k12.ed.math is a Usenet newsgroup. You simply "read" the newsgroup. Articles posted to the newsgroup cannot be mailed to your e-mail address, as happens with a mailing list subscription.

You will need some sort of software for reading news. Here are some popular ones:

Agent or Free Agent from Forte for Windows
http://www.forteinc.com/agent/
NewsXpress for Windows
http://www.malch.com/nx2faq.html
MT-NewsWatcher for MacIntosh
http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/

Or look at Yahoo's list of Newsreader software for other options at
http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Internet/Usenet/
Or Newsreaders.com at
http://www.newsreaders.com/

Many people also use Microsoft Outlook for accessing newsgroups, or a web browser such as Netscape or Mozilla may also provide access to newsgroups. For further information on these options, see the following links:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/
http://www.mozilla.org/

In any of these "newsreader" software programs, it is usual for you to "subscribe" to the newsgroups that you wish to read on a regular basis. This is NOT the same as "subscribing" to a mailing list or listserv. When you subscribe to a mailing list or listserv, you usually have to send an e-mail to the list administrator requesting a subscription. You should NOT send such an e-mail to "subscribe" to k12.ed.math. All you do is select the newsgroup k12.ed.math in your newsreader software and somehow, depending on the software you are using, you mark an option in your software to "subscribe" to the newsgroup.

To use news reader software for accessing the newsgroup, you will also need access to a news server. Many ISPs, or Internet Service Providers, include access to a news server as part of their regular services. If your ISP does not provide such access, you can purchase commercial access via a news service provides (see http://dmoz.org/Computers/Usenet/Feed_Services/). The University of Berlin provides free news server access (see http://news.cis.dfn.de/).

It is also possible to participate in the newsgroup by using a web site interface for access, such as the free access offered by Google Groups at http://groups.google.com .

I hope this information has helped you, and I hope you will continue to read k12.ed.math and participate.

Other sites where you might learn more:
1. The charter for the newsgroup k12.ed.math:
http://www.thinkspot.net/k12math/charter.html
2. The Usenet FAQ archive (FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions)
http://www.faqs.org/usenet/
3. the official homepage of news.newusers.questions
http://nnqweb.tripod.com/nnqlinks.html#how

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask. You may write to the newsgroup moderator at kem-moderator@k12groups.org.

2003-Apr-23 11:34am kem-moderator