The Internet is actually made up of several different networks. One is for e-mail, another is the World-Wide Web, and another is Usenet Newsgroups. These networks operate alongside each other, and can even be linked in various ways, such as when an e-mail contains a clickable link to a Web page. But it is helpful to see them as separate networks to get a handle on how they work.
Usenet Newsgroups is one such network. Newsgroups is actually a bit of a misnomer, since they don't necessarily have anything to do with news. In terms of content, they tend to be more like special interest groups. The content is similar to what you would find in many e-mail mailing lists, but there are two crucial differences:
Because they are open to anyone, they have turned out to be a very efficient way for software companies to provide technical support. Many companies (Microsoft, Macromedia, etc.) have established newsgroups to provide technical support. These groups are usually monitored by the tech personnel of the company, but in addition users can help other users, and sometimes particularly dedicated and active users are given some additional recognition as helpers, such as Microsoft's VIP's.
This particular how-to will explain how to access and use Macromedia's newsgroups.
Just as you need a browser to access Web sites, and you need an e-mail client to access your e-mail, you need a news client to access newsgroups. You have many options. Netscape Messenger can access newsgroups, as can Outlook Express. You can find many more options at the invaluable TUCOWS ( http://www.tucows.com ). I am going to show you one of the best, a free program called Free Agent. You can download this from TUCOWS, or from the manufacturer's Web site ( http://www.forteinc.com/agent/freagent.htm ). The download is just over 1 MB, and will have a name like fa32-121.exe. Download the file to a directory on your hard drive, and remember which directory you downloaded the file file into. Once it is downloaded, just double-click on the file to run it. Follow the usual procedures to specify the install directory, etc.
When you run Free Agent for the first time, it will present you with a window that asks for four pieces of information. To use this to access Macromedia newsgroups, use the following:
News (NNTP) Server: forums.macromedia.com
Mail (SMTP) Server: Use the SMTP server that your ISP provides. You should be able to find this by looking at your E-mail program, where this is surely stored. This is needed so that you can reply to a post via e-mail, if you wish, rather than a public post to the newsgroup.
E-mail address: This is so someone on the newsgroup can respond to you via e-mail, if they wish, rather than via a public newsgroup post.
Full name (optional): You can leave this blank, if you wish, or fill in a nickname, or a fictitious name. This is how people will "see" you on the newsgroup.
Once this is filled in, click OK.
You will then be presented with a window asking to go online and download a full list of all the newsgroups available on that server. Click Yes.
You will then see in the upper-left window a list of 50 newsgroups available on the Macromedia server. Select the one you want, such as macromedia.flash, and then subscribe to it by clicking on the button that looks like a newspaper with the word EXTRA across the top. This should be in the middle of the button bar, roughly. When you do, you should see a little newspaper icon appear next the name of the newsgroup.
The next step is to download headers from the newsgroup. Free Agent will download just the subject, date and author of the posts, so you can select which ones you want to read. To download all of the headers. Just click one on the group to select it, then click on the second button on the button bar, which has a lightning bolt on it. This is the "Get new headers in selected groups" button.
You may find a a very large number of headers here. Remember you can click the STOP button any time. If you want to avoid a large number of backlogged posts and start fresh, go to the Online menu, and select "Catch up with selected groups". This will mark all messages then on the server as messages you have read and are no longer interested in.
Once you have some headers, you can mark them for downloading by selecting the message (click on it once to highlight it), and then press the "M" key. This will add a blue icon next to the header. Then click on the third button, which has the same blue icon, plus a lightning bolt. This is the Get Marked Message Bodies button. Free Agent will then log in to the server, and download the full message for every marked header. In the bottom pane, you can read the messages. To reply to a message, look at the next group of buttons. This group of four buttons is used to: 1) post a new Usenet message; 2) post a follow-up (this goes to the newsgroup itself, and is publicly available) to a Usenet message; 3) send a new e-mail message; or 4) send an e-mail reply to a Usenet message.
A full description of the capabilities of Free Agent is beyond this brief how-to. It is a highly configurable and powerful program. The Help system has a lot of good information, so a little time perusing it does pay off. Learning to use a good newsreader and taking advantage of all of the information available on newsgroups is well worth a small investment of time.