Opera supports FTP by allowing downloads. The IETF are also the ones that maintain the FTP protocol. Anything from the absurd to the bizarre, from politics to computers, from hobbies to interests, from the present to the future is being discussed. There are currently more than 20.000 individual newsgroups listed. Have your pick, and take part in intercontinental communication.
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For information on setting up Opera 5.0's news reader, please see the news reader directions document in this Help. In short, it's a way of authenticating none, one or both of the participants communicating over an encrypted connection. The two versions supported by Opera, SSL v2 and SSL v3 are the de facto standard for security on the Internet today. Opera 3.50 was the first commercial level web browser to incorporate TLS 1.0, and Opera 5.0 continues this support. They cannot store or open viruses on your hard drive, contrary to what they are often made out to be by people who do not know what a cookie really is.