Configuring the Microsoft Internet News Reader
The Microsoft Internet News reader client installs with IE 3.0, or you can download the reader client from Microsoft's Web site and install it separately. When you install the Internet News reader client, it adds an Internet News item to your Start menu. You can click this item to open the client.
Before your news reader can display any newsgroups, you need to provide the address of your news server. From the main Internet News reader client window, go to the News menu, select Options, choose the Server tab, click Add, and enter the name of your server. If you can reach the server by using its computer name (e.g., kifissia), you can enter that name here. Otherwise, you need to enter the Domain Name System (DNS)-registered host name for your organization's news server (e.g., kifissia.sakes.com). Click OK when you are finished, and you will see the name of the server you just added in the window you see in Screen 6. You can add multiple news servers in the same way, and your client will be able to read and subscribe to newsgroups from multiple news servers. However, don't confuse subscribing to multiple news servers from the client with subscribing to one news server from the client and viewing feeds on that single news server from other news servers.
After you identify the news server in the news client, you need to select the newsgroups that you want to view. Go to the News menu in the Microsoft Internet News reader client and select Newsgroups to open a window similar to the one you see in Screen 7. Note the newsgroups in Screen 7 match the newsgroups I decided to publish on the kifissia news server, as shown in Screen 5. If you highlight a newsgroup in Screen 7 and click Subscribe, a newspaper icon appears next to the newsgroup name. This icon signals that you want to view the messages posted to that newsgroup. If you click the Subscribed tab, the news client will display only those newsgroups you subscribe to. In my example, I have subscribed to all four alexandria newsgroups (the ones I'm hosting locally) and one of the comp.os newsgroups (those that I receive as a news feed from another news server).
After you decide which newsgroups to subscribe to, you can connect to the news server and view the news items. The main Internet News reader client window contains a Newsgroups box that lists all the newsgroups you subscribe to.
When you browse the list of newsgroups you subscribe to, you see the names of the newsgroups and how many unread messages each group contains, as shown in Screen 8. By selecting a group from this list, you will see a list of the postings in the group. For example, in the alexandria.business newsgroup you see in Screen 9, you'll notice a few discussion threads (between me and myself).
At this point you can read the messages, reply to them, and so forth. If you don't see any messages in a group, either you haven't made a connection to the server (i.e., the client has not initiated a connection to TCP/IP port 119 of the server) or the newsgroup is empty or unused. Microsoft's Internet News reader client displays the connection status in the bottom right corner of the main client window. If the words "Not Connected" appear, click Connect on the toolbar to start the connection and download messages.
Now that you know how to install and test INS, you're ready to deploy your news server. You have the know-how to install and configure a basic news server and create the newsgroups you want to publish in your company, and you can distribute and configure a news reader on the desktops. In a future article, I'll show you how to set up connections between your news server and other news servers on the Internet and within your organization. To keep you on your toes, that article will focus on configuring the Internet News Service in Exchange Server 5.0, but the general principles of connecting news servers are applicable to both MCIS INS and the Internet News Service Exchange Server.
Microsoft helps you serve up the daily news with Internet News Server
200 NNTP Service Microsoft® Internet Services 5.00.7478 Version: 5.0.0.7478 Posting Allowed
list active
215 list of newsgroups follow
alexandria.business 17 1 y
alexandria.housing 175 1 y
alexandria.politics 79 1 y
alexandria.social 3 1 y
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group alexandria.social
211 3 1 3 alexandria.social
newnews alexandria.social 970112 130546
230 list of new articles by message-id follows.
<01bc023b$df95e540$9149f7ce@kifissia>
<01bc023b$d35c5160$9149f7ce@kifissia>
<01bc023a$a93fa310$9149f7ce@kifissia>
.
article
220 1 <01bc023a$a93fa310$9149f7ce@kifissia>
From: "Spyros Sakellariadis" <spyros@sakes.com>
Subject: Urgent need for Greek food
Message-ID: <01bc023a$a93fa310$9149f7ce
@kifissia>
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Internet News 4.70.1155
Newsgroups: alexandria.social
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 11:47:43 -0500
Lines: 1
Path: kifissia.sakes.com
Anyone know of a good Greek restaurant here?
.
quit
205 closing connection - goodbye!
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