If you do try tin, the way to set it up is to either set your news-server at compile time, or make a file called /etc/nntpserver. Slackware does this. Just edit /etc/nntpserver to contain the name of your NNTP server, then type "rtin" to start it up. The r in front tells it to read from the NNTP server instead of assuming that you store news on your local machine. If your connection is slow, and you have your newsgroups picked out already, add a "-Q" to the end of the command. That is, a space and dash followed by a capital Q in typical Unix/Linux fashion. There is a file called authinfo.txt in the /usr/doc/tin-1.5.11 directory of a Slackware installed version. If you don't set up the authentication to be automatic, you will be manually prompted for a username and password each time you start up. Look at the man page for Tin, as it's very informative. There is a menu of options that is overwhelming in its size and I can't even figure out half the options. The program isn't perfect, but like Pine, I've used it for about 7 or 8 years in various forms or another starting at college, so I am somewhat biased.
