Newsgroups

[efilflah]

So, do you use them?

I've never used them, but given the fact that the UK DSL market is in dire straits with rip-off capped packages and ISPs throttle you silly, leechathon software like newsgroups are looking mighty attractive.

They're not particularly user friendly from what I've been trying to get to grips with (xnews specifically), but I can see the benefits of dedicated servers as opposed to other p2p like Bittorrent for example (no ratios, no seeders to rely on etc.).

Care to help a newbie out?

What software (newsreader) do you use?
What external search sites do you use?
What news servers are you a member of?

..and so on and so forth.

I really want to get into them, but with the learning curve and the fact that most of the software and sites are only available when you lay down hard cash, I'm having difficulties.

Newsgroups away!

*whoosh*

[smash]

halflife backwards man- PM, email or AIM me and I can get you everything you need.

To answer publicly:

I use Forte Free Agent. You will most likely need a .rar format uncompressor and QuickPar (free software) to recompile fragmented files in messages. The Par tool is necessary because those formats fill in missing pieces.

Your newsgroup is provided by your ISP. It is likely to be news.yourdomain.ext and you use your account username and password. This can be different, however, depending on your ISP and especially for you limey bastards.

There are service based news agencies out there. I've always thought they were ridiculously expensive.

[efilflah]

halflife backwards man- PM, email or AIM me and I can get you everything you need.

coo.

To answer publicly:

I use Forte Free Agent. You will most likely need a .rar format uncompressor and QuickPar (free software) to recompile fragmented files in messages. The Par tool is necessary because those formats fill in missing pieces.

Your newsgroup is provided by your ISP. It is likely to be news.yourdomain.ext and you use your account username and password. This can be different, however, depending on your ISP and especially for you limey bastards.

There are service based news agencies out there. I've always thought they were ridiculously expensive.

I've gotten as far as connecting to newsgroups and perusing the ridiculous amount of crazy articles they have there. A lot of which are completely irrelevant to my purposes. I was reading about those PAR files, didn't quite get it but I'm still learnin.

My ISP's news server is pretty weak from what I gather, but it'll be enough to learn on for now I think. I agree that paid news server access is a rip-off, but lack of options may lead me to actually fork out some of my dwindling cash.

[smash]

Your questions were somewhat beyond my limitied experiences. The Newsgroups have really fallen by the wayside (although it appears the best way to obtain pirate Howard Stern broadcasts/videos) really only .jpg and some .mp3 are worthwhile on there. The par will make sense enough (I know how to use it and what it does, that's all) with time.

What are you looking for?

BTW - yes, the newsgroups are riddled with spam messages. Whatever you do, do NOT put your real email address anywhere in a message. Trust me.

[efilflah]

Your questions were somewhat beyond my limitied experiences. The Newsgroups have really fallen by the wayside (although it appears the best way to obtain pirate Howard Stern broadcasts/videos) really only .jpg and some .mp3 are worthwhile on there. The par will make sense enough (I know how to use it and what it does, that's all) with time.

What are you looking for?

BTW - yes, the newsgroups are riddled with spam messages. Whatever you do, do NOT put your real email address anywhere in a message. Trust me.

Ya that's good advice. I won't do that then