AOL & Newsgroups

RR Cable High Speed X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express works good for me

The news reader just shows you the posts. The news SERVER is what the news reader contacts to get the usenet posts.

The "free" newsreader from Microsoft has been known to have security problems.

Daniel

Yes, I do use OE. However, if your ISP doesn't have news groups, you're unable to read or post. I think a couple messages back, an AOL user was saying his (her?) ISP was dropping usenet.

Gee, I'm looking at what I just wrote. I wonder if anyone out there can read all them letters and make sense of it?

Sorry, I used the wrong term, there. Shoulda said "server".

Outlook's been a mess of security holes; I don't recommend anyone use it for anything. There are lots of other newsreaders avaiable which are more trustworthy; I'm using the one built into Mozilla but there are plenty of standalones.

As far as pictures/files goes: They don't belong on a non-binary newsgroup, period. Post 'em on a website somewhere and point folks who are interested to them. Remember, some poor souls are still trying to read newsgroups through a system that charges by the byte downloaded, or via a slow modem connection; have pity on them and don't dump more data on them than they want. (A picture may be worth a thousand words, but even highly compressed it also _costs_ like a thousand words.)

I'm also coming in thru the server at news.individual.net. They block binaries, but personally I consider that a GOOD thing.

"Stormin Mormon" <cayoung61-#spamblock*-@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:ZhhKd.4007$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyroc.rr.com...

RR is not dropping usenet. they already has over 26000 n/gs to choose from. if you want one that they don't have ? they say you can request them to carry it ?

g'day

I have heard that many times. personally, I have had no problems with OE in the 8+ years I have been using it.

agree, to each his own. I personally don't like web base email.

agree..

agree, but is also depends if one likes to view binary n/g's. I like some of the bike and car binaries. matter of fact, I resize many of the pics on the bike binary. I do it for the dial-ups.

g'day

Agreed; wasn't recommending it.

Unfortunately I don't have RR I have AOL. They have the same parent company but are seperate enities. AOL is discontinuing News Groups. I don't know what RR is doing. RR is not available where I am because AOL is. For the readers information and to show my reason for asking the question I have cut and pasted the intercept I get when accessing NG's.

Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in early 2005.

For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird

Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at We apologize for this inconvenience.<<Unquote

I need an alternative way to read NG's and I don't picture goggle being more than a temporary solution. That's why I asked what others are using. Thanks all, for the responses.

Mike Thomas Lock & Key For an email list discussion of locksmith related marketing concepts join us:

google for 'local isp'

there is a couple of web pages, you enter in your phone prefix, and it tells you all the companies that are available to you..

FYI, AOL has been censoring emails for some time as well. I forwarded one that I got, on to an AOL member, and it came back-unable to deliver.. reason (go to this web page), and in the email was a LINK to a web page they had 'gotten several complaints about', so, they just dumped all emails that had that (and who know HOW many others on the same list) into the trash. the receiver never saw it..

--Shiva--

Glad to hear that Key. You did not strike me as the type to religiously update your OS and programs with every patch the moment it comes out from Microsoft. Good for you!

You must be running an excellent virus scanner, since MS has a policy that they will not warn anyone of security problems with their products until they have a patch ready to fix it. Fortunately, they also decided to issue patches only once a month to make it easier to track the fixes, so you are only vulnerable to new viruses for less than a month at a time, provided they create a fix in that month.

The US Gov has recommeneded that US employees not use Internet Explorer, and Outlook is closely tied to IE, so I'd expect that to fall in the same category.

BTW, using Mozilla to read usenet or read mail does not require that the mail be "web based'. It has a mail client and newsreader client too.

Daniel

I'm using news.individual.net too. It's faster than my old AT+T server and it's free.

I'm currently going through all the one month free trials for ISP's that I can find. I tried AOL a few years ago and hated it and moved to AT+T. AT+T worked great but the 21.95 price is too high IMO. I then tried Netscape ISP and that takes over your system too much and is like AOL. They both ask you every 5 seconds if you want to stay on line. Now I'm on PeoplePC. It's ok because it has a smart dialer that you can put 10 or 20 local numbers into and it always connects me at 50.6 kbps every time with faster throughput than AT+T which was the best I'd tried before PeoplePC. You do have to cancel a few start-up menu task that it installs though, a PPCRunonce program and a pesky PPCLink program. It's easy to do by typing msconfig in the run dialog box.

I run OE 6 with the free AVG anti-virus software, the free Zone-Alarm firewall, the free Ad-Aware 6 spyware scanner, and just to make sure I also use the free beta version of Microsoft Anti-Spyware which scans real time. Even though it's a Microsoft beta it works great with no problems or conflicts with my other third party software.

Glen

I knew that :-)

g'day to ya

Yea, I update daily. learned that the hard way years ago :-)

I run Nortons and also update it daily from their site. just takes a minute or so. I don't wait for them to put out their weekly update.

it suprizes me that most will not or don't know to take neccesary steps to protect themselfs. I know that most folks at the VA hospital sure doesn't know how to opperate their computers :-)

knew that. I was just commenting that I didn't like web-based email. I do use netscape web-based email for some purposes though.

g'day