How to sub to alt.business.import-export

[Ling Chun-ming]

Hi,
I am a exporter of Chinese chemicals, and I am interesting in the
usenet site " alt.business.import-export ",
and I didn't know how to sub to it via E-mail. Can someone help
me ?
Thanks very much.

Ling

[Gary M Klein (bear-at-heart)]

On Wed, 18 Dec 1996, Ling Chun-ming wrote:
> I am a exporter of Chinese chemicals, and I am interesting in the
> usenet site " alt.business.import-export ",
> and I didn't know how to sub to it via E-mail. Can someone help
> me ?

It is physically and electronically impossible to "subscribe" to a
Usenet newsgroup. The physical, electronic and conceptual design of a
newsgroup is radically different from an e-mail distribution list such as
BUSLIB-L.

Some newsgroups (such as BIT.LISTSERV.BUSLIB-L) are also available
in an e-mail format. But generally speaking, relatively few discussion
lists offer this alternative method of access.

If your Internet Service Provider claims to offer "newsgroups", it is
doubtfull that they offer all of them. There are estimated to be well
over 20,000 separately registered newsgroups in existence! Typically,
each Internet Service Provider agrees to process a group of newsgroups,
usually based either by Usenet's hierarchial arrangement, or by selecting
certain subjects. World wide access to "ALT..." lists tends to be more
erratic, than other arms of the Usenet hierarchy.

Some software used to manage e-mail can also handle newsgroups in a
manner which make the difference between Lists and News look almost
transparent to the Internet subscriber (PINE is one example of this type
of software), but the ability for it to work depends on other things
which are unique to each Internet Service Provider.

The real answer to accessing ALT.BUSINESS.IMPORT-EXPORT, or any
other newsgroup is to contact YOUR local Internet Service Provider for
details. Some ISPs simply do not provide access to Newsgroups. In some
cases, newsgroups are physically incompatible with the computer systems
(this is a basic problem with IBM styled mainframes running CMS). But it
is certainly quite common to see newsgroups running on VAX or UNIX machines.

GARY KLEIN (previously working with CMS, VAX and UNIX in my former job)
gkl...@willamette.edu