OT- Key Question re newsgroups

[BUB 209]

I've always acessed newsgroups using AOL. Is there any way to access and contribute to these postings using a different service provider? Sometimes my daughter is using the AOL account but I also have Juno.

[Peter Hansen]

There's always Google Groups as a backup (and as an excellent search tool):

that it can take a few hours for posts to show up there.

-Peter

[Andy Dingley]

AOL is rubbish. Almost every service you obtain through them is either deliberately broken in some way, or is just available better and cheaper from somewhere else.

There are several ways:

can use this from any web browser, even through AOL.

Sign up with an ISP that runs a free new server for its customers (these are getting rare though). As with any true Usenet service, you'll need a Usenet client program to run on your own computer. I use Agent, from

(Good, popular, has a useful free demo version)

Sign up with any ISP, then use a free news server from somewhere else. There aren't many of these left, but they're still around (there's a popular one in Berlin).

Buy an account on a paid usenet server. Not expensive, should be very good. I use Supernews, but there's also GigaNews (amongst many others) and even lower-priced text-only services like Gradwell.

[Pounds on Wood]

You will need a newsreader. Most here use Outhouse Express. Then you need an account with Usenet access. Juno probably does not include much if any. In which case you can take a look at

for a free account.

--

[Charlie Self]

Uh, sure, AOL isn't perfect by any stretch, but I'd like to ask when you last used AOL?

Charlie Self "Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Ambrose Bierce

[Andy Dingley]

Last Tuesday (domestic). Sometime in the next week or two (commercially). As a web geek, I have to pay attention to just how their b0rken browsers are mangling my content.

I can't reliably email to AOL users (which is mainly a nuisance for eBay). My UK ISP is a big ADSL broadband provider and AOL have chosen to implement blacklists across large chunks of their IP space, claiming it's because of security concerns over rogue SMTP servers on

0wned home machines. Well thanks for the years of drivel and spam coming _from_ AOL then !

AOL - where every month is September.

[PC Gameplayer]

Yes. Use groups.google.com. In fact, here's the link to take you right to the wreck NG:

[Larry Blanchard]

That's news.individual.net - it's great. You have to sign up and give them a valid email address, but they don't send spam, just rare notices of maintenance outages. And you can always give them a throwaway account like I do

- check it once a week or so for the rare occasion you get a real message on it.

There's also readfreenews.net but they may not be accepting new members.

Neither carries binary groups - just text groups like this one.

[BUB 209]

Thanks to all for the useful answers to my question, I'll put them to good use.