I've got it free through newshosting, but I worry about roadrunner tracking what I download. plus I know what usenet holds, but I don't really know how to use it to get it or what file to trust..

first off, what does "30 day retention" mean?

Usenet Info

without usenet, you might as well shutdown computer

world wide web is probably only 50% of the resources you can get online.

I just signed up with astraweb after getting The Letter. I always max out my cable at 1-1.5MB/s. I'm trying to talk a co-worker into the process and I think this may do it.

germanpope said:I understand that usenet has been around for ever --- but I have never made use of it
I have no interest in obtaining software, porn, pictures or whatever from there
could someone please give a summary of what other uses there are and why I should bother if I don't need it to obtain any of the above

If you are not interested in anything, you do not even need internet (or fatwallet ?)

nice deal !!!

bikerbandito said:its not connecting (no username or password, and ssl disabled). Anyone else having the same problem?

The initial problems I had were SSL. The server kept responding by rejecting my connection attempt. Once I disabled SSL, I got on just fine.

My current problems is that it's slow as molasses. Or maybe it's not even doing anything right now, I don't know. I've been trying to download headers for the last hour or so.

Well, they said they wanted to 'stress test' their servers. I guess they can't handle it.

blackout said:usenet service is bad, if you don't know how to use it, please don't learn. Its only been around since the start of internet.

Correction, its been around before the word "internet" was created.

sideen17 said:im maxing my connection out (unfortunately 500kbps damn you cable splitter!) but yea its definitely a prob on your end
My 15mbps connection is pegged at 0.0KBps, with occasional, momentary bursts up to 120KBps. My guess is, the entire universe is jamming their servers. They should've had a limited, invite-only test instead; that way they could've demonstrated their service to prospective new customers. If people like me are getting ZERO throughput, what's the likelihood we'll signup post-beta?

edit: riding high at 300-500KBps now. oops, back to 0 again. whatever, its free. if my 25gb batch completes sometime, i'll try them when they go live.

germanpope said:duyang said:... If you are not interested in anything, you do not even need internet (or fatwallet ?)

my question was actually serious

I am not interested in a discussion about whether downloads of copyrighted material is good or bad

I was just wondering if there is other useful legit stuff --- (ie. are there contractors discussing building a porch; or dog breeders talking about vaccines; ect)

I always search the web for forum discussion when I need answers like changing my fuel filter on my car --- is there anything like that that I am missing without usenet?

Usenet was once that, with a sense of humor. I remember when you could see all 24 newsgroups on an 80x25 monitor. Then it proliferated into hundreds, probably tens of thousands now, with infinite subspecialties. This was before Mosaic, (some other parrot-related program), and well before Netscape. I think I used the mosaic alpha back in the day. Ftp'ing and rlogins, telnetting before that. And well before the AOL crowd discovered Usenet.

I suspect you can find valuable groups of interest. You might have to dig for them a bit, but there are probably adequate tools for that now, rather than scrolling down an ASCII monitor.