what's that irc alternative?

theNEOone

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
5,745
4
81
i thought they were called newsgroups, but i ran a search for a topic on ATOT that i remember, but nothing useful came up. where do i get started?
 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
23,686
1
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its called IM, aol and microsoft and yahoo all have popular clients


edit: i forgot to call you a n00b
 

dighn

Lifer
Aug 12, 2001
22,820
4
81
Originally posted by: theNEOone
i thought they were called newsgroups, but i ran a search for a topic on ATOT that i remember, but nothing useful came up. where do i get started?

irc alternative as in real time chat?

newsgroups/usenet is not like irc. it's more like these forums.

you should give some more details.


but if newsgropus/usenet is what you are looking for, chances are your isp already gives you access to newsgroups. though before you post read up on their rules. people on newgroups can be quite anal about these rules.
 

theNEOone

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
5,745
4
81
well i don't want real time chat. i want it to d/l backups for my programs and mp3s. :p


anyone know the "server" for roadrunner?
 

dighn

Lifer
Aug 12, 2001
22,820
4
81
ahh i forgot most people these days equate "irc" with "file sharing" :D

check your isp's web page. it should be there.

one thing about downloading form newsgropus though - stuff on newsgroups are usually divided into small segments so often each file is gonna be divided into 30 sections -- this means a couple of things
- a lot of news servers don't have all the sections for a file. often one or two segment is missing because of transmission problems, rendering the entire thing useless. sometime isps even actively deletes the files to discourage downloading. so you might have to spend money to subscribe to a good server. check your isp news server first though.
- you need a good news reader program. outlook express WILL NOT do trust me. use something called "agent newsreader" - not free though
 

ThaGrandCow

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
7,956
2
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Originally posted by: theNEOone
Originally posted by: BatmanNate
USEnet. :)



just found amnesiac's guide in a different thread.....

so i have to pay for this junk?

How can you possibly hang out on a coputer persons forums and not know about usenet?
 

GigaCluster

Golden Member
Aug 12, 2001
1,762
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I believe Usenet is a little bit younger than e-mail on the Internet... so it's ANCIENT. Nowadays it's sunk in advertisements/junk. A good free client is Mozilla; besides being a browser and a mail reader, it also deals with news.
 

Hector13

Golden Member
Apr 4, 2000
1,694
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Originally posted by: GigaCluster
I believe Usenet is a little bit younger than e-mail on the Internet... so it's ANCIENT. Nowadays it's sunk in advertisements/junk. A good free client is Mozilla; besides being a browser and a mail reader, it also deals with news.

if you are going to use newsgroups for downloading binaries, I suggest you use a news reader built for that. Someone above mentioned Forte's Agent, but I think you will have much better luck with something like xnews or news bin.

Also, if you provider's newserver is good enough (ie, has good retention and good fill rates), you won't have to pay anything in addition. On the other hand, I am not too fond of road runner's news groups (good fills and fast, but like 1-2 day retention tops), so I pay for two other news servers (airnews and easynews).
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
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Smaller groups or text based groups - Forte Agent
Big binary-only groups - NewsBinPro 4.0
Best of both worlds - XNews

If you subscribe to Easynews they have a kickin' rad web interface which eliminates the need for ever downloading headers.
 

theNEOone

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2001
5,745
4
81
Originally posted by: amnesiac
Smaller groups or text based groups - Forte Agent
Big binary-only groups - NewsBinPro 4.0
Best of both worlds - XNews

If you subscribe to Easynews they have a kickin' rad web interface which eliminates the need for ever downloading headers.


$10 a mo.....ouch!
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
71
Originally posted by: theNEOone
Originally posted by: amnesiac
Smaller groups or text based groups - Forte Agent
Big binary-only groups - NewsBinPro 4.0
Best of both worlds - XNews

If you subscribe to Easynews they have a kickin' rad web interface which eliminates the need for ever downloading headers.


$10 a mo.....ouch!

Music = $15 /album
DVD = $19 /disc
Photoshop = $500
Premier = $800 (est)
Every single shareware program imaginable = $1000
Unlimited porn = priceless

....er.....I'm assuming you already have the above media...that's just if you LOST it and FORGOT TO BACK IT UP...that's how much you'd save. :D
 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
Moderator
Jul 19, 2001
38,572
2
91
Whats the best newsgroup for mp3's?

EDIT: n/m.... any alt.binaries.sounds :)
 

bigalt

Golden Member
Oct 12, 2000
1,525
0
0
note that irc is easy by comparison to newsgroups, imo.

i got a headache trying to use newgroups for anything other than real discussions.

and agreed, roadrunner news/outlook express will NOT do. have to pay for a decent news server.