Discover the hidden treasures of the Internet


Join the thousands of people all over the world who...

    *  Keep up with sports, news, politics and current events;
    * Research family heritage and genealogy;
    * Ask questions and get answers;
    * Make friends and express opinions in discussion forums.

These people have discovered the immense information available in over 35,000 Usenet Newsgroups accessible on TIP.

What Are Usenet Newsgroups?

Usenet Newsgroups have been called "the hidden half of the Internet," because most people browse the web and use email but they never discover Usenet Newsgroups.

Usenet Newsgroups are worldwide discussion areas where people exchange messages and files about every conceivable topic and they complement both the Web and e-mail. The Web is a tremendous repository of information, but it lacks the intimacy of exchanging information with another person, and it is not the best place to exchange opinions on some event that happened yesterday or to post a message asking for help or information. Email is a wonderful way to communicate, but you have to know to whom you want to send a message.

Usenet Newsgroups bridge the gap between the Web and email. Like the Web, they carry an enormous amount of useful information, but the information is in the form of messages posted recently by individuals, so the information is fresh and topical. Reading these messages allows you to discover who else in the world shares your interests. As you make contacts through newsgroups, you can exchange public Usenet messages or you can decide to use email to carry on private conversations. Usenet Newsgroups are a great way to make friends around the world.

What's In Usenet Newsgroups?

There are newsgroups with sports, genealogy (research your family), TV shows, computers (somebody has the answer), travel, hobbies, pets, jobs -- you name it, there's a Usenet newsgroup for it!

What Do Newsgroups Cost?

Access to the newsgroups carried on the TIP news server is available to you at no extra cost, so you can tap into the immense information available on newsgroups for free! All you need to do is get a good news reader and configure it to access the TIP news server. Our news server is addressed as newshost.pcug.org.au.  Some people are discouraged by the jargon which describes the process of selecting to read a newsgroup as subscribing.  In the Usenet context, subscribing to a newsgroup simply means selecting it, and no costs are involved.

What Software Do I Need?

Programs you use to access newsgroups are called "news readers". There are several newsreaders in common use on TIP - Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Free Agent (together with its commercial version Agent).

Alternatively, if you wish to make only a quick browse or ask a single question rather than participate, you can access most discussion groups through Google Groups at http://groups.google.com

What Sorts of Topics and Information Can I Find in Usenet Newsgroups?

Anything and everything. For example, if you are interested in the X-Files TV show, you could browse the aus.tv.x-files newsgroup. Many TV shows have a newsgroup. If you are a fan of Garth Brooks, then you can meet other fans on alt.music.garth-brooks. There are newsgroups for many stars of music, stage and screen as well as other well-known individuals. There are newsgroups about TV shows, movies, science, cooking, gardening, pets, hobbies, items for sale or wanted, and available jobs.

Want to do some research?

 You can post a message and tens of thousands of people around the world will read it. For example, if you are researching your family origin, you might want to post a message with a summary of your family history on one of the many genealogy newsgroups such as soc.genealogy.surnames.britain. Or suppose you need help configuring Windows networking; just post a question on comp.os.ms-windows.networking.windows. The chances are good that someone will know the answer.

Can I Get Pictures, Music, and Programs?

Unfortunately, through the TIP news server, generally No. There are thousands of newsgroups devoted to sending binary files with pictures, music, executable programs and even movies in the alt.binaries sector of Usenet. The last time I checked, these distributed over 2000 gigabytes of data per day. It is beyond the capacity of any Australian ISP to carry all this information and most binary messages on Australian news servers are incomplete and thus useless.

Dedicated news servers are available, at a fee, if you wish to access a full newsfeed.  A list of some of these is at http://www.geeks.org/~ed/Usenet_Servers.html.

TIP newsgroups

Most newsgroups are carried on most news servers but some groups are local to a particular server.  The tip.* groups are carried only on the TIP news server and to use this, you must be connected to the internet via TIP OR have a TIP account (available free to all PCUG members) and authenticate to the server through a secure connection.

If you want casual access to tip.* newsgroups you can read them through a web interface at http://www.tip.net.au/tipnews/ if you are connected through TIP.  Non-TIP users should follow the instructions to register a password.

Allan Mikkelsen


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