Newsgroup Reader Configuration Settings

Newsreader

A newsreader is a software program used to access newsgroups and it is often included with some common email programs such as Outlook Express and Netscape Mail.  There are also separate newsgroup-only programs such as MT-NewsWatcher (Mac) and Free Agent (Windows).

To set up a newsreader you will need the following four pieces of information: the News server or NNTP server name, the SMTP server name, Authentication information, and an Email address. (Note: It is best not to use your own email address. See the explanation below, describing how to protect your email address by disguising it).

News server or NNTP server name

For OlympusNet, newsgroups.olympus.net  is the news server, or the NNTP server name. Your newsreader will connect to this server.

Authentication information

This is the login information for the news server.  For Account name or Account ID, enter your OlympusNet email address (for example, johndoe@olympus.net), and the OlympusNet password for it. This username and password allows you to log into the OlympusNet news server.  This information is used only to log into the news server. (Note: In some newsreaders, you will be prompted to enter the password the first time you connect to the server).

SMTP server name

Use send.olympus.net  for the SMTP server name. This is the outgoing email server used to post messages to the newsgroups. If your newsreader program is also your email program, you may not be asked for this information.

Protecting Your Email Address

Newsreaders require an email address during setup.  If you post a reply to a newsgroup with your email address, however, you will be inundated with spam.  Spammers use special programs that extract email addresses from Usenet newsgroup postings.  To avoid getting spam,  we suggest that you enter  the following prefix  no-reply.  to your email address in your newsreader settings.  For example, if your email address is janedoe@olympus.net,  then your email address in the newsreader settings would be: no-reply.janedoe@olympus.net.  Or, if your email address is johndoe@olympus.net,  your email address in the newsreader settings would be: no-reply.johndoe@olympus.net.  Adding the "no-reply." to your email address in the settings will disguise the address from spammers.

How to configure some common newsreaders

For configuration details, select a newsreader link below.

MT-NewsWatcher

Outlook Express and Netscape