How to use newsgroups? noob edition

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I'm trying to subscribe to alt.humor using the Windows mail newsreader. How
do I know what the news server is called?

Much help and maybe a walkthrough would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
bob said:
I'm trying to subscribe to alt.humor using the Windows mail newsreader.
How
do I know what the news server is called?

Much help and maybe a walkthrough would be appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You have to check with your ISP, Internet Service Provider, to see if they
provide a Usenet server. If yes, they should have the information about the
server name and it usually requires your ISP user name and password to
access. When you set up the server, you'll be asked if you wish to download
the list of newsgroups on that server which you would be able to scroll in
order to find the newsgroup you are seeking.

If your ISP doesn't provide such a server, you can try using Google groups
which would be web based or you could subscribe to a service which
specifically provides Usenet access. There are several such services, they
are not free but some offer huge access for a relatively small monthly
subscription rate that usually has a daily or monthly limit on downloads.
 
You would typically get that information from your ISP.
Looks like your ISP is AT&T/SBC/PacBell DSL, which is also
my ISP. I use the news server news.prodigy.net. For username
and password use your primary SBC/Yahoo email address and
its associated password.

Gary VanderMolen
 
Michael Solomon said:
You have to check with your ISP, Internet Service Provider, to see if they
provide a Usenet server. If yes, they should have the information about
the server name and it usually requires your ISP user name and password to
access. When you set up the server, you'll be asked if you wish to
download the list of newsgroups on that server which you would be able to
scroll in order to find the newsgroup you are seeking.

If your ISP doesn't provide such a server, you can try using Google groups
which would be web based or you could subscribe to a service which
specifically provides Usenet access. There are several such services,
they are not free but some offer huge access for a relatively small
monthly subscription rate that usually has a daily or monthly limit on
downloads.
Click to expand...

From time to time free accounts can be had from http://www.datemas.de/news/
 
Julian said:
From time to time free accounts can be had from
http://www.datemas.de/news/
Click to expand...

Thanks, Julian, I should have mentioned there are some free news servers
available as well as Google Groups for that matter. Of course, Google is
web based and many of the free servers are quite limited as to the groups
they carry.
 
Michael Solomon said:
Thanks, Julian, I should have mentioned there are some free news servers
available as well as Google Groups for that matter. Of course, Google is
web based and many of the free servers are quite limited as to the groups
they carry.
Click to expand...

Free newsservers are a dying breed and now very few and far between.
A good (comprehensive) newsserver is for me a crucial feature of an ISPs
offering. It was the crucial factor in my abandoning AOL which initially
was offering very competitive broadband deals. Their utterly horrendous
web interface I could live with by ignoring it but not their approach to
usenet.

Usenet is a wonderful resource.
 
Free newsservers are a dying breed and now very few and far between.
A good (comprehensive) newsserver is for me a crucial feature of an
ISPs offering. It was the crucial factor in my abandoning AOL which
initially was offering very competitive broadband deals. Their
utterly horrendous web interface I could live with by ignoring it but
not their approach to usenet.

Usenet is a wonderful resource.
Click to expand...

When I first moved to broadband, my carrier was "Verizon Avenue," a sort of
offshoot of Verizon; this was DSL. Verizon has their own Usenet server but,
as it turned out, Verizon Avenue did not. I think I was paying $24.95 a
month; $19.95 for the first four months!:-)

Anyway, I found this place for $9.95 a month:
http://www.newsgroups.st/

There's a daily limit on downloads but it's pretty liberal and you don't
have to worry about using up a monthly quota. If you go over your daily
limit, you only lose access until the following day. I don't think I ever
came close to the limit, not sure what it is now but as I recall you could
download a gig or so from each of 3 servers.
 
Michael Solomon said:
When I first moved to broadband, my carrier was "Verizon Avenue," a sort
of offshoot of Verizon; this was DSL. Verizon has their own Usenet server
but, as it turned out, Verizon Avenue did not. I think I was paying
$24.95 a month; $19.95 for the first four months!:-)

Anyway, I found this place for $9.95 a month:
http://www.newsgroups.st/
Click to expand...

A relatively good deal.
There's a daily limit on downloads but it's pretty liberal and you don't
have to worry about using up a monthly quota. If you go over your daily
limit, you only lose access until the following day. I don't think I ever
came close to the limit, not sure what it is now but as I recall you could
download a gig or so from each of 3 servers.
Click to expand...

Somewhere else to look...
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.free.newsservers/topics?lnk=sg&hl=en

And there's always http://www.teranews.com/ which offers a free service
of up to 50gb a day (but sticks poxy ads onto every post sent) which is
plenty
for text only.
 
Michael Solomon said:
That's 50MB a day for Teranews, Julian. Of course, if the user is only
going to download text, 50MB a day might be more than enough.
Click to expand...

Oops... yes. 50mb.
 
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