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News groups in Opera

The Opera Browser has a built-in news reader, instantly giving you news groups on the Internet. News groups are forums where current subjects are discussed in full, and were everybody are entitled and encouraged to contribute to these discussions. Almost all news groups on the Internet encompass several news forums and sub-forums, and Opera Software, through our open forums, are offering our users the possibility to communciate and participate in discussions through our very own news server news.opera.no. In this document are explained the features of the Opera News Reader, our forums and our news groups. Please read through it in order to make the most of your Opera News Reader.

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News settings

The internal news reader in Opera must be configured in order for it to work as it should on the news groups. These are the settings on the "News settings" menu:

News server

There is a box for the domain name of your news server here, which needs to be filled in with the correct server name for Opera to be able to access the news server, if you are using your Internet Provider's news server. If not, you could use news.opera.no as this is Opera's very own news server.

The field below this one is where you enter the maximum number of articles that Opera is to fetch from the server specified above when connecting. The default is 500, as too may would cause Opera to become frightfully slow, while too few would hardly be of any use.

If your Internet Provider requires you to log in securely, you should tick the "Secure" box here. Note that you should not do this if you have not been specifically told to do so.

Group window

This section allows you to select the way that "Group windows" are to be displayed:

  • Share with group list window
    If you select this, you'll share the "group window" with the "group list window", meaning clicking a link in the group list window will not spawn a window for the selected group. Use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between them.
  • One for each group list window
    The default, this will open a new window when you click on a link in the group list window. Clicking on another link will open the selected group in the same group window that was first spawned from the group list window. Here, you use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between the groups you have opened.
  • Multiple
    If you select this option, you'll open a totally new "group window" whenever you click on a link in the "group list window".

Article window

This section allows you to select the way that "Article windows" are to be displayed:

  • Share with group window
    If you select this, you'll share the "article window" with the "group window" you have opened, meaning clicking a link in the group window will not spawn a window for the selected article. Use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between them.
  • One for each group window
    The default, this will open a new window when you click on a link in the group window. Clicking on another link will open the selected article in the same article window that was originally spawned from the group window. Here, you use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the main Opera button bar to move between the articles you have opened.
  • Multiple
    If you select this option, you'll open a totally new "article window" whenever you click on a link in the "group window".

Default group sorting

This section defines how the articles are to be sorted in the group window. Your options are:

  • Author
    This will sort the articles by the name of the author.
  • Date
    This will sort the articles by the date they were added in descending manner, first entry at the top of the window.
  • Date reversed
    This will sort the articles by the date they were added in ascending manner, latest entry at the top of the window.
  • Subject
    This will sort the articles by their subject.

Group threads

The options here will decide how the group threads are to be displayed.

  • Show
    This setting is enabled by default and elects to show the group threads.
  • Open all
    Also enabled by default, this has all group threads open, so that you may see the name of the articles they spawn.

These are the settings of the news reader in Opera. Read below for information on setting up Opera's news reader for Opera Software's news server.

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Settings for e-mail

For just viewing news groups, you'll not need to configure anything than the above settings, but that's probably not what most people wish to use news groups for. If you wish to post new articles or respond to existing threads, you will have to configure an e-mail client as well, so that you are able to send e-mails to the news server.

In order to do so, please "File/Preferences", select "E-mail" and choose between using Opera's internal e-mail client, using another application, or simply using the e-mail client that's been set as the system's default e-mail client.

If you select to use Opera's internal e-mail client, you'll need the following information to set up an e-mail account:

  • Your e-mail address
    This is the most important thing to have. If you do not add this to the Opera e-mailer account properties, you cannot send e-mail.
  • User name
    This user name is used along with your password to define you as yourself when logging onto the mail server.
  • Password
    The password is used in cojunction with your user name to define you as yourself when logging onto the mail server.
  • SMTP server name
    The name of the server for outgoing e-mail, e.g. www.outgoing.com. Note that this may be the same name as the POP server name.
  • POP server name
    The name of the server for incoming e-mail, e.g. www.incoming.com. Note that this may be the same name as the SMTP server name.

