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For discussion of Case's web policies, templates, stylesheet
questions, and other issues pertaining to Case website, please
read and post to the cwru.net.www
newsgroup. To learn more about using Case newsgroups, please
visit http://help.case.edu/computing/newsgroups/.
What is a newsgroup?
A Newsgroup provides a way of sharing news and information
across networks. Predating the World Wide Web, newsgroups are
much like online bulletin boards where individuals make postings
to share with the community. More efficient than mass emailing,
a message on a newsgroup stays on the news server for all to
see without clogging one's mailbox. Newsgroups are frequently
used to post important information such as the systems announcements
posted on cwru.net.outages.
Case has several newsgroups that are restricted to the CASE
community including cwru.net.general
which is a newsgroup for making postings about the CASE technology
environment.
There are thousands of newsgroups available on the internet with topics
ranging from alt.tv.survivor to
alt.politics.usa.constitution.
Many of these will be available through your Internet Service Provider's
news server, but most Case newsgroups are only available through news.case.edu.
How do I read a Newsgroup?
To read a newsgroup, you need to have a newsreader program. Fortunately
most web browsers have a built in newsreader. When using the news reader
first you need to enter the name of the newsserver in the settings; for
Case this is news.case.edu. Then you simply type in the address for the
newsgroup in your web browser's address bar. For example: news://cwru.net.www.
If your web browser does not have a newsreader already, there are several
you can download from the internet such as Collabra for Netscape. Users
new to usenet will benefit from subscribing to news.newusers.questions
which answers questions ranging from "netiquette"
to more technical matters. Information on configuring some of
the more popular newsreaders can be found in the links below.
Popular Case Newsgroups
More Newsgroups
Most newsreaders will download a current list of available newsgroups,
but you can also get a good idea of the variety available by visiting
the Reference to Newsgroups. New newsgroups are created every day,
so this list may not be complete.
Many users today think of the World Wide
Web and the Internet
as being interchangeable. In reality, the WWW is only one of many protocols
used on the Internet. Back in the era before the WWW (which most users
didn't access until 1994-95), Usenet was one of the most popular features
of the Internet. To many it still is. Usenet allows users to share thoughts
and ideas with one another on a variety of topics ranging from the Internet
itself to the X-Files. To participate, one subscribes to a newsgroup
such as cwru.general, and then reads
any or all of the messages posted to the group. Some users, known as
"lurkers," may choose only to read the messages, while others
will participate by submitting new and follow-up messages to the group.
Traditionally one
accessed Usenet through stand-alone programs known as newsreaders. Now web browsers
such as Netscape
Navigator and E-mail programs such as Microsoft
Outlook include built-in newsreaders as well. To read and post to
newsgroups, you must merely subscribe to the groups that fit your interests.
There are thousands to choose from. Refer to your newsreader's help
instructions for more details. |
