Instructions for setting up the alt.support.sleep-disorder newsgroup in Free Agent.
Free Agent can be downloaded here
In addition to the instructions below, you may find the Free Agent Support Page useful. You can find it at www.forteinc.com/agent/support.php
To Install Free Agent:
- Open the file you downloaded. The installation setup will begin. Choose "This is a New Install" and then click Next.
- Click Next for the next 4 steps, (Select Destination Directory, Select Character Sets, Create Shortcuts, Select Start Menu Folder) and then click Start.
- Once the installation has completed tick Yes for "Do you want to run Agent now" box and click Finish
To Setup the alt.support.sleep-disorder newsgroup
- Click the Accept button for the Forte Agent License Agreement.
- If you want to purchase the Forte Agent program you will need to visit the website to find out how. If you would like to use the free version (try this first, you can always upgrade later) then select the option "I'd like to use Free Agent, a free newsreader with fewer features" option and click OK.
- You will now need to enter details of your news and mail server. You may need to contact your ISP if you don't know this information. Usually, it is something like news.ispname.com and mail.ispname.com. (See notes below) Also enter the email address you wish to use (see notes below) and the name you want to appear with your posts. Click OK
- Now you need to go online to download a list of available newsgroups. Click Yes in answer to "Go online now?" If you are not already connected to the internet you may need to connect first.
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The groups will then download, you can view how many have been downloaded in the status bar at the bottom of the page. This process may take a long time (ten minutes or so) so go and make a coffee while you wait!
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Once all the groups have downloaded you will see a list in the Groups window. Scroll down until you find the alt.support.sleep-disorder group.
- You can now double-click on the alt.support.sleep-disorder group and select the option Get All Message Headers.
After a few seconds, the messages will appear in the header pane...double clicking on a message header will make the text of that message appear in the pane below.
- For further instructions on how to use Free Agent once you have set it up, visit the Agent website. The Userguide can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking this link
Notes:
Alternative to your ISP News Server
If you don't wish to use your ISPs news server (sometimes they are unreliable or not available), you can signed up for a free news server at http://news.individual.net. If you are using this option you will need to enter the username and password provided to you by Individual.net
You can do this by selecting Options then User & System Profile. In the User box, select Login with username and password. and enter your username. Tick Remember password between sessions and enter the password they provided you with.
Newsgroups, Email addresses & Spam
There are problems with spam when it comes to newsgroups, people have programs that will scan newsgroups for email addresses which are then sold to companies and individuals as marketting tools. For this reason, you may wish to use a fake email address. The disadvantage to doing this is that if someone from the newsgroup wants to respond to you privately, they can't. You may decide to sign up for a free email service like hotmail or softhome.net specifically for use with newsgroups. This way any spam will go to that one address rather than your regular email account. Alternatively, some people use a variation of their actual email address with instructions on what to remove if someone wants to email them......for example, the acutal email address might be sleepdisorder@softhome.net but you may wish to modifiy this to something like sleepbethdisorders@softhome.net (which isn't a real email address) and add the instructions "remove my name to reply" at the bottom of your messages, people know that if they want to reply to you they need to remove the relevant part of the email address. You can take a creative approach to this! |
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