RSS or news feeds – what are they?
News feeds automatically send new content from the SOLACE website to you and your computer.  Some call it their personal newswire service.  The feeds or to give it the technical name, RSS [which stands for Really Simple Syndication] mean you don’t have to search all over the net to find new content.  To see if it really is simple, and if you like it,  we have started by putting a news feed on our popular blog from David Clark, the SOLACE Director General.

So what do I need to get started – news readers?
First things first – you will need a newsreader.  This is a bit of software that will allow us to automatically send you updates from our site.  The newsreader will regularly check our site to see if there are any new blogs, sends them to you and then allows you to read them.  In the same way that you need a radio to hear radio stations, you need a news reader to get the feed content.

There are two types of newsreader, browser based or downloadable applications  – we have listed some of them below. Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feeds from any computer, while downloadable applications let you store them on your computer, just as you do when downloading email using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Gmail or Hotmail.

How do I get a news reader?
Here are some of the most popular and tested news reader available for free on the net. Make sure you pick one that will work with your computer system.

Windows
FeedDemon
Newz Crawler
Awasu

Mac
Newsfire
NetNewsWire

Web
FeedZilla
Bloglines
NewsGator
My Yahoo
Microsoft Live

Browser
Mozilla Firefox
iGoogle

How I set up the news reader to get the content I want?
The URL to the RSS Feed is;

http://www.solace.org.uk/rss.asp

1. Right click the link above
2. Select ‘Copy shortcut’ or ‘Copy link location’ to copy the address or URL of this feed. 
3. Now go to your news reader and find the icon that lets you add content or feeds.
4. Click this icon and a window with a field to add the URL should pop up
5. Place your cursor in this field, right click your mouse and click Paste
6. The URL or address will appear in this field – then click next or add content.
7. Click finish and you are finished.

Once you have set up your preferences the content comes to you without the need to ask for it. Your subscription is anonymous and you don’t have to give out your email address.