These groups may be public or they may be restricted to their members who need a password for access.
Any serious Internet access software includes a newsreader that lets one select and access newsgroups, not necessarily the same ones, though. You cannot access Usenet if all you have is an Alpha or Vax account. But if you are running Netscape Navigator, see the following:
Navigator must be open.
If you know the name of the group you want, click File menu, Open location, enter e.g., news:rec.food.
For a list of all groups on the CUNY news host, click Window menu, News. Click Options menu, Show all newsgroups. Scroll up in the left window, doubleclick news.cuny.edu. Scroll down to something interesting, doubleclick it to see all groups in the selected category.
Arrange your screen: maximize it, place the mouse on the divider: the cursor turns into a big +. Drag the vertical bar a bit to the left so that it is about one third the width of the screen from the left edge. Drag the horizontal bar upwards so that it is in the middle of the screen.
You can now select groups in the upper left area, messages in the upper right area, and view them in the lower half of your screen.
Close the newsreader to return to the Web: click File on the newsreader menu bar, Close.
go to Menu