Sparkman,

There are basically two different methods of accessing the newsgroups - via a web interface (GardenBanter, Google Groups) or via a newsreader (Outlook Express or dozens of alternatives).

I operate the GardenBanter web site which is useful for people not familiar with newsreaders and has a longer message database than most news servers hold on the gardening newsgroups (useful when searching for information).

A newsreader will give you access to all the discussion forums (and there are thousands) plus most have some useful features like offline reading which can keep help with your phone bill!

There have been some recent discussions on the merits of different newsreaders:
http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/showth...threadid=40813
and http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/showth...threadid=41687

To find out more about newsgroups and usenet, I suggest http://www.faqs.org/usenet/ (which I also post in the 'Welcome to GardenBanter' bit of the web site).

I hope this makes things a bit clearer.