More of this Feature • Part 1: What the Usenet is • Part 3: Guitar Newsgroups

Related Resources • Featured Newsgroups

From Other Guides • Usenet 101 • 80s Music Newsgroups • Alt Music Newsgroups • Classic Rock Newsgroups • Country Music Newsgroups

Elsewhere on the Web • Download Xnews • Newsgroups FAQ • Usenet Help • Usenet on the Web

The first thing we'll need to get started surfing the usenet is a piece of software called a "news reader". There are a whole bunch of options out there, and in fact, Netscape and Internet Explorer come bundled with a newsreader program. In my opinion, however, there's a lot better and easier to use newsreaders out there. My favorite for Windows is called Xnews, which is a free piece of software. For Macintosh, I have been told that MT Newswatcher is a good application, and it's also freeware. So, without further delay, download one of the following applications:

Xnews for Windows.

MT Newswatcher for Macintosh.

The following explains how to set up Xnews, and get started surfing the usenet. Although other software may appear slightly different, chances are, you'll be required to enter essentially the same information, so this tutorial should still help.

Setting up Xnews

Unzip the software, and store it wherever it best suits you on your computer. The first time you click the Xnews icon, you'll be taken through a brief set-up process. The first thing you'll be greeted with is the following:

This is the toughest part of the set-up process. You need to know what the address of your news server is. Chances are good that your internet service provider provides access to the usenet. You can get this information from them - chances are they'll have it on their website, or you can always call. Before you go through all that trouble, however, you can try using the following format:

news.your internet provider's name here.com
eg. news.gradeainternet.com

Less commonly, some internet service providers use the prefix "nntp" instead of "news". You should also note that if your internet service provider's address ends in something else than ".com" that should replace the ".com" in the above address. Also of note: @Home users simply have to enter news in the above dialog box to access newsgroups.

Unfortunately, not all internet service providers offer access to the usenet. If that is the case in with your ISP, you can still get access to some newsgroups via various free usenet providers. Usually, these providers restrict access to many groups, but you may find still find a lot of valuable information on the newsgroups available.

Click "OK". Next you'll be presented with the following dialog box:

All you have to enter here is what you want to call your connection to the usenet. Enter whatever you want, for example "my newsgroup connection". Click "OK"

That's pretty much all the information you have to enter to start surfing the newsgroups. A "Set-up Xnews" window should pop up, but if you only want to use the usenet to download mp3s, pics, tabs, and browse postings, without actually writing or responding, you can ignore it and click "OK". If you'd like to be an active participant in discussions, you'll have to enter a user name and e-mail address. I highly suggest that you get an alternate e-mail address to use on the usenet, as posting your real address might result in your e-mail being added to a lot of bulk mailing lists. When finished, click "OK"

We're almost there! Now all you have to do is find a list of newsgroups you'd like to browse. Xnews will now ask whether you'd like to retrieve the entire list of newsgroups. Choose "Yes". If you've set up the above correctly, the software should start fetching newsgroup names from your news provider. It's not uncommon for your ISP to have a master list of 40,000 newsgroups, so be prepared for this to take some time. Don't worry... you only have to go through this once. When finished, you should be presented with this:

Type a topic of interest into the dialog box circled above, and the newsgroup master list will shrink to only include groups with that word in the title. For example, type "mp3" into the box, and you'll be presented with all newsgroups related to mp3s. Double click on the newsgroup name, and the group will begin loading, revealing all messages contained within that particular group.

To view a simple text message within a newsgroup, simply click on the message itself. This also applies to most images - you can view JPEG and GIF images within the Xnews software. Other file types, like MP3s and movies, generally are stored as several messages combined together. Here's how to download them:

Complete files are represented by a light blue box beside the message. To download that file, click on the message once to highlight it, then click on the "decode" button at the bottom of the screen. You'll be asked where you want to save the file, and then downloading begins. Voila!

So there you go... the basics of how to get on the usenet, and begin accessing all the information there is to find within the thousands of newsgroups available to you.

Lastly, let's quickly look at a list of the best guitar and mp3 related newsgroups available.

Next page > Guitar Newsgroups > Page 1, 2, 3