listed in the Article Headers pane in the top right portion of the window. 2. Select an article from the Article Headers pane. √ The text of the selected article is displayed in the Article Text pane in the bottom right portion of the window. 7.3 Connecting to a News Server Offline Before using TCP/Connect II to read news offline, you must connect to a news server to enable TCP/Connect II to retrieve updated and essential information, including the newsgroups available on the server.   See Section 7.2, Connecting to a News Server Online , for information on connecting to a news server online.   Do not enable QuickStart when connecting for the first time. A list of newsgroups must be downloaded upon the first connection to any news server. You must make online connections to subscribe, so that only the most current information is used when you are subscribing.   See Section 7.2.1, Subscribing to Newsgroups , for information on subscribing and unsubscribing to newsgroups. To connect to a news server offline: 1. Choose News… from the Services menu. √ The Open a news session dialog is displayed with your default news server listed in the NNTP Server Name field. 2. Click Offline News. 3. Click QuickStart to reduce the time needed to set up the connection to the specified news server. 4. Click Connect to connect to the server you specified. (Or click Cancel to close the dialog without connecting to the news server.) √ The Offline News Status window is displayed. When your Macintosh has downloaded all news, the window automatically closes.   • Choose Hide Offline News Status from the Windows menu to hide the staus window. • Choose Show Offline News Status from the Windows menu to display the status window. 7.3.1 Reading Offline News Reading offline news is identical to reading mail messages. Once you download articles, they are filed into mailboxes, and you use the mail features of TCP/Connect II to read them. Each mailbox is named for the corresponding newsgroup. A news article and a mail message have different icons that are displayed within a mailbox.   Identifies an unread news article   Identifies a read news article   Identifies an unread mail message   Identifies a read mail message 7.4 Using Online and Offline News The following sections describe news functions that pertain to both online and offline news articles.   See Chapter 6,Mail , for information on replying to and forwarding offline news articles. 7.4.1 Creating an Article Creating an article is as easy as typing in any text editing application. To create an article: 1. Click the New Article icon in the News Reader window. √ The Untitled Article window is displayed.   Since there is no New Article icon on the Mail icon bar while using offline news, you must choose New… from the File menu. 2. Enter text for your article in the Untitled Article window. 3. Click Post to post your article to the newsgroup. √ The Post dialog is displayed.   See Section 7.4.3, Posting an Article , to complete the Post dialog. 7.4.2 Following Up an Article To create a followup article for a newsgroup in response to an article: 1. Click Followup on the icon bar. √ The Followup window is displayed.   The Followup window reflects the default selections of the Followup Article dialog. Select Followup Article… from the Messages menu to set new defaults. 2. Enter your response in the Followup window. 3. Click Post to post your article to the newsgroup. √ The Post dialog is displayed. 7.4.3 Posting an Article   To post an article is to submit it to a newsgroup. Subscribers to the newsgroup can read the article you post. To post an article you have already created: 1. Click Post on the icon bar. √ The Post dialog is displayed. 2. In the Subject field, enter the subject of your article. 3. In the Newsgroups scrolling list, enter the newsgroups to post the article to. OR Select a newsgroup from the Newsgroups scrolling list on the right, and drag it to the Newsgroups scrolling list on the left. 4. Click Newsgroups for responses to your article to be posted to the original newsgroup. Select other newsgroups for responses to be posted to from the Newsgroups scrolling list and drag them to the Followup-To field. OR Click Poster for responses to your article to be posted only to you. 5. In the Distribution field, enter the distribution area for your article. OR Choose the distribution from the Distribution pop-up menu. 6. In the Keywords field, enter keywords for your article. Separate each word with a space. 7. Enter a short summary of your article in the Summary field.   If you are posting a followup article, the References field is already filled in with information about the original author and article. 8. Choose a mailbox to archive the article you are posting from the Archive pop-up menu. 9. Choose a signature to be appended to your news article from the Signature pop-up menu. 10. Click Mail Copy To Poster to send the followup article you are posting as a mail message to the author of the original message. 11. Click Post to post your message with the parameters you have specified in the Post dialog. (Or click Cancel to close the dialog without posting the article.) √ The Posting Status window is displayed and shows the status of your post. When your post is complete, the Posting Status window automatically closes.   • Choose Hide Posting Status from the Windows menu to hide the status window. • Choose Show Posting Status from the Windows menu to display the status window. ≈≈≈≈≈≈