(or use the Master Help Index)
FAQs
Test your network connection
Software Setup Instructions
New to SFF Net?
Your SFF Net Account
About the Newsgroups
Using WebNews
About SFF Net Email
Using WebMail
About the Chatrooms
Using WebChat
Your SFF Net People Page
Your People Newsgroup
Blogging Tools
Hosted Domains
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Mozilla Thunderbird Newsreader Setup
- Start Thunderbird and select Tools --> Account Settings from the menu to bring up the Account Settings dialog window.
- To start the New Account wizard, click the Add Account button on the Account Settings screen:
- On the New Account Setup screen, choose the Newsgroup Account option. Your screen should look like this:
- On the Identity screen, type in your name in the Your name box and the email address you want to appear on your newsgroup
postings in the Email address box. This is what will appear to other newsgroup readers when you post.
If you don't want newsgroup users to know your name or email address, you can enter a fake name. This setting is for newsgroup display only, and does not affect Thunderbird's ability to send and receive email.
Your screen should look like this:
- Enter news.sff.net in the Server Name: box on the Server Information screen.
- Review your entries thus far, and click Finish. We're almost done, so hang in there.
- To successfully login to SFF Net, you'll need to tell Thunderbird how to connect and log in with your SFF Net username and password. Use
Tools --> Account Settings from the menu to bring up the Account Settings screen again.
In the list box on the left side, highlight the Server Settings entry for news.sff.net (make sure you're NOT looking at the Server Settings for any other listed account).
- Change the entry in the Port: box from 119 to 1119. If you don't make this change, Thunderbird will not be able to contact the news.sff.net server.
- Make sure the Always request authentication when connecting to this server checkbox is checked.
Make sure the screen looks like this before proceeding (especially the items flagged with the red arrows):
That's it! You're all set to access the newsgroups. Close all the account settings dialog boxes so you're back at the main Thunderbird window.
- Change the entry in the Port: box from 119 to 1119. If you don't make this change, Thunderbird will not be able to contact the news.sff.net server.
- First thing you'll want to do is subscribe to some newsgroups on the SFF Net server. To this, highlight the
news.sff.net folder in the Folders pane on the left side of the page. Click the Manage newsgroup
subscriptions icon in the Newsgroups section of the main pane:
You'll be prompted for your SFF Net username (this is NOT your SFF Net email address!) and your password. Click the box to have Password Manager remember your information, if you wish.
- Click the Refresh button on the Subscribe screen to obtain a current
list of newsgroups from the SFF Net server.
Expand the list of newsgroups by clicking on the plus sign(s). Select all the newsgroups you wish to subscribe to and then click the
button. We strongly recommend you at least subscribe to the sff.admin.announce and sff.admin.help-desk groups, since these will give you important information about system status and technical assistance with SFF Net. 
- That's it! You'll now see headers of messages from your selected newsgroups when you highlight the group name in the Folders pane on the left side of the screen. Further information on using the newsreader can be found in the Thunderbird online help. Happy browsing!
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IMPORTANT: Thunderbird requires you to have an email account before you can use the Newsreader functions. If you have not yet set up an email account, you should do so now. Use the instructions on the Thunderbird Email Client page to set up an email client before proceeding here.
Please have your SFF Net username, password and SFF Net Email address handy (they were included in your original signup confirmation email). You'll need them to complete these instructions.