Configuring Pine to Read Newsgroups

Summary: This page gives you procedures for configuring Pine and PC-Pine versions 4.x to read newsgrroups on the UW news server.

Included on this page:

• What to do if you are using Pine on a UW email account
• How to configure Pine manually to use the UW news server
• How to configure PC-Pine manually to use the UW news server
• How to configure Pine or PC-Pine for secure access to the news server
• How to subscribe to newsgroups with Pine or PC-Pine

If you have an account on a UW computer such as Dante or Homer, Pine is already configured to access the UW news server.

If, for whatever reason, the news server is not already defined in Pine, you can configure it by following these directions.

1. From Pine's main menu, type "S" to enter Pine setup and then "C" to enter configuration.
2. Scroll down through the Pine configuration to the "nntp-server" listing. If you have no news server defined, it should look something like this:

   nntp-server              = <No Value Set>

3. Type "C" or <enter> to change the value, and type the news server name:

   news.u.washington.edu

   (assuming you're using the UW news server).

4. Type "E" to exit the configuration, then "Y" to save changes.
5. That's it! By default, the new server should be listed when you view your directory listing in Pine (typing "L" from the main menu).

Configuring PC-Pine to use the UW news server is exactly the same as configuring Pine (see above). If you've installed PC-Pine from the UW Internet Connectivity Kit (UWICK), it should already be configured for you.

For more information about acquiring and configuring PC-Pine, see the PC-Pine page on the UW Computing homepage.

At this time, unfortunately, neither Pine nor PC-Pine have the capacity to access news servers via SSL on an alternate, secure port.

To subscribe to newsgroups with Pine, do the following:

1. From Pine's main menu, type "L" to go to Pine's collection list.
2. The news server will be identified as a collection (or folder list), generally by the news server name. Select it using the up/down arrow keys, then press <enter>.
3. Your news directory will be displayed. If you're already subscribed to any newsgroups, you should see them here.
4. Type "A" to add a newsgroup.
5. You will be prompted for the name or part of the name of a newsgroup to subscribe to and to press <enter>. If you type in only part of a newsgroup name, all newsgroups matching what you type will be displayed. Alternately you can type <control> T to get a list of all newsgroups available, then browse with the arrow keys or then use "W" (WhereIs) to search the list (note that this list is very long, and may take a very long time to appear).
6. If you execute a partial name search, you can select the newsgroup you want to subscribe to from the list using the arrow keys, and pressing <enter>. That's all there is to it.

For more information, see the Pine Newsreader FAQs

UW Technology
help@u.washington.edu
Modified: August 23, 2007