It is assumed that for the purposes of this guide that you are using Windows 95/98 Dial-up Networking for your browser connection. If in doubt check the support pages of your Internet Service Provider.
Many people are aware of the World Wide Web and email but are totally unfamiliar with the concept of Usenet Newsgroups.
Basically, newsgroups are a means of public discussion. Newsgroup articles (messages) look like e-mail, but they can be read by millions of people all over the world.
There are literally tens of thousands of newsgroups on some of the most diverse subjects imagineable, and you have the option to choose precisely which (and how many) groups to subscribe to.
In a similar way to email each message, or "post" has a one line header that describes the content, or "body" of the message and it is normal practice to download the headers in the groups first and then decide selectively which of the message bodies you subseqently wish to retrieve.
This is especially useful for saving connection time when downloading pictures as the messages, particularly those with attachments can be extremely long.
First and foremost you need an Internet connection!
It is worth pointing out at this stage that not all ISP's (Internet Service Providers) are the same, and nowhere is this more true than when newsgroups are concerned.
It is totally at the ISP's discretion which groups they provide access to, based no doubt on grounds of morality and decency as well as the fact that the contentious groups attract enormous interest and therefore put large demands on their bandwidth and storage.
It is quite common for "free" ISP's such as Freeserve in the UK to elect not to carry adult picture related groups whereas more conventional ISP's such as Demon or Pipex do.
Despite this being the case there are public news servers which you can attach to from any connection although the download speed must be expected to suffer considerably.
Secondly you need a Usenet Newsgroup reader program.
There are many available programs that all perform basically the same task, in fact both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Outlook Express provide some support for newsgroups, but our recommendation would definitely go to Forté Free Agent .
This is not only easy to use, but as the name suggests it's free!
It is also pretty handy to have something to view pictures with.
Again, there are viewers galore all doing much the same job but ACDSEE which is shareware is as good as any.
Download and install ACDSEE and allow it to be your default viewer.
This effectively means that when a picture file is opened the system will automatically launch this program to view it.
Installation is pretty much automatic and shouldn't present any real problems.
Now download Forté Free Agent . Again, installation is relatively straight forward although you will have to enter a few details.
First you need to enter your internet account details, ie the name of your dial-up networking connection, account name and password.
These details should be prompted for during the install process or can be entered via Options > General Preferences > Dial-up.
You must also set the news server name.
The best idea is to use your ISP's news server initially (check their tech support pages for the name) then proceed to the next steps to see what groups they carry.
The news server name can be entered by starting Agent and selecting Options > General Preferences > System
The name usually follows the format: news.myisp.net
The next step is to actually go online and receive a list of all the available groups. This task only needs to be run after a new installation or if you change your news server. From time to time you may wish to use the "Get New Groups" option as new groups appear regularly and are not automatically added.
Start Free Agent and select Online > Refresh Groups List. Since this is the first time you have asked to go online this is where you find out if your configuration has been successful.
What you should see after the modem dials and connects is the message on the dialog bar at the bottom of the screen change from "connecting to server" to "receiving new groups" and a counter indicating the number of groups being received.
Depending on the ISP and your connection speed this operation may take between 3 and 10 minutes.
It's now time to find out which groups you can receive. (Note: it is not necessary to be online at this stage, by default the program will disconnect you after a period of inactivity specified in Options > General Preferences > Online)
Select Group > Show > All Groups to see a list of all available newsgroups. You can scroll through the list manually or search for specific phrases with Edit > Find.
The key word that describes messages with data attached is "binaries". Binaries can be pretty much any data file that you can have on you computer, whether it be executables, zip files, sounds, movies or pictures encoded into text messages for the purposes of exchange.
The majority of picture groups start with the suffix:
alt.binaries.pictures
The majority of adult picture groups start with the suffix:
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica
Remember that some ISP's don't carry all the groups. Try not to be too despondant if you can't find what you want. These instructions work for getting loads of wholesome non smutty stuff too!
The process of selecting a group (or groups) to receive is known as subscribing. Either double-click each group you wish to subscribe then click the Subscribe button or right click and select get all message headers from the pop-up menu.
When you have selected all the groups you want, reselect the Group > Show > Subscribed Groups option so that the groups window displays just the groups that you are interested in.
It's now time to get all the message headers for the groups you're subscribed to. Select Online > Get headers in subscribed Groups (there are also toolbar icons for many of these functions) and watch the messages roll in!
Now you have the messages you have to be able to discriminate between plain messages and those with pictures embedded. Most of the time the header actually states the name and description of the file if there is one attached and also the number of parts to the message.
Larger files such as avi's or mp3's are often split into several messages to make them more manageable. In these cases all parts of the message must be downloaded. For example: a 3 part file should have seperate headers myfile.mp3 [1/3] , myfile.mp3 [2/3] , myfile.mp3 [3/3]. It may also have a header marked [0/3] or [*/3] which is a text message telling you more about the attached file but not actually being part of the attachment. If you are unsure about what you're getting then download and read the text message first.
Usually picture attachments are small enough to be contained within one message so the header would indicate this by using the notation [1/1] ie part 1 of 1.
If you attempt to download the first part of a multipart message Free Agent is usually smart enough to download all of the sections providing the headers contain the necessary part [x/y] info and all the messages are available.
Select the group of interest in the group pane then examine the messages contained within that group. You have the option to mark messages for immediate retrieval by highlighting and double-clicking/entering or to mark them for retrieval the next time you go online with the blue downward arrow on the toolbar. If you have retrieved many headers it makes sense and saves connection time to perform this task offline.
Now click the Get Marked Bodies icon. As each message is retrieved the ones with attachments will have a little green page icon next to them.
Highlight any of the messages with the green page icon then click the Launch Binary Attachment button. If everything goes to plan, ACDSEE should launch displaying the image decoded from the attachment.
One way to manage the images is to select Edit > Move and select where you want to store the image (if you wish to save it), then close ACDSEE, hit the del key to remove the message.
It is possible that in your community the downloading, viewing and/or storage of pornographic images is illegal.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you know which laws apply to you.
Ignorance is no defence.
Do not break the law.