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News Xpress and AT&T Worldnet Service

News Xpress is one of the better free news reader applications available on the net in both the 16 & 32 bit versions. News Xpress is fairly simple to both setup and begin navigating the world of newsgroups. News Xpress (in both versions) has many features that I find make it superior to many other news readers:

• Supports Autokill files (get spam once and never again)
• Recognizes multi-group posts that have already been read.
• Allows for a variety of methods of sorting a newsgroup (subject, lines) and grouping (or not) threads.

Note: In order to run the 32-bit version, you will need to be using a 32-bit dialer, such as the Win95 DUN. Check out the previous pages at this site for a complete set of installation instructions for Win95 DUN.

• Installation
• 16-bit Version Setup
• 32-bit Version Setup
• Style and Preferences (both Versions)

To install News Xpress:

Place the version you choose in a separate directory and expand the zip file. I do not recommend placing the files in the AT&T Worldnet Service News subdirectory, as if you ever have to re-install the AT&T Worldnet Service software you may damage some of the files. You can, however, add a sub-directory to AT&T Worldnet Service to place the News Xpress files. I have done this with the 16-bit version and have had no problems (so far).

Now you can move on to the setup:

• 16-bit Version Setup
• 32-bit Version Setup

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To configure the 16-bit version:

1. Launch News Xpress (NX.EXE).
2. From the Config menu, choose Setup.
   
3. Hosts and Port Information is the first section that must be filled in order to connect. News Xpress will have the default port settings of 119 for the NNTP Server and 25 for the SMTP Server - do not change these - just add the correct servers:
   • NNTP Server: netnews.worldnet.att.net
   • SMTP Server: mailhost.worldnet.att.net
   
   
4. In Personal Information, the e-mail ID must be completed - all other sections are optional. When you put in your e-mail address, make sure that it is the same ID that you use in your e-mail program.
5. Continue with the Style and Preferences section.

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To configure the 32-bit version:

1. Launch News Xpress (NX.EXE).
2. From the File menu choose Options.
   
3. Under Servers & Directories you will need to place the names of both the NNTP and SMTP Servers.
   • NNTP Server: netnews.worldnet.att.net
   • SMTP Server: mailhost.worldnet.att.net
   Note: The News Server Authorization settings should be left blank for AT&T Worldnet Service. The installation directory should default to show the directory where you installed the 32-bit version of News Xpress.
4. You must put in an e-mail address. However, the other areas are optional. If you have already created a text signature file that you wish to have attached to any postings, choose it in the default signature file setting area.
5. Continue with the Style and Preferences section.

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To configure Style & Preferences (both versions):

The similarities between the two versions are limited from this point forward, so unless there are additional settings available or needed in the 32-bit version, I will refer to the Preferences pages in the 16-bit version.

1. Click the Groups Tab.
2. Under On Connect, you can set your preferences on how to connect and the actions that should take place upon each connection. I would recommend Retrieve all groups, as this will retrieve the new article counts for all newsgroups. Under Options, mark Connect to news server on startup. This will allow the reader to immediately attempt connection to the AT&T Worldnet Service news server. One nice feature of both versions, is that it can be set to update the article lists - the default is 0, which will not allow any updates. I have set mine at 3 minutes so that even if I am writing a lengthy reply I will stay connected to server.
   
3. Click the Articles tab.
4. Under Headers, you can set New Xpress to sort the articles by date or lines. You can choose to thread by subjects, references, both or neither. News Xpress can read new articles headers by groups. A 0 setting will have News Xpress pull each article in separately and will disable the stop button in the toolbar (first button on the left). Any number placed in the Max headers per read will designate the size of the pull group. For example, if there are 50 new articles in the newsgroup that you want to read and the Max headers per read is set at 10, then there will be 5 separate reads from the server until all new articles are brought in. Pushing the stop button (or Alt-F, O) will stop the program from bringing in the additional articles.
   
   The additional button options are for skipping old articles (previously read), suppressing Re: expressions, using new windows for each article and showing grid lines (not sure about this one?).
5. Click the Compose tab.
6. The Reply/Follow-up settings are for determining what and how much of previous posts to include in your replies and follow-up messages (both in newsgroups and e-mail replies).
   
7. Click the Headers tab.
8. The Headers settings determine the style of headers to include in posts and e-mail. These can be changed as the user needs.
   
9. Click the Miscellaneous tab.
   • 16-bit version: Set the maximum number of lines in attachment parts, where to send decoded files and the locations of other programs.
     
   • 32-bit version: Allows you to set how to delete items and font selection. In the 16-bit version, Fonts is the last item under Config.
10. 32-bit version: The Keys page is for setting the hot key functions. To change a setting, highlight the item and choose a new key - the program will let you know if that key is already in use.
    
    Note: In the 32-bit version, you can customize each group and globally the subject and author killfiles, as well as setting how recent you want the articles to be. You can also specify the Folder name for any archived articles (those you want to save) and use custom Signature files for different newsgroups.
    

This setup help was created by Keith E. Ostergard.

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