posted 21 years ago
1. Find an ISP that carries it and allows you access (typically this will be whoever you get your internet connection from) Find from them the dns name or IP address of their "news server". Often if you get mail from mail.yetanother.net, you can get news from news.yetanother.net, for example.
2. Run some sort of news reader software and point it at the news server from (1), tell it to load the list of newsgroups and wait for a while as it loads them.
3. Trawl along the (huge) list of newsgroups until you find the one(s) you are interested in and tell your newsreader to "subscribe" to them.
4. Then, each time you start your newsreader software it should check the news server to see what new messages are available in that newsgroup.
Now, as for newsreader software you have a big choice. It may be that your browser or email client already has a newsreader (Netscape, Opera and Outlook Express do, for example), or you may want to download one from one of the shareware repositories (I have successfully used xnews, which I got from cnet or tucows or somewhere like that). They all work slightly differently, and which you prefer is very much a personal choice.
Have I missed anything ?