EDITED INSTRUCTIONS FOR CLARITY
Forget about Netscape Messenger. Instead download Free Agent:
Free Agent
-Install Agent and the program will ask you for a newsserver (example: news.aol.com). Next Agent will retrieve all the groups on your ISP's list.
-Next, make sure the ALL GROUPS TAB is showing (not subscribed, new groups, or folders).
-Choose Edit/Find and type in any topic you choose.
-If you want to read messages in that group, click on the newpaper icon (subscribe) to subscribe to that newsgroup.
-Click the 2nd Button Get New Headers in Selected Groups. (All the message titles (headers) will appear.
-Navigate to the messages you wish to read and hit the "M" key.
-When you are done, click on the 3rd key (Get Marked Messages). Agent will retrieve all the message bodies for all the headers you have selected.
-You can now read the messages online or offline. Experiment with different groups to see which are interesting and which are simply spam.
-After you finalize your group selection, click on All Groups until it changes to Subscribed Groups.
-Read messages by clicking on the Group from the Subscribed Group list. Then click on the Message List to find those topics you downloaded
-Highlight the message and click on the message tab to read it.
-Next time you check for new headers, click on the 1st button (Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups) instead of the 2nd button (Get New Headers in Selected Groups).
One final note: DO NOT ask any questions to a newsgroup yet. Instead, simply read everybody's questions and answers for a few weeks. You see, many people of that group will hate that newbie asked a "question that has been answered everyday for the past 6 months".
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