News Reader Support

General News Reader Notes

The News server (sometimes called Host) you are connecting to is news.aracnet.com (for Aracnet customers) or news.spiritone.com (for SpiritOne customers).

Use your full email address as your username when authenticating with the news server:

  (ex) user123@aracnet.com
  (ex) user123@spiritone.com

You will use the same password that you do for your dial-up connection or email account with your Aracnet or SpiritOne service.

For further information on Newsgroups available you may want to check out Newsguy.

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News Reader Configuration:

• Outlook Express (Microsoft Windows)
• Outlook (Microsoft Windows)
• Free Agent
• Netscape 4.x
• Netscape 6 & 7
• Mozilla
• PINE (Shell-Based)
• Tin (Shell-Based)
• TRN (Shell-Based)
• NN (Shell-Based)

Outlook Express

1. Right-click on the News Server and select 'Properties' from the Context Menu.
2. Select the 'Server' tab and check the box labeled 'This Server requires me to log on'
3. Put your entire SpiritOne or Aracnet email address in all lower-case letters for the Account Name. Enter your SpiritOne or Aracnet password in the password field.
4. Hit OK

Outlook

Outlook 97, 98, 2000, and XP do not have a built in newsreader. They actually use whatever version of Outlook Express is installed on your computer to read news. Use the instructions for Outlook Express to enable authentication in Outlook.

Free Agent

1. Go to Options--->User and System Profile.
2. Under News Server Login, move the radio button to 'Login with a username and password.
3. Put your entire SpiritOne or Aracnet email address in all lower-case letters for the Username. Enter your SpiritOne or Aracnet password in the password field.
4. Hit OK

Netscape 4.x

1. Select Edit, then Preferences on the drop-down menu.
2. Expand "Mail and Newsgroups" by clicking on the adjacent 'plus' sign.
3. Select "Newsgroup Server", then highlight the news server address.
4. Click "Edit".
5. Select "Always ask me for my username and password".
6. Click "OK", then "OK" again.

Netscape 6 & 7

The Netscape 6 and 7 series of news readers don't support authentication. If you're using one of them to access news groups, you'll need to find a different news reader

Mozilla

1. Select Edit, then Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings.
2. Expand your news account by hitting the little triangle or plus sign next to the news account.
3. Select 'Server Settings'
4. Put a check in the box next to 'Always request authentication when connecting to this server.'
5. Hit OK

Pine

1. Set up your collection lists so the Server entry for news.aracnet.com looks like this:
   Server: news.aracnet.com/service=nntp/user=<youraddress>@aracnet.com
2. Now, set up your configuration so that the NNTP-server looks like this:
   nntp-server: news.aracnet.com/user=<youraddress>@aracnet.com

Tin

1. From the shell prompt, start tin with the -A flag. You'll automatically be prompted for your username and password.
2. You can automate this by creating a .newsauth in your home directory containing:
   
   news.aracnet.com <password> <email address>
   
   Like this:
   
   news.aracnet.com password username@aracnet.com
3. Chmod the file to 0600 so your fellow shell server denizens don't see your password.

TRN

1. Create the file ".trn/access" with the following lines:
   
   [default]
   
   NNTP Server = news.aracnet.com
   Auth User = <your Aracnet email address>
   Auth Password = <password>
   
2. Make sure you chmod 0600 the file so your fellow shell server denizens don't see your password.

NN

Launch as "nn -r" and you'll be prompted for authentication.