Alternatives to Google Groups for Usenet?

[JennyB]

Does anyone remember when ISPs provided feeds to hundreds of newsgroups?  Google Groups is not the same as a dedicated reader such as Free Agent, but I can't find a server these days. 

A lot of the old groups seem to be dying, but I'm still subscribed to comp.lang.forth, soc.religion.quaker, talk.origins and soc.history.what-if.

[f0dder]

Hm, both my former (and the largest) Danish ISP, TDC/TeleDanmark, has binary as well as (faster and more stable) text-only groups, and my current ISP CyberCity does as well. Are ISPs really going so cheap-ass that they don't offer newsfeeds? :O

Otherwise you have the option of one of the commercial feed providers... dunno how much they cost, and I have the impression their main purpose of existance is ware^H^H^H^Hbinary groups.

[app103]

You might want to try here:

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Usenet/Public_News_Servers/

[Darwin]

My Canadian ISP (Telus) provides me with access to over 94,000 newsgroups. Like f0dder, I am amazed that your ISP doesn't supply newsfeeds as well.

[justice]

http://www.news.astraweb.com/plans.html
$10 for 25Gb of downloads, that's a lot of usenet posts if you are not downloading, so basically that's $10 for life then as it never expires. Headers are not counted towards your downloads

(btw i'm just a happy user, just to make sure -- i'm sure there are other services like this too but this is the one i'm using)

[JennyB]

http://www.news.astraweb.com/plans.html
$10 for 25Gb of downloads, that's a lot of usenet posts if you are not downloading, so basically that's $10 for life then as it never expires. Headers are not counted towards your downloads

Looks like a good deal, and supports the newsgroups I want. Thanks. 

Yes, unfortunately these days if a British ISP says "newsgroups" it generally means only their own newsgroups. 

{EDIT}
My mistake. My ISP (Plusnet) has a web-based reader that just shows links to their own groups. Looking more closely, they have a search link that allows you to find other groups. In fact, they do have a pretty comprehensive list, but they keep *very* quiet about it. 

O.K. Now I've discovered the settings to subcribe in an external newsreader, and have got them working in Opera. Does anyone have good tips for filtering the gold out of the dross?

[Darwin]

Should have mentioned - the only use I have for Outlook Express is as a newsreader - does this very well (well enough for me, anyway!).

[f0dder]

Should have mentioned - the only use I have for Outlook Express is as a newsreader - does this very well (well enough for me, anyway!).

Heh, same here - haven't found an alternative yet that is as convenient. All the other ones I've tried have sucked in one way or another >_<. You do need "OE QuoteFix", though...

[Earthcoder]

I found - http://www.slyck.com/ng.php?page=1 Very helpfull when i started to look for newsgroups, The guide is mainly for downloading, but they do have a handy software list