Re: A small snowfall for Monday

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008, you wrote
Squelching through the mud, Mike Tullett at
mike.tullett1.for.newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxx, blathered on thus, and it became the
following missive...

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:36:44 -0800 (PST), Pete L wrote in
<news:0031a1b5-69d1-4628-9d33-4693d8952de1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

>> I see you are using Google to read these Usenet posts - it must be showing
>> the ads in your browser. Most of us have a *proper* newsreader - >>using the
>> NNTP protocol. It is a text only medium with no images at all.
>>
>> It's likely you use Outlook Express and that can be used to read >>newsgroups
>> such as uk.sci.weather. There are many other better readers though.

> Can you name a few *proper* newsreaders? I'm reasonably happy with
> using Google - am I missing out on something here?

There are dozens of newsreaders. Here is a webpage with many listed.

http://www.newsreaders.com/win/clients.html

The benefits of using such clients include their speed and ability to allow
offline reading - something which the Google web interface doesn't allow.
Many start with Outlook Express and then some then move on to better
clients, such as the one I use, Dialog. Newgroups were around long before
Google provided a website to allow web access to Usenet.


I use 'Gravity' to read all of my newsgroups. It has such nice filters on
it....!

When I used Outlook Depress for mail, I used to use FreeAgent just for news, though Forte no longer offer a free version. A pity, really, it was neat and unencumbered with Extra Extras. Now I use Turnpike for both mail and news, which though quirky, is also neat and relatively unencumbered.

But unless you can train your newsreader to filter the rubbish, you're always going to be at the mercy of whoever supplies the newsfeed. I can highly recommend the Berlin server news.individual.net, which for ten euros a year supplies a fast newsfeed and manages to filter most of the rubbish.

--
Kate B

London
.

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