Using Simple News Strategies

If you get your Internet access from an ISP, the ISP gives you access to a mail server and a news server. Then, you can use mail software that downloads messages from the mail server and a newsreader that reads newsgroups directly from the ISP's news server. If you are the sole user of your Red Hat Linux PC, I strongly recommend this strategy for reading news. That way, you get to read news and post articles without the headache of having to maintain a news server.

Another option is to read news at a website, such as Google's Usenet discussion forums at http://groups.google.com/. At that website, you can select a newsgroup to browse, and you can post replies to articles posted on various newsgroups. In this case, you don't even need access to a news server. Another similar service is offered by Mailgate (http://www.mailgate.org) where you can read, search, and post messages to the newsgroups using a Web browser.

All these options may not be enough if you want to set up a news server for a company intranet and manage your newsgroups. You might do this to provide a forum for employees to discuss various topics and to exchange knowledge with others. Internal newsgroups can be a good way to facilitate knowledge sharing and knowledge management within a company. Internal newsgroups can provide a virtual gathering place (or what are often called communities of practice) for employees to share their knowledge with others. To set up your own newsgroups, you have to set up a news server, such as innd, which uses the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). You will learn about the news server later in this chapter.