All of these details should have been given to you by your Internet Service Provider, and if you have not received these details, you need to contact them.

With the information in hand, please follow the instructions on setting up an e-mail account, and you should not have any problems.

If you select to use another application or to use the system's default e-mail client, please consult the documentation for your selected e-mail clients.

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Introduction to News groups

Discussion groups are places where like-minded souls meet and discuss issues that range from the abstract to the bizarre. There are currently over 20.000 newsgroups available. Subscription is free in most cases. Please refer to the group:

news.announce.newusers

for details on how to conduct on the news- or discussion forums.

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News Reader Setup

In order to set up the Opera News Reader, you'll need to know the name of the news server your Internet Service Provider has, or your Intranet or Local/Wide Area Network is connected to. This name should be provided to you by your Internet Service Provider or System Administrator.

This server name needs to be placed in the "News server" box in the "News" part of "File/Preferences" in Opera. Click the "OK" button to save the name, and go to "News/New" to open the Opera News Reader which will contact the news server and retrieve the news groups.

We believe a news server is a sound and solid way of keeping the exchange alive, and have therefore set up a dedicated news server for you. In order to post messages to this server, you will have to change your news server setting to news.opera.no as we are not using the public USENET which can be accessed through your ISP. The name of our news server is:

news://news.opera.no

Sub-forums are:

These groups are ideal for support or other complex or complicated issues. Many users are there to help you, and we are also actively monitoring and participating when appropriate.

We would really appreciate you using this service before contacting us with general issues. Opera users are extremely helpful and will be delighted to assist you wherever they can.

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Newsgroups : article window

In the group window you will see the news article. Click on the buttons or fields below for an explanation.

- Previous article
Displays the previous article in a newsgroup.

- Next article
Displays the next article in a newsgroup.

- Reply to an article
Replies to an article. The text of the article can be included by using the 'Include' function in the mail window.

- Follow up an article
Follow up an article in a newsgroup. The text of the article can be included by using the 'Include' function in the mail window.

- Forward article
Forward an article to an e-mail address.

- Post news article
Creates a new article to the current newsgroup. This will start a new thread.

- Mark selected news article(s) as unread
Mark active articles or a number of marked articles as unread. The articles can be marked by holding down CONTROL and clicking on them or by holding down SHIFT and clicking on an article. All articles are thus marked between this article and the last one marked.

- Mark article(s) as read
Mark active articles, or a number of marked articles as read. The articles can be marked by holding down CONTROL and clicking on them or by holding down SHIFT and clicking on an article. All articles are thus marked between this article and the last one marked.

- Show associated news overview window
Choose either to list all articles in a group, even old ones, or only those that are unread.

- Toggle listing all/unread only news articles
Choose to see all groups or only those subscribed to

- Show threads
Choose to display or not the connections between messages; which message is the answer to which other message.

Sort criteria
You can choose to sort messages in a newsgroup by date, sender or subject. If you wish to have a list of the contributions from one sender, you should turn off display of threads.

Threads hierarchy
Indicates which messages are replies to which other messages. You click on a closed folder, and the messages which are replies to messages on the same line and folder are displayed. You can close the folder again by clicking on it.

Read/unread indicator
This indicates whether a message is read or not. You can change the status of a message by clicking on the indicator. You can also mark multiple messages with the mouse and CONTROL or SHIFT keys. These marked messages can be marked as read or unread with the appropriate buttons in the button bar.

Sender
Here you can see who sent the messages.

Subject
Here you can see the subject of the message.

Total lines
Here you can see how many lines there are in a message.

Date
Here you can see when a message was sent.

- Show associated news overview window
Click on this button to see an overview over newsgroups. Whether they are displayed in the same or another window is dependent on Preferences.

- Show associated news group
Click on this button to display an overview of all articles in a newsgroup. Whether they are displayed in the same or another window is dependent on Preferences.

Article
Here you see the contents of a news article. At the top is located the sender, the subject and the date.

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that the instructions in these documents will work on every computer and every platform. Please inform us if you have problems with Opera, but please, first check our online support section, as this section is updated on a regular basis with information about the Opera Browser.

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