Configuring Microsoft Outlook Express to Read
Newsgroups (Macintosh)
Summary: This article outlines how Microsoft Outlook Express (OE)
Version 5 for Macintosh computers can be configured to read newsgroups on
the UW news server.
Included on this page:
Creating a news "account"
Before you can subscribe to any newsgroups in Microsoft Outlook
Express, you need to add a newsgroup "account." Accounts are simply how
Outlook Express associates mail services with their respective servers,
the remote computers that run them. For example, an Outlook Express email
"account" associates an email address with its incoming and outgoing mail
servers. An Outlook Express newsgroup "account" is just a collection of
newsgroups associated with their news server. You can have more than one
news account just like you can have more than one email account in Outlook
Express.
The following instructions outline how to add a newsgroup account for
the UW news server.
- Open Outlook Express.
- Click on the "Tools" menu. Select "Accounts"
- In the window that comes up you should see a tab marked "News."
Click on it.
- If you already have any news accounts set up, you should see them
here. Otherwise, the area below the "News" tab should be blank.
- Click the "New" button and select "News..." from the
options that appear, or just click "New" and let go.
- The Outlook Express "Account Setup Assistant" should start up
and prompt you to select an email account and to type in your Organization
name. What this means is that you need to associate your news account
with an email account so that when you post messages to newsgroups Outlook
Express knows which email account the message will be appearing "from." If
the email account you want associated with your newsgroups doesn't appear
in the box next to "E-mail account:," click this box and select the
account you do want from the menu that appears. An "Organization" name is
optional.
- Note that if the "Account Setup Assistant" does not appear, you can
easily input the necessary information directly in the window that comes
up, but you can click "Assist me" and continue with the directions below.
- Click the right arrow button on the lower right of this window.
- You are prompted for the news server. In this case, the server
name is:
news.u.washington.edu
You should leave the box marked "My news server requires me to log in"
unchecked.
- Click the right-arrow button.
- You are now prompted for the account name. This is just a name you
give the account, and it's up to you what to call it. Usually something
descriptive is most appropriate, such as "UW Newsgroups."
- Click "Finish" to finish. That's it!
Creating a secure news "account"
You can configure Outlook Express to access the UW news server via UW
NetID authentication. This option is necessary if you want to access the
UW news server from a non-UW network (such as a cable modem or DSL
connection). You achieve this by telling Outlook Express to use a
different, "secure" port, or connection, when accessing the news
server.
- Follow the steps above for creating a regular news account in Outlook
Express.
- If the "Accounts" window is closed or not visible, reopen it by
selecting "Accounts" from the "Tools" menu. Click the
"News" tab (if it's not already selected), and click on the news account
you just created in the Accounts window to select it, then click the
"Edit" button.
- In the window that appears, click the "This server requires me to log
on" box (below the "Receiving news" heading) to check it.
- Type in your UW NetID in the "Account ID:" field, and your password
into the "Password:" field.
- Click the "Click here for advanced receiving options" box.
- In the window that appears, click the "This news server requires a
secure connection {SSL}" box to check it. The port number will change
to 563.
- Click "OK" to finish. That's it!
How to subscribe to newsgroups
- Click on your news account's icon in the folder index (left side of
Outlook Express window). If a list of the newsgroups available on the
server has not been downloaded yet, Outlook Express will prompt you as to
whether you'd like to. Click "OK" to agree.
- A list of newsgroups will appear. You can browse this list of
newsgroups for the one you want, or search for it by typing its name into
the "Display newsgroups containing:" field a the top of this window.
- Once you've found a newsgroup you want to subscribe to, click it once
to select it, then go to the "Edit" menu and select
"Subscribe." The newsgroups you subscribe to will appear in bold in
the newsgroup list, and will appear in the folder list under their news
server listing.
That's all there is to it!
What to do if you have Outlook Express Version 4
Outlook Express Version 4 is considerably different from version 5 in
terms of where things are located, but essentially, the two programs are
basically the same. Here are some pointers to help you get around in the
older version:
- The heart of the account maintenance process in OE 5 is in the
"Accounts" section, found in the "Tools" menu. In OE 4,
this function is fulfilled by the "Preferences," found in the
"Edit" menu.
- "Preferences" differs from "Accounts" considerably in
terms of layout, but you should notice that everything is still there.
To add a newsgroup account, for example, you would click on the
"News" option under the "Accounts" heading in the
left-hand-side menu, then click the "New Server" button at the top
of the window. You must manually enter the account and server names.
The details are different, but the basic rules are the same.
- If setting up a secure server connection, click the "This server
requires authentication" box, then the "Advanced" button below
to change the port number (by checking the "This service requires a
secure connection {SSL} box)."
- Subscribing to newsgroups is basically the same, except that in OE 4
the "Subscribe" option is found under the "Tools" instead of
the "Edit" menu.
