I remember some years ago when one could configue an email program like Outlook or Outlook express for newsgroups. you needed to put in some numbers for an NNTP server or someting like that.
Any idea if that's still possible ? I can't see paying one of those websites for it, because the people who make Usenet happen don't get that money do they ? Plus, these days I am on a low budget....
I access USENET using Tbird and one of the "free" NNTP servers (AIOE in my case). No reason you shouldn't be able to do the same!
If you have a "shell" account on a local server, you can probably go *that* route as well -- trn(1), etc. -- though I find the Tbird approach easier for casual browsing.
Many ISPs provide free NNTP service, you may contact them for more information. If they don't offer it, or you find it lacking, you can find another. I paid a small one-time fee for 50gb (plenty of bandwidth for text-based) from . The site appears to be down at the moment. There are few such sites.
AIOE is fine. I don't think I even had to register. I've been trying a few news readers and have settled on knode.
formatting link
The problem I had with Tbunderbird is it didn't always wrap the other persons post and then AIOE would reject the post for exceeding their line width limit.
Knode at least warns you when you exceed the line width, as in the case of the link above. But AIOE doesn't seem to mind long links, just text.
There are too many flakes, trolls and otherwise undesirables that post using aioe.org. I've created a filter so that I see nothing coming from it, no matter who the poster is.
Not sure what you mean by "the people who make Usenet happen." There is no overarching Usenet server - it's a distributed network. Usenet consists entirely of the collection of NNTP servers, which cost money to provide.
Who in their right mind would want anything other than Google Groups? It works just fine, now if only the people with antiquated inferior news readers could get with the program...
On Sat, 04 Jan 2014 13:27:35 +1100, Sylvia Else Gave us:
Which used to be just another part of being a respectable service provider, and was just part of their CODB.
Nowadays, the govt and other pussified factions have conspired to end Usenet, so we see more and more nodes evaporating, especially among larger ISPs. Blame the retarded phone companies for horning in on the access, and then dumping the services we once enjoyed. The ops and maint is pennies compared to what the bastards drag in.
I don't believe registration is required. AFAICT, you can change your "address" at will (though your IP is tagged to your posts)
Yup. AIOE also limits number of groups to which you can post a particular message. Reasonable -- esp in light of folks who want to plaster their messages across every group they know of! (regardless of content/charter)
I will either insert newlines in these offending posts -- or, clip them at some insanely short line length (if you can't take the time to format your post, you shouldn't complain when someone "abbreviates" it!)
I much enjoy being able to work offline without being tethered to the news server as I fetch, read, reply to each message.
Sun got it wrong; the network is NOT the computer!
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