Recommended USENET newsgroup access

Guest
OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.

Thanks!

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header
above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is
included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the
FAQs.
 
sam@ece.drexel.edu wrote:

OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.

Thanks!

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header
above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is
included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the
FAQs.
I'm disappointed to hear that. My ISP dropped usenet recently and I
Click to expand...
have been using (including right now) news.motzarella.org, which is
free with registration. For free without registration, there's
news.aioe.org. I heard nothing but good things about news.individual.net
which I believe costs only 10 Euro/year. There are many others.
 
Bryce wrote:

<snip>

My ISP dropped usenet recently and I
have been using (including right now) news.motzarella.org, which is
free with registration. For free without registration, there's
news.aioe.org.
Click to expand...
Search the archives of this N.G. before recommending 'aioe.org';
recent unfortunate activity from its users resulted in that
serivce dropping sci.electronics.repair.

Michael
 
msg wrote:
Bryce wrote:

snip

My ISP dropped usenet recently and I
have been using (including right now) news.motzarella.org, which is
free with registration. For free without registration, there's
news.aioe.org.

Search the archives of this N.G. before recommending 'aioe.org';
recent unfortunate activity from its users resulted in that
serivce dropping sci.electronics.repair.

Michael
Click to expand...
Hmm, this is a test posting to sci.electronics.repair from aioe.org due
to the above claim.
 
Lava wrote:
msg wrote:
Bryce wrote:

snip

My ISP dropped usenet recently and I
have been using (including right now) news.motzarella.org, which is
free with registration. For free without registration, there's
news.aioe.org.

Search the archives of this N.G. before recommending 'aioe.org';
recent unfortunate activity from its users resulted in that
serivce dropping sci.electronics.repair.

Michael

Hmm, this is a test posting to sci.electronics.repair from aioe.org due
to the above claim.
Click to expand...

AIOE blocked it for a while after complaints about hundreds of forged
messages were posted through their servers. In fact, all of the
sci.electronics.* groups were blocked.


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

Sporadic E is the Earth's aluminum foil beanie for the 'global warming'
sheep.
 
Sam,

I've heard good things about news.individual.net.

It costs, but not much, and is spoken highly of.

Good luck.


Martin
 
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Lava wrote:
msg wrote:
Bryce wrote:

snip

My ISP dropped usenet recently and I
have been using (including right now) news.motzarella.org, which is
free with registration. For free without registration, there's
news.aioe.org.
Search the archives of this N.G. before recommending 'aioe.org';
recent unfortunate activity from its users resulted in that
serivce dropping sci.electronics.repair.

Michael
Hmm, this is a test posting to sci.electronics.repair from aioe.org due
to the above claim.


AIOE blocked it for a while after complaints about hundreds of forged
messages were posted through their servers. In fact, all of the
sci.electronics.* groups were blocked.


That just proves that there are idiots all over the place.
Click to expand...
Alt.os.linux.ubuntu and c.o.linux.advocacy have 2 or 3 users who
routinely cross-post junk. The posters should be kicked off with an all
news groups ban on them, and not destroy it for all the serious users.
Keeping a ban filter on offenders IP's would be much simpler.
Bill Baka
 
Bill wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote:

AIOE blocked it for a while after complaints about hundreds of forged
messages were posted through their servers. In fact, all of the
sci.electronics.* groups were blocked.


That just proves that there are idiots all over the place.
Alt.os.linux.ubuntu and c.o.linux.advocacy have 2 or 3 users who
routinely cross-post junk. The posters should be kicked off with an all
news groups ban on them, and not destroy it for all the serious users.
Keeping a ban filter on offenders IP's would be much simpler.
Bill Baka
Click to expand...

I didn't say they were cross posting, they were disrupting most
threads by forging the names of regular users. The troll was doing his
best to disrupt all of the sci.electronics newsgroups, till AIOE got
tired of all the reports. AIOE doesn't require an account, or
verification of your identity. It was designed for anonymous trolling,
from the ground, up and extremely easy to abuse. Most people using
Newsproxy drop all messages posted from AIOE, so there is little or no
chance of it happening again. That also makes it fairly useless for day
to day use on the sci.electronics.* newsgroups. I have newsproxy set to
flag AIOE at the moment, or I wouldn't have seen the 'test' post.
Several other free NNTP servers are filtered out, as well as Google
groups and trolling newsgroups that cross post to start crap.


As far as your problems on Linux newsgroups, it doesn't surprise me
one bit. The shitty attitude some Linux users have is the perfect
breeding ground for crap like that.


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

Sporadic E is the Earth's aluminum foil beanie for the 'global warming'
sheep.
 
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Bill wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
AIOE blocked it for a while after complaints about hundreds of forged
messages were posted through their servers. In fact, all of the
sci.electronics.* groups were blocked.


