Newsgroups?

[EvilRoySlade]

You'll have to forgive my ignorance here but what are they all about? It's just every time I read a "slow downloads" thread or something someone is talking about their speeds from newsgroups. Now I've been digging around to see what they offer but can anyone perhaps recommend one to join or trial? I spend loads of time online so perhaps these groups can be of good value to me. The problem being I have absolutely no idea what they contain or offer.

:o:

Thanks in advance for any help my friends.

[Richy99]

google newsgroups and you will get information about it, its basically a giant discussion palce which most people use to downloading binaries

[punky]

Its basically a public messaging board, but some people post files. The servers that hold all this are mirrored around the world, so you normally have one close to you.

Giganews (http://www.giganews.com) is the best newsgroup server by a country mile, and you'll also need access to an indexing site, to help find what's out there. You can use Merlin's Portal (http://wwww.merlins-portal.net) for free or pay for Newzbin (http://v3.newzbin.com)

[DocDutch]

here a bit easier for you :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup

http://www.giganews.com/ do a free trial of 2 weeks or 10 gb of data (if you would go for them I would suggest speaking to Zinglebarb about it as well, he'll be a good bet of contact on them)

from then there are a few things you can look for if its just text I wont know.. if for other things you might want to go to http://www.merlins-portal.net/ and have a looksie there.

[EvilRoySlade]

Alright guys, thanks very much. I'll have a nosey at those links and take it from there. Cheers!

[XFS03]

This site is also very useful if you are new to newsgroups:-
http://www.slyck.com/ng.php

.

[dave6x]

All great stuff above. But also have a look here http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/newsgroups/ (http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/newsgroups/)

And if you want to investigate further for free then try downloading a client such as the free version of Grabit from http://www.shemes.com/ (http://www.shemes.com/) and take a look at the 30,000 Usenet newsgroups you can access free from news.cable.ntlworld.com as part of your VM BB subscription.

Before anyone else says it, yes I know the the VM/NTL newsgroup servers are not the best, with poor retention, etc, but they do what I need quite satisfactorily and are OK to to start with. Move on to a paid service once you decide it's what you want.