Slashdot Mirror
AT&T Dropping Usenet Netnews; Low-Cost Alternatives?
franknagy writes "This announcement message has appeared in all the news groups on
the AT&T/SBC News Server: 'Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be
offering access to the Usenet netnews service. If you wish to continue
reading Usenet newsgroups, access is available through third-party
vendors.' So what free or low-cost alternatives are available for Netnews and
the NNTP services for clients?"
Low-cost is a subjective term, and it really depends on how much you use it, but Giganews is rock solid. Super fast (I can get 20Mb sustained -- that's my connection max) and over a year retention on binaries.
I've never found a free one that was worth a damn, but there are several pay alternatives that are quite good. I'm currently with easynews.com.
If you don't need the binary groups, I'd bet the chances of finding a usable free one will be much higher, though.
I use Astraweb as its currently the best unlimited monthly payment going
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html
$11/mo
SSL
Unlimited downloads
I've never had a problem capping my connection's bandwidth or with the service.
It really depends on what you need it for, the best place to go is here: http://www.newsgroupreviews.com/usenet-providers.html
Out of the list I liked binverse.com and usenetserver.com, generally if you go thru the links provided by newsgroupreviews you'll get discounts that may or may not be "obvious" from just going directly to the sites in question.
Another vote for GigaNews.
I only read about 30-40 groups, ever, and they are all text-only discussions. So their $2.99 a month Jade service is a no-brainer. I don't come close to even half a gig a month with those groups, and don't need thread retention more than 30 days either.
Cheap. Works.
My only gripe is that it's not as good as some of the pricier options that you directly link to. If all you want is basic text-only threading and zero fancy features, it'll take some getting used to the slower speeds and web interfaces. But I also am cheap and don't want to spend $20 a month... For about $40 a year, GigaNews works fine.
I still love it. I check a few comp.*, soc.* and rec.* groups daily and they're still active and interesting. There is the odd bit of spam, but that's just easily dealt with as it is on web forums or emails. For binaries I find it useful too (I'm more interested in TV shows and movies than music and pr0n, but either way). My ISP doesn't throttle it like it does Torrents. It doesn't use any significant amount of my upload speed. I never get any less than 95% of my Internet connection's possible bandwidth. Why not use it?
Disclaimer: I haven't actually had a Usenet feed for many years, though articles like this one actually make me want to try one again. I should try one of the free ones (if they still exist) and see if they have even a decent feed for the very few groups I'd want to keep up on. (I really wish Google News had an NNTP feed, even if it charged a low fee.)
I think the reason why anyone would use an NNTP client were actually elaborated very well in Brad Templeton's history of Clarinet article that was posted yesterday..
http://www.templetons.com/brad/clarinet-history.html#m5 in the section "Eventual fate".
(Though I have used it for very infrequent uses, Google News didn't seem to keep track of which articles I read, and the interface certainly wasn't as good as the browser I use(d), trn..)
When my isp dropped usenet, I switched to readnews.com. It was something like $7 or $7.50 a month. I created an account, set up automatic billing, switched my news reader to the readnews nntp server, and forgot about it. It's a lot faster than my old ISP's news server ever was, especially when doing mass newsgroup updates, actually making use of the 20 Mbit pipe. They don't appear to do any newsgroup filtering, if you're concerned about that sort of thing.
Of course, I have no connection to readnews.com except as a customer. My first job on a Unix box back in 1982 was as the local usenet administrator, (ah, the days of "B" news and 1200 baud modems...) have always gotten Usenet for free, so it grates to have to pay for it, but I have to admit, the service works flawlessly.
Someone will inevitably point out that you can access news on groups.google.com. That service is excellent for searching for articles, but it fails when you're trying to browse a lot of articles. The interface is just too slow. If you're using usenet as a resource, google groups is fine. If you're actually trying to actively participate in any really effective fashion, you'll need a local news reader and an nntp service.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
http://www.sixxs.net/misc/coolstuff/#newsservers
Public:
news.ipv6.eweka.nl
newszilla6.xs4all.nl
Requires signup:
reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.