I've got a different ISP at the office than from home (they're both DSL/phone lines from two different phone companies), and I've used them both for Usenet access with variable results. . A few weeks ago my Usenet access from the office wasn't working. I played around with it, set "New SErver Login" to "No Login Required" and now it works (their system knows my IP address, so they know I'm a real DSL customer). I don't know what broke before.
A few years ago Frontiernet's (the service from home) Usenet server was dropping posts over 15k, and there was one group whose FAQ posts I was NOT picking up! I discovered this by doing some posting on alt.test - larger posts just never showed up, though I could see them through Google Groups. I emailed them, and though they knew what Usenet was, they didn't seem to understand or care about my question, but I noticed more recently that that "feature" was fixed.
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I can't wait to read the rest of this thread...