If you are using Netscape 2.02 or Netscape Gold:

Start up Netscape.
Go to the Options menu and select the Mail and News Preferences option.

Near the bottom of the window, you'll see a slot labeled News (NNTP) Server. In this slot, enter news.humboldt1.com.

Now click on the OK button at the bottom of the window.

In Netscape, go to the Window menu and select Netscape News. You'll be presented with the Netscape News window, which is divided into three smaller windows.

The window on the upper left has a list of news servers. You should have only one news server, marked "news.humboldt1.com (default news host)". Double-click on that news server's folder and a few newsgroups will appear underneath that server.

To get a listing of all the newsgroups, go to the Options menu and select Show All Newsgroups. There are over 12,000 newsgroups, so remember that the first time you do this, it could take quite a while to download the entire newsgroup listing. In the lower left-hand corner, next to the broken key, you'll see a readout telling you that the listing is being transferred.

The newsgroup listing will look like this. If you double-click on one of the newsgroup folders, they will open up to show more newsgroups. If you double-click on a newsgroup, you'll see the messages (called "postings" or "articles") in that newsgroup appear in the window to the right.

The list of postings looks like this.

If you click on a posting, the message will be displayed in the third window, down at the bottom of your Netscape News window.

If you want to post a message or reply to the message you're reading, you would use the buttons at the top of your Netscape News window.

• To: News - posts a new message to the newsgroup
• To: Mail - allows you to send e-mail to somebody
• Re: News - posts a reply to the posting you're reading to the newsgroup
• Re: Mail - sends an e-mailed reply to the author of the posting you're reading
• Re: Both - posts a reply to the posting you're reading to the newsgroup and also e-mails the author a copy of your reply

If you are using Netscape Communicator:

Click on the Edit menu and select Preferences. Click the plus sign next to Mail and Newsgroups to bring down a list of sections.

Click newsgroup servers and click the Add button. In the box, type news.humboldt1.com or news2.humboldt1.com. Click OK.

Netscape News is now configured. Let's try it out!

Click on the Communicator menu and select Newsgroups.

This will bring up the news reading window. Click File and select Subscribe. This will download all the available newsgroups, which will take a few minutes.

Once you have a list of groups, you can choose which ones look interesting to you and subscribe to them by clicking on the group you want and then clicking the Subscribe button.

Once you've subscribed to the groups you are interested in, click the OK button.

You will now see a list of just the groups to which you are subscribed. Click once on any group name to see a list of messages in that group. Double click on a message to read it.

The buttons on the toolbar across the top of your news reader window can be used to post messages to newsgroups. To send new messages to a group, click the New Msg button. To reply to a message posted by another user, click the Reply button.