Usenet/Newsgroups

[xequence]

I was looking at freebsd.org, and I went to community. They have some newsgroups (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources-news.html) and I was wondering, how do I access usenet and get to the newsgroups? I heard it costs money or something...

There is quite a bit of talk about usenet and stuff, but never anything about how to sign up or use it.

Also, on another note, are AMD semprons 64 bit?

[BlueGhost]

You can read news with Thunderbird (which also is a good e-mail client) or you can go for a more specific program such as pan which is designed as a full featured news reader.

But, before you go with either of the programs (or any other) you need to have an ISP that handles the usenet news. Most ISPs do, but some are pretty bad at propogating the messages. The idea of the newsgroups is that all of the messages are spread throughout the world, sometimes it takes a few days for the news to travel.

If you find that your ISP doesn't deal with news, there are providers such as easynews, giganews, yottanews, etc. I would suggest checking first with your ISP and see what they handle, since almost all of the dedicated news servers are for paying customers only.

One thing that you might be interested in is that there are over 65,000 different groups based on almost any topic you can think of. There are even binary groups where you can download pictures, music or video (movies) although keep in mind that depending where you live, some of the forementioned items may be illegal.

[Ride Jib]

you don't just need ISP support for such a thing. Forgive my absent mindedness, but there are many sites that offer the same service for a small fee (~$15/mo). Take a look on google. They are easy to find.

[xequence]

My ISP is cutting usenet service... Today.

And I dont know if I can pay 15$ a month. I probly could if I got a job or something, but right now, school takes up more time then Id need to work.

[poptones]

You can access virtually all the active text based usenet groups via google. Many people don't even realize these are usenet when they access them, they seem to think they are like "yahoo groups." While google does (now) have email based "groups" like Yahoo, groups.google.com was originally "nothing but news(groups)."

Visit groups.google.com and search for the usenet groups you'd like to access. You'll need to register to post there but you can lurk (the entire last decade or so) completely free of charge and without registering.

[Brunellus]

You can access virtually all the active text based usenet groups via google. Many people don't even realize these are usenet when they access them, they seem to think they are like "yahoo groups." While google does (now) have email based "groups" like Yahoo, groups.google.com was originally "nothing but news(groups)."

Visit groups.google.com and search for the usenet groups you'd like to access. You'll need to register to post there but you can lurk (the entire last decade or so) completely free of charge and without registering.
I've used Google Groups access when I haven't had access to a real nntp server, and, while it's very adequate, I have run right back to 'proper' nntp at the first opportunity.

I like my killfile too much to part with it ;p

[poptones]

That's fine and good but you and I have expectations about our interactiosn with usenet. You're not the one here asking about "what is this and how do I learn about it?" If you have never accessed usenet before, or if you are away from your main machine, google is a fantastic service - if, for no other reason than you can use groups.google.com to find other free nntp usenet providers (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.free.newsservers?lnk=sg&hl=en).

[freakalad]

Silly request, I'm sure, but please show me how:

I want to find newsgroups ubuntu.com & ubuntuforums.org (something like news.ubuntu.com or lists.ubuntu.com?)

I would like to use ThunderBird, but I do not know how or where to to look for newsgroups.

Could someone please point me in the right direction

[Barriehie]

Silly request, I'm sure, but please show me how:

I want to find newsgroups ubuntu.com & ubuntuforums.org (something like news.ubuntu.com or lists.ubuntu.com?)

I would like to use ThunderBird, but I do not know how or where to to look for newsgroups.

Could someone please point me in the right direction

Edt > Account Settings > Add Account > Newsgroup Account and from there you'll need to know the name of the provider, something like news.west.cox.net for example. Your ISP can provide you with this info and they usually will have this on their home page.

I searched and found alt.os.linux.ubuntu on my news server.
Barrie

[bufsabre666]

Also, on another note, are AMD semprons 64 bit?

i dont know about usenet at all thats not something i do but i do know my amd cpu's

if its socket 754 and above 3400+ its 64bit
if its 939 and above 3200+ its 64
and if its am2 its 64 bit

[cardinals_fan]

Necromancing!

[toupeiro]

Usenet user since 1992 on CompuServe. Still a great direct source of information.

[samwyse]

i dont know about usenet at all thats not something i do but i do know my amd cpu's

if its socket 754 and above 3400+ its 64bit
if its 939 and above 3200+ its 64
and if its am2 its 64 bit

I have a 2800 which is 64 bit. The socket 754 Palermos are all 64 bit, I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sempron#Models_for_Socket_754