Server Status/Updates

Check below for the status of the servers and other important updates.

                Status

Server Access Information

News Reader Configuration

For Compatible Newsreaders, CLICK HERE.

Outlook Express
Outlook Express
Comes free with Internet Explorer 4.x and newer. Handles multiple email and news servers.

• Open Outlook Express
• Select Tools --> Accounts
• Select the "News" tab
• Click the "Add" button and select "News"
• Enter a display name of your choice
• Enter your email address
• Enter  news.meganetnews.com  as the news server and check the box next to "My news server requires me to log in"
• Enter your user name in the "account name" field
• Enter your password in the "password" field
• Click Finish

Internet News
Comes free with Windows 95. More information available at Microsoft Corporation

1. Open up Internet News.
2. From the main menu select News and a dialog window opens up.
3. Click on the Server tab.
4. Click on the Add button and another window opens up.
5. Click on the General tab.
6. Type in the news server address: news.meganetnews.com.
7. Click on the checkbox - 'This server requires me to login'.
8. Click on Logon Using.
9. Fill in your login name and password.
10. If this is to be your default server then click on Set as Default.
11. Click on the Connection tab.
12. Select how you connect to the Internet.
13. Click on the Advanced tab.
14. Enter 119 into the News Port Number.
15. Later if you experience time-out you can come back to adjust the Server Time-out settings.
16. Click on Apply.
17. Click on OK.
18. If you are prompted to subscribe to the newsgroups on the news server then select Yes. It should connect and begin to retrieve a group list which can take a little while.
19. After the newsgroups are retrieved you will be prompted to decide which groups you wish to subscribe.
20. After subscribing to the groups you can use the pulldown to select which group you wish to view.


Agent (registered version)
Commercial product with many advanced features including integrated email and news folders,
kill filters, third party add-ons. More information and Demo Download is available at Forte, Inc.

1. Open up Agent.
2. Select User and System Profile under the Options menu.
3. Click on the User tab. Fill in email information. Select Login With a Username and
Password. Fill in your news account login and password. Make sure the checkbox is
checked to Remember Password Between Sessions.
4. Click on the System tab. Fill in the news server address:  news.meganetnews.com.   Also fill in your email server information.
5. Click on the OK button and you are all set to go.
6. Select Refresh Groups List under the Online menu. Select Delete All Extinct Groups. Click OK to retrieve a complete list of all of our newsgroups.
7. Subscribe to the newsgroups by highlighting a group and then select Subscribe List under the Group menu
8. Use Show Groups and Folders under the Group menu to display the subscribed newsgroups.
9. Select Get New Headers In Subscribed Groups under the Online menu to retrieve
article headers.


Free Agent (freeware version)
Freeware product with a subset of the many advanced features offered in the commercial
version of Agent. More information and Download is available at Forte, Inc.

1. Open up Free Agent.
2. Select General Preferences under the Options menu.
3. Click on the User tab. Fill in email information. Select Login With a Username and
Password. Select Server Requires Login and fill in your news account login and
password. Make sure the checkbox is checked to Remember Password Between
Sessions.
4. Click on the System tab. Fill in the news server address:  news.meganetnews.com.  Also fill in your email server information.
5. Click on the OK button and you are all set to go.
6. Select Refresh Groups List under the Online menu. Select Delete All Extinct Groups. Click OK to retrieve a complete list of all of our newsgroups.
7. Subscribe to the newsgroups by highlighting a group and then select Subscribe List under the Group menu
8. Use Show under the Group menu to display the subscribed news groups.
9. Select Get New Headers In Subscribed Groups under the Online menu to retrieve
article headers.


Collabra (Netscape 4.x)
Comes free with Netscape 4.x.More information and Download is available at Netscape Communications Corporation

1. Open up Netscape Collabra. You can either launch Collabra directly or launch
Netscape 4.x. If you choose to launch Netscape 4.x you can open Collabra by
selecting the Collabra Discussion Group from the Communicator menu.
2. From the Edit menu select Preferences.
3. Click on the Group Servers.
4. Enter the news server address:  news.meganetnews.com. Be sure port 119 is specified. Secure should be
unchecked and Always Use Name and Password should be checked.
5. Click the Choose button to specify where your news group folders will be stored.
6. Decide whether you want to be prompted if more than 500 (or whatever you specify) messages are downloaded.
7. Then click OK and a new discussion group entry is created.
8. Right mouse click on the group and select Subscribe to Discussion groups. A window pops up and prompts you for a login and password.
9. After entering your login and password correctly you will begin to receive the
newsgroups. This may take a while so be patient.
10. Afterwards you then subscribe to whatever your groups you want.

