Excellent FREE Usenet access.

On another newsgroup I read, people were talking about how Google has
basically stopped working.

One person gave this link for free access to Usenet, not including
binaries:

http://www.eternal-september.org

Register on the website; it will E-mail a password to you, which you can
change.

I have had a registered copy of Agent, a very nice news reader software,
for many years. Free Agent does almost everything that the registered
version does.

There is a free version that can be downloaded here;

http://free-agent.en.softonic.com/

It downloads a small installer application.

When you run it, it downloads the 7.4 meg program. If you are on
dial-up, this will take a LONG time, unfortunately

When you go to install it, watch for a page where some boxes are checked
that makes Free Agent your homepage, and your default search engine, and
installs a tool bar in your browser. The usual crap that happens with
free software. Uncheck them!

just BE AWARE when you are installing it, and READ each page, before
you hit the 'next' button, or whatever.


Also, at the very end, you have to UNCHECK a box where it 'offers' you a
free 30 day trial of the paid version of Agent...for 30 days. Then you
have to buy it. Avoid this, because almost certainly, Agent will stop
working, and you will have to reinstall Free Agent all over again.

Have the location of the forever september server ready, and your login
and password. at the end of the installation, there is a wizard that
will help you set it up.

Put this in your news reader software, for the server location:

news.eternal-september.org

your username and login password at the forever-september.org website
are used to access the eternal september Unenet server. You have to
enter them, when you set up the software.

I set up an account at forever September, and got a new Yahoo E-mail
address, downloaded Free Agent, set it up, and downloaded a little over
10,000 headers for RPCC, including 3 posts by Mosey, from about 3 PM,
today.

I then sent a test message, and it worked.

Free Agent is a pretty big program. I'm familiar with it, so it was easy
for me. I can see where it would be confusing for a new user, though.

DON'T let it get set up as your 'default' E-mail software; I think that
comes up during set-up, too, possibly. Just be careful during the
installation and set up.

The default setup for Free Agent has three panes, with the main message
window at the bottom.

If you click on the square at the upper right of the page, it switches
to a single page, with 'buttons' below the main toolbar for 'folders',
'message list', and 'message', at the top right. This replaces the 3
panes

I prefer it that way, myself, anyway.

If you have trouble setting it up, send me an E-mail at the address in
this post, and I'll send you some screen shots. of how to set it up.

If you are having a LOT of trouble, I'll send you my phone number, and
I'll help you over the phone...but you'll have to call me; I don't have
'free' long distance on a cell phone: I have to use a prepaid calling
card, for long distance calls.

This should solve all the problems that people are having with Usenet,
and it's all FREE.

I like how posts turn black in Agent when your read them, and threads
with new posts are in red, as are new threads.

It sure beat Google Groups all to hell.

It's a bit of work to get set up, but then it's REALLY nice, after that.

Good luck

Tom

So it works, and it's all free...if you avoid the pitfalls during the
installation of Free Agent.

Watch out for Free Agent to give you a choice to change to the 30 day
'trial' of the paid version of Agent, if you try to use a function
that's not available with the Free Agent version.

It's a bit of work to set up, but I quite like the Pan newsreader
available for free from http://pan.rebelbase.com/. It has binaries and
source code available for Linux and Windows.

To run it on Windows you also have to install the GTK+ runtime, but
that's documented on the web site.

The reason I like it so much is that it makes it very easy to create
posting profiles. It takes just a few seconds to create a new profile,
thus each of my kitties can post under their own name.

Dan

On 10 Aug 2011 14:00:27 GMT, Daniel Mahoney wrote:

It's a bit of work to set up, but I quite like the Pan newsreader
available for free from http://pan.rebelbase.com/. It has binaries and
source code available for Linux and Windows.

To run it on Windows you also have to install the GTK+ runtime, but
that's documented on the web site.

The reason I like it so much is that it makes it very easy to create
posting profiles. It takes just a few seconds to create a new profile,
thus each of my kitties can post under their own name.

Dan

That's a nice feature, I have to say. It would be nice to have different
screen names, for different groups.

But I'm so used to using Agent...and I'm not very good with complex new
software. I forget how to do things in Word, pretty often, if I haven't
used a feature in awhile. It drives me crazy.

I'm getting old, I guess.