That just proves that there are idiots all over the place.
Alt.os.linux.ubuntu and c.o.linux.advocacy have 2 or 3 users who
routinely cross-post junk. The posters should be kicked off with an all
news groups ban on them, and not destroy it for all the serious users.
Keeping a ban filter on offenders IP's would be much simpler.
Bill Baka


I didn't say they were cross posting, they were disrupting most
threads by forging the names of regular users. The troll was doing his
best to disrupt all of the sci.electronics newsgroups, till AIOE got
tired of all the reports. AIOE doesn't require an account, or
verification of your identity. It was designed for anonymous trolling,
from the ground, up and extremely easy to abuse. Most people using
Newsproxy drop all messages posted from AIOE, so there is little or no
chance of it happening again. That also makes it fairly useless for day
to day use on the sci.electronics.* newsgroups. I have newsproxy set to
flag AIOE at the moment, or I wouldn't have seen the 'test' post.
Several other free NNTP servers are filtered out, as well as Google
groups and trolling newsgroups that cross post to start crap.
Click to expand...
I hear that and agree since some jokers are now posting porn Spam on
multiple groups. If AIOE is that open then it is basically useless to
the serious core group users.
As far as your problems on Linux newsgroups, it doesn't surprise me
one bit. The shitty attitude some Linux users have is the perfect
breeding ground for crap like that.


I use both, and DOS even, so I don't have the attitude, but I do get
Click to expand...
shit for posting from XP if that's what I'm doing for the day. Some of
them actually check the header to see what system I'm using and call me
a Win-tard or some other junk from some teenager. They think the Linux
command line is the only one and are too young to realize that some of
us have actually used 'scripts', originating from the DOS batch file
ability.
Cheers,
Bill Baka
 
Bill wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Bill wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
AIOE blocked it for a while after complaints about hundreds of forged
messages were posted through their servers. In fact, all of the
sci.electronics.* groups were blocked.


That just proves that there are idiots all over the place.
Alt.os.linux.ubuntu and c.o.linux.advocacy have 2 or 3 users who
routinely cross-post junk. The posters should be kicked off with an all
news groups ban on them, and not destroy it for all the serious users.
Keeping a ban filter on offenders IP's would be much simpler.
Bill Baka


I didn't say they were cross posting, they were disrupting most
threads by forging the names of regular users. The troll was doing his
best to disrupt all of the sci.electronics newsgroups, till AIOE got
tired of all the reports. AIOE doesn't require an account, or
verification of your identity. It was designed for anonymous trolling,
from the ground, up and extremely easy to abuse. Most people using
Newsproxy drop all messages posted from AIOE, so there is little or no
chance of it happening again. That also makes it fairly useless for day
to day use on the sci.electronics.* newsgroups. I have newsproxy set to
flag AIOE at the moment, or I wouldn't have seen the 'test' post.
Several other free NNTP servers are filtered out, as well as Google
groups and trolling newsgroups that cross post to start crap.

I hear that and agree since some jokers are now posting porn Spam on
multiple groups. If AIOE is that open then it is basically useless to
the serious core group users.
Click to expand...

That was my point, exactly. If almost no one sees it, it's useless.


As far as your problems on Linux newsgroups, it doesn't surprise me
one bit. The shitty attitude some Linux users have is the perfect
breeding ground for crap like that.


I use both, and DOS even, so I don't have the attitude, but I do get
shit for posting from XP if that's what I'm doing for the day. Some of
them actually check the header to see what system I'm using and call me
a Win-tard or some other junk from some teenager. They think the Linux
command line is the only one and are too young to realize that some of
us have actually used 'scripts', originating from the DOS batch file
ability.
Click to expand...

Or that some of us used computers before they were even born. Too bad
I lost that copy of Windows 1.0, they would really freak. ;-)

I have a couple systems with Linux on them, but I can't do a lot of
the work I need on them, so they are rarely used. In fact, I keep a Win
ME computer around for some OCR and scanning software. It does things
software for newer OS don't, and I have multiple scanners and spare
hardware to keep it on my network, for years. I can scan a wrinkled,
stained old schematic or data sheet and clean it up in a few minutes,
where the newer software has large blocks blacked out. The HP XP
compatible scanners and software I have aren't TWAIN compliant, or work
with Paperport without a lot of file conversions.


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

Sporadic E is the Earth's aluminum foil beanie for the 'global warming'
sheep.
 
On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:45:07 -0700 (PDT) sam@ece.drexel.edu wrote:

OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.
Click to expand...
U Wisconsin did the same thing a couple years ago, so I dropped out of
newsgroups for awhile. Eventually, I went from a dialup connection to
DSL and discovered that my new ISP (AT&T) has a newsgroup service that
comes free with the DSL.

