Does anyone here use Usenet for reading articles?

[nbv4]

If you do, then could you please PLEASE recommend me a good client and host that I can use to read articles? I'm not interested in downloading porn or pirated games. There are a few usenet groups that I've been following for the past few years, but I've never been able to find a proper setup to use.

I tried google groups, but there are no spam filtering or kill file capabilities so I have to wade through literally pages and pages of spam before I find anything worth reading. Plus it messes up thread view sometimes.

I then tried Pan + Motzarella (a free usenet host) but I can't seem to be able to figure out how to have it bump threads when a new reply is made underneath a header. There will be a thread that has lots of messages posted in it, but since the thread was started a month ago, all those replies will be buried by newer, less active topics that were started later. Google groups is kind of the same way, except they have that "active topics" side bar thingy, which is pretty much the only thing google groups has going for it. Pan is also plagued with tons of problems that may or may not be Pan's fault (it could be Motzarella's fault), but it's borderline unusable. For instance I have to close the program and restart it again if I want to get new posts from a group. If I want to post, I have to do the same thing too. It seems to "lose" the connection after 10 minutes of being open, and the only way to get it back is to restart the program.

I tried Mozilla Thunderbird, but for some retarded reason, there is no way to enter a username+password to a usenet server, which means I can't connect to my motzarella account. So thats out.

I tried another one called Kilbido or something, but it would refuse to get any headers. I just flat out wouldn't work.

I tried another one which the name I forgot, but it wouldn't work either.

So what gives? Why does this have to be so damn difficult? Why can't reading usenet be as easy as reading a web forum like this one?

I just made a post on a usenet group with Pan + Motzarealla and it for some weird reason posted the article 30 times. I have NO IDEA why the hell it did that, but it did. That made me post this thread. There has to be someone out there who knows of a smart way to use Usenet...

[jrusso2]

I use Thunderbird and I don't have a problem setting a password for news groups that require it.

I don't know if you have tried Knode that works pretty well.

[nbv4]

I use Thunderbird and I don't have a problem setting a password for news groups that require it.

I don't know if you have tried Knode that works pretty well.

Then where do you put the password? There is no box anywhere that I can see.

[jrusso2]

When you set up the news server if it requires a password it will pop up when you go to download the newsgroups.

Just enter first the username and then the password. check the save box just like for an email account.

[andrew.46]

Hi:


There has to be someone out there who knows of a smart way to use Usenet...

If you are prepared to spend a little time working at it the 'smart' way is with the newsreader slrn. I have a walkthrough on these forums for setting it all up:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=475246

It is text only so don't expect much in the way of menus and wizards :-).

Andrew

[Brunellus]

For 'plain-jane' usenet--i.e., no binaries-- I prefer the old command-line client slrn.

[swoll1980]

I can't figure out how to. There was a Flamewar started along time ago between the creater of minux and the creater of linux about kerel user spaces from what I heard it's still raging on, but you need usenet to participate(I don't know if this is true or not)