Comcast Dropping Usenet

It isn't a sig file without the sig delimiter. That combination of two dashes, a space and a return allow proper news readers to automatically trim the signature when you reply to a message. ANything else is just inline text, no matter why it is there. Your news reader software should automatically add the delimiter, followed by a simple text file you create as your signature.

You are using Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) which is about six years old. Even so, it should support a proper sig file. What you are using right now is not a sig delimiter. It is missing the space after the dashes.

Internet service is available via satellite, a friend of mine in a rural area has it.

I still use dialup. Nothing wrong with dialup, it teaches one the virtue of patience, and with the right provider it is very inexpensive!

I don't really have any interest in having a fiber optic connection to my home, and do not believe taxpayer dollars should be spent on such a thing.

No alternative at all ? Cable or ADSL, whichever Comcast isn't. If none then presumably the internet you already have ?

You install a 'news reader' program - the simpler the better IMHO, I use Netscape

Graham

Don't you have different carriers and systems like cable vs DSL in the USA ? Obviously 'outback' may be difficult.

Graham

would

to

There's lots wrong with dialup when you're downloading multi-megabyte files.

Yeah, I guess the interstate highways were a really lousy idea, too. Eisenhower, that damned socialist.

The others aren't available in my area.

would

to

DSL is not available in my area. The phone company uses multiplexed lines that can't carry high-speed digital.

The lines can certainly handle digital. It's how the phone company chooses to use them that can't. ;-)

Check out Motzarella.com, free Usenet access. I'm using it since Cox's Usenet servers have been pretty much useless the past couple of months.

The money has ALREADY been given. The problem is that the ISPs pocketed the cash and haven't delivered:

Good to know. Plus Verizon at least has internet via cell phone towers.

I agree.

I have dsl for a year now. WRT email and Usenet, the extra speed means next to nothing. Its good that webpages are faster, but I used to dl webpages while reading my email or the newsgroups.

What is nice about dsl is it's easier to play radio; and even tv such as the political conventions, where it started even earlier than public tv. But I don't have cable tv

I got a good deal on dsl for teh first 2 years, but I have no idea what they will want to charge me a year from now.

They put in fios here about 3 months ago, and based on the colored dots on teh grass, it seems at least one of my neighbors has subscribed. I live in a middle middle income townhose n'hood and I don't think anyone here can really afford it, but some will buy it.

A) There was no sig (as Google will verify.) It appeared as plain text in the body of your message. Nothing to distinguish it as a sig rather than just more of your post. How was one to know where your text stopped and your sig began? Message-ID:

B) You're taking the trouble to reply. What does that say?

The internet I already have is Comcast. Unless I drop back to the slow-motion hell of dial-up, or move up to a multi-hundred-bucks-a-month fractional T line, there simply IS no alternative. (I've looked into that option, and no matter how I try to diddle the numbers, it just plain ain't feasible - As a ballpark figure, I'd be laying out something on the order of 30 grand for the install, and likely waiting for close to a year for it to happen, before I saw so much as a single byte of data traveling on it.)

Like I said: Ain't communications monopolies wonderful?

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:01:54 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" put finger to keyboard and composed:

My version of agent has no problem seeing mm's dash-dash-space. Something is wrong at your end. Maybe Mozilla strips trailing spaces?

- Franc Zabkar

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:01:54 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" put finger to keyboard and composed:

This is mm's post as seen by Google:

There is definitely a dash-dash-space sig delimiter.

- Franc Zabkar

Were you the OP ?

Well you'll have to stick with comcast and shell out a few shillings for news. I reckon Astraweb's $10 one-off pre-pay deal is good for many years for text groups.

Graham

I have no need to do that. (Of course others might need that capability and they would require a faster connection.)

The internet is of no real importance. Roads are. (As to whether the Interstate Highway System was a good idea, or constitutional, that's a discussion for a different place and time.)

I still do almost everything from a Unix shell, so the extra speed would not be that important to me. Inexpensive DSL is not available in my area and I'm too cheap to pay for cable service.

Oh, if cheap DSL were available here I'd probably get it. But to me the extra speed is just not worth the price of the more expensive-type broadband connections.

I have nothing against fiber-optic per se but am not willing to pay for it. The U.S. is pretty much broke at this point and it's hard to view that as any kind of priority for the use of public funds.

then

groups.

I did that when UPenn dropped USENET, but then someone suggested aioe (nntp.aioe.org) which is currently free, and seems to be just about as good. And no sign-in passowrd.

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