usenet problem

[Jacob Davis]

Hi. I am a newbie to usenet. I am using mac and have downloaded a
free usenet client, "MT-NewsWatcher". I put in comp.lang.python but
it says that it cannot get the address of the news server host. My
config says it is trying on port 119. Thanks for any help.

Jake

 

[Ben Finney]

Hi. I am a newbie to usenet. I am using mac and have downloaded a
free usenet client, "MT-NewsWatcher". I put in comp.lang.python but
it says that it cannot get the address of the news server host.

'comp.lang.python' is the name of the newsgroup, not the name of a
host (machine). Usenet newsgroups are accessible from many different
machines worldwide, all of which propagate the messages to each other
so that (ideally) any one group can be treated as a single group
distributed across the world.

<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet>

You need to access the newsgroup via one of those servers, called a
"news feed" or "Usenet provider". That server's hostname is what you
need to configure your software to connect with.