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Free Agent - For High-speed Connections & Other ISPs
Extra: Access to the AT&T Worldnet news servers from another ISP is now available. Read our News FAQ for additional information.
This document contains configuration instructions for using Free Agent to access the AT&T Worldnet Service news server through another ISP. We also have instructions for access through an AT&T Worldnet connection.
Accessing the AT&T Worldnet servers from another ISP requires SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security. Since Free Agent doesn't have native support for the needed SSL, you will need to use a free helper program called Stunnel. These instructions will detail how to get it and use it. When Stunnel is installed, continue with the instructions below.
Note: You will need to find your AT&T Worldnet Service account information.
- Launch Free Agent. When you launch Free Agent for the first time, you will see the licensing agreement. Click the Accept button. The next screen gives you the locations for the different servers the program uses. Since Free Agent doesn't support authentication for outgoing e-mail, we recommend that you use the outgoing e-mail server for the ISP that you're using.
- News (NNTP) Server: 127.0.0.1 or localhost
- Mail (SMTP) Server: Your ISP's outgoing e-mail server
- E-Mail Address: emailid@worldnet.att.net
- Full Name: Your Name
- From the Options menu, chosse User and System Profile.
- Selecte the User tab.
- Select the Login with a username and password and Remember Password between sessions options.
- Add the following information:
- E-mail Address: Your e-mail address
- Full Name: Your Name
- User Name: your e-mail ID (the part to the left of the @ sign)
- Password: your e-mail password
Note: If you have an authentication problem and you know that your e-mail ID and password are correct, try using your full e-mail address (emailid@worldnet.att.net) in the User Name field. - Select the System tab, and fill in the following information:
- News server: 127.0.0.1 or localhost
- Email server: Your ISP's outgoing e-mail server
- Select the Dial-Up tab, set your preferences, and click the OK button.
- We're ready to connect and download newsgroups now. Run the Stunnel application to establish a secure connection. You must keep Stunnel running whenever you use Free Agent to access your AT&T Worldnet newsgroups from another ISP.
- From the Online menu, choose Get New Groups. This will take awhile so be patient. There over 23,000 newsgroups available at this writing.
- Once the groups are retrieved, Free Agent will display them in the Groups pane in the upper-left box of the main window screen. Scan through the list of groups for ones you want to follow regularly and click the Subscribe button.
- Once you have a few selected, click the Groups pane until it reads Subscribed Groups.
- From the Online menu,Get New Headers in Subscribed Groups and choose to download all the message headers in all your subscribed groups. The message headers will show up in Message List Pane in the upper-right pane of the Free Agent window. There may be several hundred new messages for each group so this operation may take a while. Double-clicking on a message header will retrieve the body of the message from the server.
Need Additional Help?
If you can't find the answers you need, please try:
- The help file for the application you are using.
- Our FAQs.