News Xpress
Freeware product with many advanced features including online graphic viewing during
download. News Xpress can be located at Tucows. More information available at News Xpress

1. Open up News Xpress.
2. Select Options from the File menu.
3. Click on the Servers Directory tab. Fill in the news server address:  news.meganetnews.com.  Also fill in your email server information.
4. Select the News Server Authorization and fill in your news login and password. When completed click OK.
5. To retrieve a listing of the newsgroups click on All tab located at the bottom of the
screen. Select Update Groups Info from the Group menu to retrieve our newsgroups
list.
6. After reviewing all the available news groups you can subscribe to the groups by
clicking on the bullets or highlighting the newsgroup then selecting Subscribe from
the Group menu. When you have completed subscribing to the desired newsgroups
you can click on the Subscribed tab to review your selections.
7. To retrieve headers highlight the desired newsgroup and select All Articles from the View menu.


YA News Watcher
Freeware product Macintosh users. Download is available at Tucows

1. Open up News Watcher.
2. Select Preferences from the Edit menu.
3. Select Servers Addresses from the pulldown menu. Fill in the news server address:  news.meganetnews.com. Also fill in your email server information.
4. Select Authentication from the pulldown menu. Fill in your news login and password. Make sure Always Authenticate is checked to remember your login and password between sessions. When completed click OK.
5. Exit YA Newswatcher and open it up again.
6. To subscribe to the newsgroups select the desired newsgroup and then select
Subscribe from the Special menu or you can drag-and-drop the selected newsgroup to the Titled Group window.
7. To retrieve the newsgroup headers double click on the newsgroup.


NN or Tin (Unix)

1. Using Unix news readers requires you to set the NNTP SERVER variable.
2. You will need to add an environment variable command to your .profile and/or .login file. C, TCSH Shell: setting NNTP SERVER "selected servers address "
BORN, KORN Shell: NNTPSERVER=" news.meganetnews.com "; export NNTPSERVER
3. To open tin you need to type tin -r.


News Rover
Shareware product with flexible search features and thumbnail previews. More information and DEMO download is available at S&H Computer Systems

1. Open up News Rover.
2. Open the configuration window by selecting the Configure menu.
3. Click the Server tab.
4. Click Add Server.
5. Fill in the news server address:  news.meganetnews.com.
6. Select Logon authorization required. Fill in your news login and password. Select the method of how you will connect to the Internet.
7. Click the E-Mail tab. Fill in your email server information.
8. To retrieve the list of newsgroups select the Get-Newsgroups menu.
9. Click on New Interest Group to begin subscribing to the newsgroups.
10. Click on New Interest Group.
11. To retrieve the newsgroup headers click on Run located in the News Rover window.
12. Select Messages from the View menu to examine the articles.


WinVN
Freeware product with basic features including multiple server support. Download is
available at Tucows FAQ available at WinVN Hompage

1. Open up WinVN.
2. Select Communications from the Configure menu. If it is a first install then the
Communications Options will open automatically.
3. Fill in the news server address information:  news.meganetnews.com.
4. Fill in the Authorization Information. Be sure check Save Password.
5. Fill in the SMTP Server information. Preferably use fake info. Use SMTP protocol.
6. Fill in your appropriate time zone.
7. Click OK.
8. Select Connect to Server from the Network menu. If it is a first install then you will
automatically attempt to connect to the news server.
9. Click Yes when prompted to retrieve the latest group list from the server. If it is a first install then you will automatically attempt to retrieve the list from the server.
10. Select the groups you want to subscribe.
11. Select Subscribe Selected Groups from the Group menu.
12. Double click on a group to open a new window to retrieve the list of articles.
13. Double click on an article to open a new window to retrieve the body of article.
14. To decode an article, select the articles parts by clicking on the individual article.
Then select Decode Selected Articles from the Articles menu.


Stealthnews
Shareware product with thumbnails, image viewer, and file encryption. More info and DEMO is available at Stealthnews' web site.

1. Start Stealthnews.
2. Create a new project, and choose Standard Stealthnews Project.
3. You will be prompted if you want to add a new server. Choose "Yes".
4. For the server, type in:  news.meganetnews.com
5. Choose 199 (the default) for the port.
6. Enter your Username and Password, then click OK.
7. You will be asked if you want to download the groups for your server. Click Yes.
8. Once the newsgroups are downloaded, you may select the groups you want from
the review in the upper-left corner by double-clicking on them.
9. You may make the selecting process easier by filtering the newsgroups that are
displayed. To do this, select "Filter Newsgroups" from the "View" menu.
10. Once you have chosen your groups, click the "Start Downloading" button (the green arrow) and the inbox will begin filling up with binary file attachments.