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Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. It acts like a giant newspaper with few editorial standards; public messages ("articles") are posted and propogated to all news servers worldwide.
Given that a newspaper with millions of "reporters" would be an unusable mess, Usenet is divided into "newsgroups" which cover various topics, just as a newspaper is divided into various sections. While your local newspaper may have a few sections, Usenet has tens of thousands of newsgroups.
Newsgroups are typically accessed with special client software that connects to a news server (for example NewsBin http://www.newsbin.com). When a user subscribes to a newsgroup, the news client software keeps track of which articles that user has read. The software will ask you for your news server which you will need to enter news.adam.com.au and it will ask for your username and password which is username@adam.com.au* and your password.
*Please note that to avoid abuse, your account name will be visible on all outgoing posts.