Depending on your ISP, you may have the same.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------
 
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Bill wrote:
I use both, and DOS even, so I don't have the attitude, but I do get
shit for posting from XP if that's what I'm doing for the day. Some of
them actually check the header to see what system I'm using and call me
a Win-tard or some other junk from some teenager. They think the Linux
command line is the only one and are too young to realize that some of
us have actually used 'scripts', originating from the DOS batch file
ability.


Or that some of us used computers before they were even born. Too bad
I lost that copy of Windows 1.0, they would really freak. ;-)
Click to expand...
I started with 3.1 since I loved the command line and did not actually
ever want to use Windows, but it was forced upon me for work. That
windows you could crash and still be able to re-boot to DOS and fix it.
I have a couple systems with Linux on them, but I can't do a lot of
the work I need on them, so they are rarely used. In fact, I keep a Win
ME computer around for some OCR and scanning software. It does things
software for newer OS don't, and I have multiple scanners and spare
hardware to keep it on my network, for years. I can scan a wrinkled,
stained old schematic or data sheet and clean it up in a few minutes,
where the newer software has large blocks blacked out. The HP XP
compatible scanners and software I have aren't TWAIN compliant, or work
with Paperport without a lot of file conversions.


Same here, all 3 of my scanners will only work with windows and don't
Click to expand...
have any UNIX/Linux type drivers. 1995 HP SCSI, 2000 Visioneer on LPT1,
and a 2 year old HP negative and paper scanner on USB.
Only my HP printer can be used in Linux, and yes the windows software is
still better for touching things up, and OCR.
And, as you said, Paperport is much better than even the HP software.
Cheers,
Bill Baka
 
On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:45:07 -0700 (PDT), sam@ece.drexel.edu wrote:

OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.

Thanks!

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header
above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is
included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the
FAQs.
Click to expand...
Have a look at http://easynews.com/

Easynews Classic: $9.98 for 20 Gigabytes or 30 days, which ever comes first and
up to 50 days of retention.

I have been with them 8 years now and am very happy.



Thor
 
On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:24:55 -0400, Thor <Thor@nospam.net> wrote:

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:45:07 -0700 (PDT), sam@ece.drexel.edu wrote:

OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.

Thanks!

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header
above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is
included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the
FAQs.


Have a look at http://easynews.com/

Easynews Classic: $9.98 for 20 Gigabytes or 30 days, which ever comes first and
up to 50 days of retention.

I have been with them 8 years now and am very happy.



Thor
Click to expand...

The retention for classic is going up to 100 days, they haven't updated their
web page as yet. They have several methods of access , not just the web page
interface.



Thor
 
Bill wrote:
I started with 3.1 since I loved the command line and did not actually
ever want to use Windows, but it was forced upon me for work. That
windows you could crash and still be able to re-boot to DOS and fix it.
Click to expand...

Windows 1.0 was a joke. Somewhere I have an early review where it
stated something like, "Windows is the worst piece of crap ever foisted
on a computer user". 1.0 was a crude shell over an early version of DOS
for the 640 kB XT & early 286 computers.


Same here, all 3 of my scanners will only work with windows and don't
have any UNIX/Linux type drivers. 1995 HP SCSI, 2000 Visioneer on LPT1,
and a 2 year old HP negative and paper scanner on USB.
Only my HP printer can be used in Linux, and yes the windows software is
still better for touching things up, and OCR.
And, as you said, Paperport is much better than even the HP software.
Click to expand...

I was using my Visioneer 4400 USB scanner to scan parts for my
website, before I bought a camera with a good macro function.

http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.terrell/Ephar.html shows a few items. I
got a decent image, with a good depth of field. Some of the items were
close to an inch high. The trick was to lay a white cotton tee shirt
over the item, and use my florescent ring light about six inches above
the shirt to provide a diffused backlight.

I have several early HP SCSI scanners, but haven't tested them. They
take up so much room on my 3' * 5' computer table that I only have room
for one computer. One has the adapter to convert 35mm slides to scans.


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

Sporadic E is the Earth's aluminum foil beanie for the 'global warming'
sheep.
 
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Bill wrote:
I started with 3.1 since I loved the command line and did not actually
ever want to use Windows, but it was forced upon me for work. That
windows you could crash and still be able to re-boot to DOS and fix it.


Windows 1.0 was a joke. Somewhere I have an early review where it
stated something like, "Windows is the worst piece of crap ever foisted
on a computer user". 1.0 was a crude shell over an early version of DOS
for the 640 kB XT & early 286 computers.
Click to expand...
Was that EGA level pictures way back then?
Same here, all 3 of my scanners will only work with windows and don't
have any UNIX/Linux type drivers. 1995 HP SCSI, 2000 Visioneer on LPT1,
and a 2 year old HP negative and paper scanner on USB.
Only my HP printer can be used in Linux, and yes the windows software is
still better for touching things up, and OCR.
And, as you said, Paperport is much better than even the HP software.


