Can't access newsgroups other than Microsoft

[Bijan]

Hi,

Sorry about cross posting, but after reading my question you'll see why it
was necessary.

Where I live, the only newsgroup which I can access is on Microsoft's
server; no other newsgroups are offered thru any ISPs (because of POLITIKAL
considerations).

I know that Google offers browser-based newsgroup review and posting, but
its interface is far from the convenience of a traditional newsreader such
as Windows Mail, Outlook Express etc.

Does anyone know of a way to get around this and access a server by a
something like Windows Mail?

Please post a reply and don't respond by email.

Thank you,

Bijan

 

[Bruce Hagen]

Free and Public Usenet News Servers:
http://freenews.maxbaud.net/

Find a news server at:
http://www.newzbot.com/

Eternal September:
http://www.eternal-september.org/

 

[mac]

Hi,

Sorry about cross posting, but after reading my question you'll see why it
was necessary.

Where I live, the only newsgroup which I can access is on Microsoft's
server; no other newsgroups are offered thru any ISPs (because of
POLITIKAL considerations).

I know that Google offers browser-based newsgroup review and posting, but
its interface is far from the convenience of a traditional newsreader such
as Windows Mail, Outlook Express etc.

Does anyone know of a way to get around this and access a server by a
something like Windows Mail?

Please post a reply and don't respond by email.

Thank you,

Bijan

I will endorse the Eternal September news server mentioned by Bruce,
http://www.eternal-september.org/

You have to register with them and they send you the setup instructions.

So use a valid email address for the registration and munge up your address
during the account set up in WM.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi,

Sorry about cross posting, but after reading my question you'll see why it
was necessary.

Where I live, the only newsgroup which I can access is on Microsoft's
server; no other newsgroups are offered thru any ISPs (because of POLITIKAL
considerations).

You don't need a news server offered by your ISP. There are lots of
other news servers available to you--some for a charge and some for
free. Here's a well-known and very good free one that I use:
news.eternal-september.org

Alternatively, do a web search, and find others to choose from.

its interface is far from the convenience of a traditional newsreader such
as Windows Mail, Outlook Express etc.

Does anyone know of a way to get around this and access a server by a
something like Windows Mail?

Windows Mail, or whatever newsreader you use, is completely
irrelevant. Any newsreader can access any of the news servers (or
several of them at once).

 

[Billns]

Hi,

Sorry about cross posting, but after reading my question you'll see why
it was necessary.

Where I live, the only newsgroup which I can access is on Microsoft's
server; no other newsgroups are offered thru any ISPs (because of
POLITIKAL considerations).

I know that Google offers browser-based newsgroup review and posting,
but its interface is far from the convenience of a traditional
newsreader such as Windows Mail, Outlook Express etc.

Does anyone know of a way to get around this and access a server by a
something like Windows Mail?

Please post a reply and don't respond by email.

Thank you,

Bijan

I use Thunderbird to access Microsoft, OpenOffice, Mozilla, and AIOE
servers. Works just fine. Verizon, my ISP, dropped .alt groups a year or
so ago and later dropped all newsgroups.

Bill

 

[Brian]

Hi,

Thank you for all of you who took the time to reply. I hadn't used Usenet
for well over a decade!

Per instructions, I registered with eternal.September.org and set up Windows
mail. It works wonderful with the snail dial up account I have.

Thank you all,

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi,

Sorry about cross posting, but after reading my question you'll see why it
was necessary.

Where I live, the only newsgroup which I can access is on Microsoft's
server; no other newsgroups are offered thru any ISPs (because of
POLITIKAL considerations).

I know that Google offers browser-based newsgroup review and posting, but
its interface is far from the convenience of a traditional newsreader such
as Windows Mail, Outlook Express etc.

Does anyone know of a way to get around this and access a server by a
something like Windows Mail?

Please post a reply and don't respond by email.

Thank you,

Bijan

Many ISPs have dropped Usenet services, and most say that it's for legal
reasons (I suppose this can be described as "political". The idea is that
the easiest way to avoid potential liability for things such as hosting a
group that somehow gets kiddie porn, is to not carry the groups at all. In
my area, the big ISPs dropped them nearly four years ago. Not that this
was much of a loss, because they'd been showing no interest in maintaining
the servers anyway.

The way around this is to find 3rd party Usenet services. You can get
quite reasonable service for about $5 - $8/ month. there are free servers,
but group count varies wildly, many do not allow posting, and performance
can be an issue.

Google "Usenet Servers" and "Free Usenet Servers".

HTH
-pk

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Many ISPs have dropped Usenet services, and most say that it's for legal
reasons (I suppose this can be described as "political". The idea is that
the easiest way to avoid potential liability for things such as hosting a
group that somehow gets kiddie porn, is to not carry the groups at all. In
my area, the big ISPs dropped them nearly four years ago. Not that this
was much of a loss, because they'd been showing no interest in maintaining
the servers anyway.

The way around this is to find 3rd party Usenet services. You can get
quite reasonable service for about $5 - $8/ month. there are free servers,
but group count varies wildly, many do not allow posting, and performance
can be an issue.

Everything you say above is true, but I'll mention
news.eternal-september.org again. I find it to be excellent as well as
free. I have no performance problems with it, it allows posting, and
it has all the newsgroups that I want.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hmm, curious name.

Is "September" some kind of inside joke?




-- Steven L.

No, "Eternal September" is. Something to do with what happens every
September when new students get online.

I have forgotten the details, but I recall that I learned them a few
months ago on Google or Wikipedia.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hmm, curious name.

Is "September" some kind of inside joke?

Beats me. I don't know why they chose that name.

 

[Some Guy]

Everything you say above is true, but I'll mention
news.eternal-september.org again. I find it to be excellent as well
as free.

I've been using nntp.aioe.org for 3 or 4 years now, and have found it to
be pretty reliable (but with some periods of extended downtime when the
server crashes or is relocated to a different ISP).

Given that eternal-september needs registration (and AIOE doesn't), I'm
curious as to why some of you prefer or think that eternal-september is
a better server compared to aioe.org.

 

[mac]

I've been using nntp.aioe.org for 3 or 4 years now, and have found it to
be pretty reliable (but with some periods of extended downtime when the
server crashes or is relocated to a different ISP).

Given that eternal-september needs registration (and AIOE doesn't), I'm
curious as to why some of you prefer or think that eternal-september is
a better server compared to aioe.org.

I don't think anyone said that it was a better server than any other, only
that it was a good server.
YMMV?

Steve

 

[John Raser]

Thank you for posting this thread. It dealt with a matter that concerned me.

 

[kraut]

I've been using nntp.aioe.org for 3 or 4 years now, and have found it to
be pretty reliable (but with some periods of extended downtime when the
server crashes or is relocated to a different ISP).

Given that eternal-september needs registration (and AIOE doesn't), I'm
curious as to why some of you prefer or think that eternal-september is
a better server compared to aioe.org.

Maybe for the reasons you just stated above?!?!?

"with some periods of extended downtime when the
server crashes or is relocated to a different ISP"

I been using eternal-september for some time now and it has run great
and other then a name change from Motzarella.org to eternal-september
it has been same place and great service since I joined them.