"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
Dudley Henriques wrote:

I used Thunderbird as well before RCN stopped handling Usenet. The
only trouble with TB is that being a mail program and news reader, it
still requires an ISP that handles Usenet. With Google Groups you
don't need an ISP who handles Usenet as it's an online reader. If you
have online access, you have Usenet :-))

You don't need an ISP that offers Usenet . There are a number of
newsservers available, some that you pay for, and some that are free. The
free servers typically only carry text groups, with no binaries.

Here, for example, is a list of free servers:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp..._News_Servers/

The most popular are Albasani, Motzarella, and AIOE:

http://albasani.net/
http://www.eternal-september.org/
http://www.news.aioe.org/

Using a newsserver means you can use a newsreader, rather than the more
awkward web access, but the downside, as you mention, is that you need the
software loaded, and don't have the universal access of a web browser.

Thanks for those. ATT/Bellsouth have announced that they are terminating
usenet services in the middle of next month and I was considering the
possibility of saying goodbye for a while. I took a look at Google Groups
when Dudley mentioned it, but at the moment the standard NNTP interface of
eternal-september seems much easier to use.

So, thanks again to both of you and also to Mike Ash for pointing out the
need to sign-up first even when there is a free service involved.

Peter