junglistic: get a FREE program called XNews (
www.xnews.newsguy.com). install it and give it the setup info it needs (you IPs server address, primarily) and then have fun. the XNews interface is very simple and intuitive. and the prog does all the hard work for you. I use xnews on a daily basis and it is easily the best and most rock solid program on my machine.
there are over 100,000 usenet newgroups out there for any and every interest you can think of. you can download ANYTHING from usenet, if you can find someone who has (or who will upon request) posted it.
there are also great discussion groups too.
edit: fixed the link