USENET is an international collection of 3000 or so ``electronic conferences'' accessible via AARNET. To subscribe to newsgroups and to read them, use the rn (for ``readnews'') command, after first using newsetup. An alternative way of reading newsgroups is to use the dxrn command, which gives you a nice X11 interface to the news reader (and therefore only works from an Xterminal). The available newsgroups range from alt.alien.visitors through bionet.molbio.genbank.updates, comp.protocols.ibm, rec.windsurfing, sci.physics, comp.binaries.ibm.pc, soc.religion.eastern, and so on. This may sound like a waste of time, but it is surprising how much useful information can be obtained through USENET. For example, if you want the latest information on the observing schedule of the Hubble Space Telescope, then look in sci.astro. Also, USENET acts as a distribution channel for public domain software, much of which is very good. Use the command newsgroups to get a complete list of all the available newsgroups.