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?"

Comments

Is it worth it anymore?

[CRCulver]

Unless you are using binaries groups for music or pr0n, is Usenet even worth accessing anymore? I remained dedicated to the network long after most nerds departed because there was still a fairly decent amount of educated discourse on sci.lang and rec.music.classical, but even those groups are no innundated by spambots and most of the most worthwhile conversation partners have moved while only the crotchety remain.

Re:Is it worth it anymore?

[Pinky's Brain]

Access to advise from crotchety old engineers for the price of a little bad manners and spam is in the end a very good deal.

Do you get a discount now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that they're cutting a portion of the service out - do you get a cut on the monthly rate as well?

Re:it is about time

[harryandthehenderson]

I was always wondering why this protocol and all related software have not disappeared yet.

Because of alt.binaries.*

Re:Google Groups or Astraweb

[gilgongo]

If you actually want to READ and POST text news, then I don't know why anyone would use an NNTP client nowadays. Google Groups is a far superior gateway.

What?? How is the Google groups UI even remotely better at threading, marking, filtering and generally managing long conversations? Compared to even something like Free Agent it's utterly shit!