From a couple of Usenet friends: 'news.individual.de '..... It is extremely reliable...Costs only 10 Euros per years subscription..... Another News Server that is excellent... Still free as far as I know.. There is also ... Datemas This used to be free, but it now charges 5 Euros per years subscription.... You apply for any of the above through an Email to them....You sometimes have it on the next day after you submit your application.... None of the above News Servers have 'Binaries'. you will have to select one of many other News servers to access them....You will pay a few $$$ a month....But the new ISP that you choose may it's own news server and in turn, may provide Binaries amongst their newsgroups If I had to post to newsgroups with Google.....I wouldn't post!... **** Posting from Google is not good at all--no spellchecker and so slow. **** They aren't Google groups, they are Usenet groups, Google is just one way to access them. I subscribe to Giganews, $2.99 a month, as close to perfect as a news server can be. Great retention and completion, carries thousands of groups including binaries. Well worth the money to me as it saves me from the aggravation of poorly run servers. In the binaries groups there are some photography groups that are well worth visiting particularly alt.binaries.photos.original. There are some Australian photographers there that take wonderful pictures of their fascinating flora and fauna. http://www.giganews.com to sign up. My ISP provides a server but not all groups and even before it dropped those it was unreliable so I have been with Giganews even when the basic level was more expensive. I have never gone over the monthly limit for that level and I read a lot of groups. ***** Anyone with a connection to the internet can access the google/groups archive, and read all groups there online. Just open a google account (in the same place, online, free) and use it to post replies. IMO it's far more convenient to use a proper newsreader, but if yours is unavailable for any reason the online google/grouops service is a useful backup. ***** https://secure.giganews.com/signup/ They have several levels you can subscribe to. As low as $2.99 for 3 gigibites a month. If you download a lot of binaries that would probably be too small. However if you only use newsgroups such as alt.fifty-plus.friends only I think it would be enough. You could adjust it if it turns out it is not enough. ( the next level is about $5.00 a month for 5 gigibites ) You can take a fourteen day free trial to see if it works for you. I have never had any problems with them and recommend them highly. Please note that I do have an association with them and get the service in exchange for mention on a web page I have. ***** Newsgroups and email have nothing to do with each other except that there are a number of programs which access both for you. They use different protocols to deliver messages. Email uses pop and smtp, for outgoing and incoming messages. These servers route your messages out to the proper recipient. Newsgroup protocol is NNTP, their server stores all the posts. When you send a message to a group it is properly catalogued as to which group, time received, etc. It is also sent out to a number of other servers which together form Usenet, sort of a cooperative group which works together to provide the messages to all its subscribers. When this system is working correctly each server will have all the same messages on it, servers that are not well run will often miss some messages. When you connect to a server your news program tells it which was the last message it received for the group and asks it to send all the new ones, which it then does. If you subscribe to Giganews it will spoil you. You will rarely if ever have missing messages, it will always be there when you want to connect. I used to pay $7.99 a month and think it was worth that but at $2.99 it is a real bargain. You couldn't even go to one movie for that. You can access it with OE or Thunderbird or any other newsreader of your choice. Since Usenet is their core business they devote a lot of attention and resources to doing it well. For ISPs it is a side business that just adds to their cost of doing business and is done as cheaply as possible which usually results in inferior service.
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