Are you saying there's another solution, short of upgrading our hotel's
internet service?

I doubt you need to upgrade your hotel's Internet service even to get email
and newsgroups *through your own ISP*.

Our hotel DSL lines are provided by Qwest. Our ISP is Mediacom, a
cable-modem company (which we have at home). It would be an extra
charge each month for email and newsgroup access through Qwest at the
hotel -- times two DSL accounts -- which makes little sense if it's
just for me to screw around on Usenet between phone calls.... ;-)

Google Groups actually isn't half bad, once you get used to it. It
doesn't offer the same level of filtering as Outlook (Express), but
I've only kill-filed one person in my 8+ years here, so that doesn't
bother me. And the search features can be quite valuable.

Newsgroups you already have an offer for free access, and email you can
probably mooch one if you ask.

If we're talking about Martin Hotze, I don't recall him offering me
free access to anything. I could be wrong, of course.

Web-based email takes a bit getting used to, but after a while it's
kind of nice having your email stored on a central server that is
accessible from anywhere, rather than downloading your email onto your
computer, ala Outlook (Express).
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"