The Eastern Star Mail Hub

The Eastern Star Mail Hub

• Fidonet Via Your NNTP Newsreader.

• Configuring Microsoft Outlook Express.

• To Navigate This Presentation, Use your Left/Right Arrow Buttons, Press ESC To Exit.

Getting Started

• Using a Newsreader to collect, read and write messages in Fidonet is Quick, Easy and does not involve the setup of any DOS based software up to and including file compression programs.

What You Need To Know

• This is not usenet or regular newsgroups, there is no more danger of spam than there would be if you accessed Fidonet via other means or traditional methods.

• The server employed accesses a Fidonet message base and makes the conversion of the messages into the formats your newsreader can understand.

What You Need

• You should have already contacted The System Operator Of The Eastern Star Mail Hub, Ross Cassell and setup a logon name and password.

• Your logon name and password in hand.

• A copy of Microsoft Outlook Express fired up and ready to configure.

Step One

• On The Outlook Express Main Screen, As Shown On The Right, Select “Setup A Newsgroup account”

Step Two

• Do exactly As Illustrated on the right and then click NEXT.

Step Three

• Fill Out “YOUR” Full Name, not “MINE”, as illustrated on the right and then click NEXT.

Step Four

• Put “YOUR” email address not “MINE” as illustrated on the right and then click NEXT.

Step Five

• As illustrated to the right, fill in the “News (NNTP) server:” field with “the-estar.com”.

• Also make sure you placed a check in the checkbox for “My news server requires me to log on”.

• Then Click NEXT.

Step Six

• For Account Name input the logon name you selected.

• For password, input the password you selected.

• Check the checkbox to “Remember password”.

• Then Click NEXT.

Step Seven

• You are not finished yet, there is still more to do, read on but do click FINISH.

Step Eight

• This dialogue would have popped up, but because we arent finished yet, click NO.

Step Nine

• From the Outlook Express Main Screen, select “Tools” from the drop down menu and then select “Accounts”.

Step Ten

• When the “Internet Accounts” Window pops up, select the “News” tab and then highlight the newly created account as illustrated to the right, you then want to click on the “PROPERTIES” button.

Step Eleven

• When the properties window pops up, select the “ADVANCED” tab and change the “Server Port Number” to 1119 as illustrated to the right. Then Click APPLY and Then Click OK.

Step Twelve

• You are almost done at this point, assuming you have followed the prior steps correctly, click CLOSE.

Step Thirteen

• You are now back on the Outlook Express Main Screen, click on the link “Subscribe To Newsgroups…”

Step Fourteen

• This window will pop up, here is where you select the areas to read and write in, simply highlight the area name, click “SUBSCRIBE” and continue doing so for each area you want, then click OK.

Step Fifteen

• When you have finished subscribing, the areas you wanted they will show in the navigation pane (Left), when you highlight an area, the message list will show up in the top right pane. If you click on a individual message its body and text will show in the bottom right pane. How fast this happens will depend on your internet speed. Read On.

Step Sixteen

• Messages do not thread in a newsreader the same way they do on a Fidonet BBS or reader, they generally thread by subject, so be sure to expand the message tree’s by clicking on the “+” signs. Unread messages will be in BOLD. To check for new messages, click on the message area name in the left pane.

Step Seventeen• When you want to switch to

another message area, select it in the left pane, when you want to switch messages select it in the top right pane. When you want to reply to a message, select “REPLY GROUP” button. Do not select “REPLY” or “FORWARD” unless you intend to move the conversation into Email, assuming you have an email account configured with Outlook Express. To post a new message into an area is covered in the next step. To Do so make sure you are in the area you want to post in and select “NEW POST”

Step Eighteen

• In line 1, column 1 of the message body, place “To:” followed by the persons name, check your spelling of that persons name, or you can also simply use “All”. After that the rest of the message body is yours to fill up. When you have finished your message, click on “SEND”. The message you wrote will come back to you as a new message, but don’t worry, it went out.

Netmail!• Assuming you subscribed to

the netmail area in Step 14 (recommended), you can also send netmail, very similar to posting a new message as outlined prior, except in line 1, column 1 put “To:” followed by the persons name followed by a “,” and then the Fidonet node number, see the illustration to the right for an “example”. Do note that it is an example only, everyones node number is different. You can extrapolate a persons node number from the “Origin” line at the bottom of a persons messages.

Wrapping It Up!

• The Fidonet Node Number that you will be reading and posting from is 1:123/789.

• You are responsible for your conduct in the message areas, by that this means that if you violate the rules of a message echo and the moderator asks you to stop posting for a period of time, voluntarily comply, their next course of action if you refuse to comply is to ask that your access be physically cut, and their requests will be honored. I will terminate anyones access to the entire server who gets me an excessive amount of moderator requests.

• The Server is not a platform for SPAM, advertising or other annoying activities.

• This Is The End… ENJOY!