Quick Links

• Apply for an account
• Change your password
• Manage your SENS email
• Print to a public lab
• Get your computer on the network
• Create a web page
• Launch UBiquity Citrix
• Log in to SENS Webmail (launches in new window)
• Request Microsoft software (Faculty/Staff)
• Project Lockbox (Faculty)

Introduction

Professors use newsgroups to provide class assignments, solutions to problems, or other class-related information for their students. There are also hobby and recreational newsgroups.

The official page for CIT Usenet News is located here.

Unix Newsreaders

There are a variety of utilities for reading Usenet News on the various SENS-supported Unix systems. Some of the more popular ones include:

rn

One of the original Usenet News readers, and still very popular.

trn

A version of "rn" that supports viewing messages by threads. Documentation, in PDF format, can be found here.

nn

One of the first "full screen" news readers.

pan

A GNOME Usenet News reader.

Gnus

A Usenet News reader that lives within the Emacs editor.

We cannot provide detailed information on how to use each of these utilities. The most important item to remember is to set the Usenet News server name to "news.buffalo.edu". Also, not all of these are available on all systems.

Using Netscape Communicator

If you have not already done so as part of configuring Netscape Communicator for email access, follow these steps to set it up to access the University Usenet News server:

• From the "Edit" drop-down menu, select "Preferences…".
• Click the "Mail & Newsgroups" category in the preferences window.
• Click the "+" symbol next to the "Mail & Newsgroups" category in the preferences window, then select "Newsgroups Servers" (Note: The Unix versions have a triangle symbol instead of a "+").
• If you don't see a ".buffalo.edu" news server in the "Newsgrous Servers" window, add one by clicking on the "Add…" button. Enter news.buffalo.edu in the "Server" field, and leave the "Port" field set to the default value (119). Click "OK".
• Single-click the server's name in the "Newsgroups Servers" window and click the button labeled "Set as Default".
• Click "OK" to finish the setup.

Subscribing To Newsgroups

• Select Newsgroups from the Communicator menu.
• Right-click on the news.buffalo.edu folder and select Subscribe to Newsgroups.
• Click the Subscribe column next to any newsgroup and click OK.

Reading Usenet News

• Double-click on the news.buffalo.edu folder to see a list of newsgroups to which you are subscribed. If no newsgroups appear, you need to subscribe to one or more of them. For additional information, see the section "Subscribing to Newsgroups".
• Click on the name of the newsgroup you wish to read to see its contents.
• Click on a message header to read it.

Searching For a Newsgroup

• Right-click on the news.buffalo.edu folder and select Subscribe to Newsgroups.
• Click the Search tab.
• Type a string of text in the Search for field. This string should represent a part of the name of the newsgroup that you would like to find.
• Click Search Now. The server will return a list of newsgroups that match the specified search string.
• To subscribe to a newsgroup, click the newsgroup name and then click Subscribe.

Posting a Message

• Select the newsgroup to which you wish to post the message.
• Click the New Msg icon at the top of the window.
• Compose your message. When you are finished, click Send.

Replying To a Message

• Select the message to which you wish to reply in the Netscape Message Center window.
• Click the Reply icon.
• Compose your message. When you are finished, click Send.

Using Microsoft Outlook

Configuring News

By default, Microsoft Outlook uses Outlook Express as a newsreader. Start Outlook Express by opening the View menu and selecting Go To, then News. To configure news, click on the Tools menu and select Accounts. Click the Add button and choose News. The Internet Connection Wizard will prompt you for the following information (Be sure to click Next after each step):

• Enter your name as you would like it to appear on messages you post to a newsgroup.
• Enter your email address. This address should take the form of UBITName@eng.buffalo.edu or UBITName@nsm.buffalo.edu (replacing UBITName with your UBITName).
• Enter "news.buffalo.edu" as the name of your News (NNTP) server. Make sure that the My news server requires me to log on box is NOT checked.
• You should now see a dialog box that says Congratulations. Click Finish to save the settings. Click on Close when the Internet Accounts box comes up. Close the Outlook Express window and return to the Outlook window.

Reading News

To read news, open the View menu and select Go To, then News. To read a newsgroup message, click on the news.buffalo.edu folder.

You can read messages from any newsgroup to which you are subscribed by clicking on the newsgroup name. To subscribe to a newsgroup, click on the Tools menu and select the Newsgroups option.

Use the search field at the top to narrow the list of newsgroups. To subscribe to a particular newsgroup, click on it to highlight it and then click Subscribe. Click OK when you have finished selecting newsgroups.