I was using my Visioneer 4400 USB scanner to scan parts for my
website, before I bought a camera with a good macro function.
Click to expand...
Same here, especially if you want to dell anything on Ebay.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.terrell/Ephar.html shows a few items. I
got a decent image, with a good depth of field. Some of the items were
close to an inch high. The trick was to lay a white cotton tee shirt
over the item, and use my florescent ring light about six inches above
the shirt to provide a diffused backlight.

I have several early HP SCSI scanners, but haven't tested them. They
take up so much room on my 3' * 5' computer table that I only have room
for one computer. One has the adapter to convert 35mm slides to scans.
Click to expand...
Pretty much the same size here , 33" x 5' and it is 'FULL'. 2 scanners
stacked, the old, big, document H.P. scanned and it's SCSI card are
stored. With the scanners, printer, KB, big CRT monitor, and the tower
case my desk if full up and I can barely get any paper on it unless I
flip the keyboard on it's side for a while.

Bill Baka
 
Bill wrote:
Was that EGA level pictures way back then?
Click to expand...

Hercules monochrome & CGA. I think EGA was a year or two later. Did
you ever see an IBM PGA monitor?


I was using my Visioneer 4400 USB scanner to scan parts for my
website, before I bought a camera with a good macro function.

Same here, especially if you want to sell anything on Ebay.
Click to expand...

I considered that, but I'm not sure if it's worth all the trouble. I
give a lot of things away on the local Freecycle, rather than fool with
boxing things and dragging them to the post office. I am 100% disabled,
and so far, it hasn't been worth the pain or trouble for a few dollars.


Pretty much the same size here , 33" x 5' and it is 'FULL'. 2 scanners
stacked, the old, big, document H.P. scanned and it's SCSI card are
stored. With the scanners, printer, KB, big CRT monitor, and the tower
case my desk if full up and I can barely get any paper on it unless I
flip the keyboard on it's side for a while.
Click to expand...

I'm using a solid oak dining room table for the computers, 21" CRT
monitor (From the HOP website: A 21-inch FD Trinitron tube with a
19.8-inch viewable image, 0.24 mm aperture grill pitch for excellent
graphics and an anti-glare coating to minimize reflection. Supports
video modes up to 2048 x 1536 at 75 Hz refresh rates. Two video inputs
to connect to two PCs.) and the Visioneer 4400 scanner.

I have an old "Telephone stand' next to the table to hold the laser
printer and printing supplies, and a set of plastic shelves on the other
end to hold all the books, software and misc items like the digital
camera, cables and blank media. I am going to replace that with a four
foot wide wire restraint type shelving to hold the computers, UPS and a
second monitor for when I have more than four computers in use. I will
also have room for the photo printer and a few other toys. :)

Here is an example of the shelving:
<http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=168602>
The price is reasonable, but it is a heavy box, and difficult for me to
handle. At least my current pickup truck is big enough to haul it home.
I had to have the last one loaded in the truck at the store, then unpack
it and carry in the pieces, but I made it. :)

--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

Sporadic E is the Earth's aluminum foil beanie for the 'global warming'
sheep.
 
On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:45:07 -0700 (PDT), sam@ece.drexel.edu wrote:

OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.
Click to expand...
From what you're saying, you used to use gnus on a shell server operated
by those universities? I think you're not going to get around running a
local news client, but (on any platform you care to name) that *can* be
gnus/emacs.

Jasper
 
On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 23:39:04 -0600, "Mike Anton"
<manton@nocompusmart.spamab.ca> wrote:

I've been using news.astraweb.com as of late, mostly for binaries groups
though, since my ISP dropped binary groups (damn Telus).
What I like about them, is you can buy a 110GB block for $25, that never
expires. I would imagine if you mostly use text news groups that this would
last almost forever.
Click to expand...
Not so much "almost". A couple dozen text newsgroups is likely to be under
a megabyte a day, certainly under ten. So we could easily be talking about
30 to 300 years or so.. which is likely to be longer than the lifetime of
the company in question.

Jasper
 
Jasper Janssen wrote:
On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:45:07 -0700 (PDT), sam@ece.drexel.edu wrote:

OK, a bit off topic but may apply to others at universities as they
upgrade their computer
systems.

So UPenn and Drexel have pulled the plug on their USENET news
servers. I'm looking for recommendations on newsgroup access,
preferably via GNUS, which many consider antiquated, as far as I can
tell, it is 10 times faster to read and post than using the fancy GUI
"modern" alternatives.

From what you're saying, you used to use gnus on a shell server operated
by those universities? I think you're not going to get around running a
local news client, but (on any platform you care to name) that *can* be
gnus/emacs.
Click to expand...
I had been using emacs/gnus accessing their local news server. The
server was canned.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header
above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is
included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the
FAQs.
 
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