Recommended News Readers and Setup Instructions

Below you will find a list of news readers and setup instructions (if available) for several of the most popular newsreaders that our users utilize.

NewsRover (Windows)

1. After you've installed Newsrover and run it for the first time you'll be asked for some setup information. On this first screen you should enter the paths for file storage. Also on this page you will want to enter the username and password that you received from us via email. We do not recommend that you put your real email address in the email address field unless you plan to use Newsrover as an email application.
2. You will then be presented with the basic Home screen in Newsrover. This is where you will spend most of your time in the application. From here you will be able to see all of the search features and subscribed group management on the left-hand side of the screen. You will see any messages for the group you're viewing in the right-hand pane. You will see the current message you're reading in the bottom pane.
3. If you click on Configure in the menu bar you will open up the Configure Panel. This is where all of the Newsrover settings are handled. On this page you will want to adjust the number of connections to match that of the plan that you have. For example, if you have a plan with 10 connections you will want to set Subscribed Newsgroups to use 9 connections and Autoscan to use 1. If you want to connect to the SSL server you will need to enter the address of the SSL server in the News Server Address list and click on the checkbox for SSL connection.
4. Subscribing to a newsgroup basically means that you are adding that newsgroup to your list of favorites. For example, suppose that you frequently read a newsgroup that discusses ham radio. You can subscribe to the newsgroup so that it's easy to view any new messages posted in the newsgroup. To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to newsgroups you can simply right-click on the news server address in the left-hand pane and choose the Subscribe option. You will then be presented with a window that will let you either browse categories of newsgroups or search for a newsgroup by words in its name.
5. Once you've subscribed to the newsgroup you'll be able to download headers. Typically you will want to download all of the new headers for a group. You can think of a header as just the subject of a message. Once you've downloaded the header you will be able to download the entire message. Downloading headers can take some time for larger groups, depending on the speed of your internet connection.
6. A nice feature of Newsrover is the message search capabilities. Just click on Message Search in the left-hand pane and you'll be presented with the search window. Just enter any text you want to search for and you will be presented with the messages that contain that text.

Agent (Windows)

1. Install Agent on your computer
2. Set up your news server information by going to Options -> General Preferences. Then click on the News Server option. Enter the NewsgroupDirect server you want to connect to as the Host Name. Choose "Username and Password" as the login method. Then enter your username and password in the spaces provided. We recommend that you also check the box to "Remember password between sessions". Click OK to finish.
3. To download the list of groups you should go to Online -> Refresh Groups List.
4. Once you've download the list of groups you can start browsing and downloading.

Hogwasher (Mac)

1. Go to the Hogwasher site (search for "Hogwasher" on Google) and download the latest version of Hogwasher. Then install the file on your computer.
2. Start the process of setting up Hogwasher. When asked for the news server address you should enter the address of the server that you want to use from our Network Status page. Then you will enter the username and password that we emailed to you. Make sure that you check the box that says "Server requires username and password".
3. Once the program is installed and running it will ask you to download the list of groups. Once the groups are downloaded you will be able to subscribe to any groups that you are interested in.
4. Double-click on any of your subscribed groups to download the headers available.
5. Use the search box at the top of the group window to search for specific messages that you may be interested in.

Unison (Mac)