A newsgroup is a collection of messages posted by individuals to a news server. News servers are computers maintained by companies, groups, and individuals, and can host thousands of newsgroups.
You can find newsgroups on practically any subject. Although some newsgroups are monitored, most are not, and messages can be "posted" and read by anyone who has access to that group. There are no newsgroup membership lists or joining fees.
Your Internet service provider must have a link to a news server for you to set up an account with that news server in Outlook Express. After you set up an account, you can read and post messages on any of the newsgroups stored on that news server.
When you find a newsgroup you like, you can "subscribe" to it so that it is displayed in your Outlook Express folder list. Then you don't have to scroll through the long list of newsgroups on the server to find what you want.
Newsgroups can contain thousands of messages, which can be time-consuming to sort through. Outlook Express has a variety of features that make it easier to find the information you want in newsgroups.
The following topics describe how to use Outlook Express to participate in newsgroups: