This article contains instructions on how to go to soc.penpals, using a variety of newsreader programs. It assumes that you are currently reading an article in this newsgroup (e.g. this article!) and that you are not currently "subscribed" to soc.penpals.

These instructions should of course work for any other newsgroup, if you make the appropriate substitution for 'soc.penpals'. :-)

If you don't see your favorite newsreader listed here, and you know how to go to another newsgroup with it, please send me a description, and I'll give you a paragraph of Net fame.

WINDOWS for PC and/or Mac
• Netscape Communicator 4.5
• Netscape Communicator 4.0x
• Netscape 2.x or 3.x
• Netscape 1.x
• WinVN
• Microsoft 4.x Outlook Express
• Microsoft 3.x Internet News
• Agent/Free Agent
• Yet Another Newswatcher (YA Newswatcher)

DOS and/or UNIX and/or VMS
• pine
• slrn
• tin
• trn

NOTE: If at some point you get a message that says something like "can't find that newsgroup" or "that newsgroup doesn't exist", check your spelling and capitalization carefully. Newsgroup names usually must be in lower-case only. Also, some newsreaders may get confused if you put any blank spaces before or after the newsgroup name. If you *still* can't get to the newsgroup, that probably means that your news server doesn't carry it. Contact your news server's administrator and ask if he/she can add that newsgroup to your server.

Netscape Communicator 4.5 (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. In the Netscape Communicator browser window click on "Communicator" in the menu bar at the top of the window and then click on "Newsgroups". If you do not want to open the browser window first, click your START button and look for "Netscape Messenger", then click to open it.
2. You will see three frames in the window that appears. In the left frame click on the name of the news server to select it.
3. In the menu bar again, click on "File" and then click "Subscribe...".
4. The "Subscribe to Newsgroups" window that appears will have three "tabs" at the top. Click "All" to view a list of all the newsgroups that are available to you, if you want to look through the list for a group. Click "Search" if you want to use the Search function, to find a group that you already know the name of or click "New" to look through the list of new newsgroups that have arrived since you last checked. NOTE: In the list of groups, you will see a box with a + in it to the left of a newsgroup name. Click the + to expand that section of the listings.
5. To subscribe to a group you can either click the name of the group to select it and then click the "Subscribe" button to the right OR, in the "Newsgroup:" dialog box near the top of the "All" window you can type in the name of a group (When you begin to type, the list below will advance to match the letters as you type them in, in alphabetical order from left to right. You will probably find the name of the group before you finish typing it!). Once found, again, click the "Subscribe" button (OR click the "dot" in the "Subscribe" column to make a check mark appear.).
6. Once you have subscribed to all the newsgroups that you want, click the "OK" button to close the window.
   [Written by Dennis D. Calhoun (dcalhoun at blomand.net), 2/13/99]

Netscape Communicator 4.0x (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. In the Netscape Communicator browser window click on "Communicator" in the menu bar at the top of the window and then click on "Collabra Discussion Groups". If you do not want to open the browser window first, click your START button and look for "Netscape Collabra", then click to open it.
2. You will see three frames in the window that appears. In the left frame click on the name of the news server to select it.
3. In the menu bar again, click on "File" and then click "Subscribe to Discussion Groups...".
4. The "Subscribe to Newsgroups" window that appears will have three "tabs" at the top. Click "All" to view a list of all the newsgroups that are available to you, if you want to look through the list for a group. Click "Search" if you want to use the Search function, to find a group that you already know the name of or click "New" to look through the list of new newsgroups that have arrived since you last checked. NOTE: In the list of groups, you will see a box with a + in it to the left of a newsgroup name. Click the + to expand that section of the listings.
5. To subscribe to a group you can either click the name of the group to select it and then click the "Subscribe" button to the right OR, in the "Newsgroup:" dialog box near the top of the "All" window you can type in the name of a group (When you begin to type, the list below will advance to match the letters as you type them in, in alphabetical order from left to right. You will probably find the name of the group before you finish typing it!). Once found, again, click the "Subscribe" button (OR click the "dot" in the "Subscribe" column to make a check mark appear.).
6. Once you have subscribed to all the newsgroups that you want, click the "OK" button to close the window.
   [Written by Dennis D. Calhoun (dcalhoun at blomand.net), 2/13/99]

Netscape 2.x or 3.x (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. Go back to the "Netscape News" window.
2. Go to the "Options" menu and click on "Show Subscribed Groups"
3. If soc.penpals is in your list of subscribed newsgroups, skip ahead to step 6.
4. If soc.penpals is not in your list of subscribed newsgroups, go up to the "File" menu. Click "Add Newsgroup".
5. Type 'soc.penpals' in that box, and press the RETURN or ENTER key. Netscape should update your list of subscribed newsgroups so that it now includes soc.penpals.
6. Click on the name 'soc.penpals'. This should take you to the article list for soc.penpals.
7. Put a check mark in the box to the right of the name "soc.penpals" to keep the group on your list of subscribed groups. (Drag the divider between the upper windows to the right if you can't see that box.)

Netscape 1.x (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. Go back to the list of articles for this newsgroup.
2. Click on the "Subscribed Newsgroups" button at the top of the page.
3. If soc.penpals is in your list of subscribed newsgroups, skip ahead to step 6.
4. If soc.penpals is not in your list of subscribed newsgroups, scroll down to the bottom of the list, where you should see a box labeled something like "Subscribe to:".
5. Type 'soc.penpals' in that box, and press the RETURN or ENTER key. Netscape should update your list of subscribed newsgroups so that it now includes soc.penpals.
6. Click on the name 'soc.penpals'. This should take you to the article list for soc.penpals.

WinVN (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. Go to Config/Communications; make sure the setting to "download group list on connect" is set to either Yes or Ask.
   (Setting it to Yes downloads the entire list each time you connect to the server; setting to Ask puts a Yes/No asking if you want the entire list.) Also, make sure that the Show Unsubscribed Groups box is checked.
2. Single-click on each group you want to subscribe to; then Go to Group; select Subscribe Selected Groups.
3. If you keep the entire list onscreen, subscribed groups will be in one color, and unsubscribed groups will be in another (the defaults are black (subscribed) and blue (unsubscribed)).
4. You're done. If you don't want to see unsubscribed groups, go to Config/Communications and UNCHECK the "Show Unsubscribed Groups" box.
   [Thanks to Christopher L. Estep (christopher.estep at acenet.com), 5 November 1995]

Microsoft 4.x Outlook Express (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. Detailed instructions are available from Microsoft Support Online at
   http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q171190

Microsoft 3.x Internet News (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. In the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser window click on "Go" in the menu bar at the top of the window and then click "Read News". That will open your "default" newsreader which might or might not be Microsoft Internet News. If you want to open MS Internet News directly, click on your START button and look for "Internet News", then click to open it.
2. In the Internet News window, click the "Newsgroups" button.
3. The "Newsgroups" window that appears will have three "tabs" near the bottom of the window. Click "All" to view a list of all the newsgroups that are available to you, if you want to look through the list for a group. Click "Subscribed" to view a list of the newsgroups that you are already subscribed to or click "New" to look through the list of new newsgroups that have arrived since you last checked.
4. To subscribe to a group you can either click the name of the group to select it and then click the "Subscribe" button to the right OR, in the "Display newsgroups which contain:" dialog box near the top of the "All" window you can type in the name of a group (When you begin to type, the list below will narrow to match the letters as you type them in. The list will display all it's newsgroups that contain the entered letters ANYWHERE within any newsgroup name, not orderly from left to right. With each additional letter that you enter, the list will narrow farther.).
5. Once you've found the name of a newsgroup that you want to subscribe to, click the name of it to select it and then click the "Subscribe" button to the right.
6. Once you have subscribed to all the newsgroups that you want, click the "OK" button to close the window.
7. Back in the Internet News window, in the "Newsgroups" box in the toolbar you will see one newsgroup name listed (usually it is the newsgroup that you last visited) and your list of subscribed newsgroups can be "pulled down" by clicking on the down arrow at the right end of that box. Click any one of the subscribed newsgroup names within that pull down menu to go to that newsgroup.
   [Written by Dennis D. Calhoun (dcalhoun at blomand.net), 2/13/99]

Agent/Free Agent (Windows for PC and/or Mac)

1. The HELP section of Agent and Free Agent includes easy to use instructions that we need not repeat here. To access those instructions, open the program and click on "Help" then "Contents" and then the link "Getting Started".

Yet Another Newswatcher (YA Newswatcher) (Windows for Mac)

1. From the Special menu, select Get Group List from Host.
2. This takes quite a while, do nothing until you see a new, large window with an alphabetical list of all newsgroups your provider carries.
3. Scroll down to soc.penpals
4. Click the group name once to select it.
5. From the Special menu, select Subscribe. This also takes a few moments, be patient. When finished you will see another tiny window labeled Untitled with soc.penpals listed in it.
6. Click the close box at the far left of the Untitled title bar. You will be given an option of saving this. Name it and navigate to the place you wish to keep this. Clicking the Desktop button is a good idea, you can save it there for ease of use. Double clicking this icon will now open YA Newswatcher and show you a list of your subscribed groups.
7. The next time you open YA Newswatcher, you can go to the Windows menu and select Show Full Group List.
8. Any other groups you wish to subscribe to can be dragged from the full list and dropped into your subscribed list. Be sure to save when closing the newsreader.
   [Written by Cipher (cipher at mindspring.com), 2/14/99]

pine (DOS, UNIX)

1. Press 'L' to go to your "folder list".
2. Use the arrow keys to select your "news collection" and press "return" or "enter"; you should now see your current list of newsgroups.
3. Press 'A' to subscribe to a new newsgroup; you should now see the prompt "Enter group to subscribe to:".
4. Type 'soc.penpals' and press "return" or "enter"; soc.penpals should now be in your newsgroup list, and should be highlighted.
5. Press "return" or "enter" to go to the list of articles.

slrn (UNIX, VMS)

1. From the group selection level, press `L' (Capital L)
2. Enter soc.penpals at the prompt
3. Press `s' to subscribe
4. Press `L' again
   Note: this is all explained on the first screen of the slrn group help.
   [Thanks to John E. Davis (davis at space.mit.edu), 20 October 1995]

tin (UNIX)

1. 'q' - quits out of current article
2. 'q' - quits out of current newsgroup back to newsgroup listing
3. 'y' - toggles back and forth between listing ALL available newsgroups and only subscribed newsgroups (toggle until it lists ALL available newsgroups)
4. 'g' - goto; type soc.penpals [ENTER] (if the group exists at that site and no typos are made, tin will jump to that group)
5. 's' - subscribe
6. 'y' - toggle back to only subscribed newsgroups
   [Thanks to an anonymous contributor, 17 October 1995]

trn (UNIX)

1. Type 'q' to return to the thread selector (the list of article subjects).
2. Type 'q' again to return to the newsgroup selection prompt ("nnnn unread articles in some.news.group--read now?").
3. Type 'g soc.penpals' to "go" to that newsgroup; trn should ask, "Newsgroup soc.penpals not in .newsrc -- subscribe?"
4. Type 'y'; trn should now ask, "Put newsgroup where?"
5. Type '$' to put soc.penpals at the end of your newsgroup list; you should now see the newsgroup selection prompt again ("nnnn unread articles in soc.penpals--read now?").
6. Type 'y'. You should now see the thread selector for soc.penpals.

This individual document is maintained by: Jon Bell (jbell at presby.edu).
http://web.presby.edu/~nnqadmin/nnq/subscribe.html

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Last Updated: Monday, January 3, 2005