Newsgroups are still one of the best sources on information on the internet. Comprising of articles posted by fellow newsgroup surfers they represent information posted by enthusiasts. There are all the computer related subjects plus information on films, cultures, programs, software, etc etc. There are also some more unsavory sites and this has given Newsgroups a bad reputation. Generally this bad reputation is unfounded as there are currently over 70,000 different newsgroup subjects that you can subscribe to. 

The providers:  You will be provided with a newsgroup area when you join your Internet service provider. Generally they do not carry all the available groups and their retention rate is not very long. These are the two main points if you want to seriously get into newsgroups. Finally connection speed to the provider is very important if you intend to download from these groups.

 
  • NewsGuy: is a great site for news.  They carry all the groups and have very long retention periods. They also have good technical support via the telephone  (USA). The only problem is they are a little slow in connection speeds.

Giganews: Is fast, carries nearly all the available newsgroups and has ADSL download availability. Binaries have a long retention now and overall this offers excellent value for money.

 * Why not sign up today for a free newsgroups trial with Giganews!

  • Usenetserver  is s very good provider, offering good retention, full lists and good download speed. I like this provider very much. 
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  • Alibis News server Over 90,000 totally uncensored Usenet newsgroups. AOL, MSN and CIS compatible. Compatible with all ISP’s. MP3, alt.binaries (pictures, jpg’s, movie files), shareware, politics, music, MAC and PC software program newsgroups on our state of the art Usenet newsgroup servers.

 

  
  • Easy News has been providing netizens with premium, high-quality Usenet access for over 8 years. Usenet is a global network older than the World Wide Web. Usenet is made of millions of people connected together through Usenet servers, such as Easynews. People use Usenet for all types of public, digital communication. You can have text discussions with millions of individuals on thousands of topics. You can also exchange files such as pictures, movies, software and music. Easynews knows that you have many Usenet servers to choose from when you connect to Usenet. However, Easynews has become the #1 Usenet server of choice among Usenet power-users.
  • Airnews does cover all the sites but retention and download speed are not that good.
  • Newsfeeds.com and Usenet.com are very similar indeed. Both have very long retention periods, carry all the available newsgroups. They are a little slow in download speeds but you can usually get that elusive file here. and  This 

 
   
 
  • NG Index is a unique service giving you a fully searchable, efficient and user-friendly interface to your Usenet (Newsgroup) providers' content. Ngindex.com offers many enhanced features allowing you to find what you need fast !! It has a very low monthly cost but is very fast and accurate. Saves hours of manual searching.
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    Alt-Bin is the main site that moderates the Alt Binaries area of the Newsgroups. The site offers a database of recently posted newsgroup binaries. This is primarily Movies and Games. It is a good site to visit to see just what is available from this excellent resource. 

  • Bin Search Info is an excellent tool for finding those elusive binary files. BinSearch is a binary newsgroup search engine. The system crawls the most popular Usenet newsgroups and makes the information found available for users to search. Unlike other search engines that merely index text discussions, this stores information about binary files that are posted in newsgroups.
  • Bincrawler Searching for binary files can be tedious but there are a few ways to help make things easier. One is by using a website that searches through the Usenet community when provided with keywords. The website will also show you what newsgroups the binary files are in. Bincrawler.com is the website that can become your new best friend when it comes to binary searching. Since it shows the newsgroup names where the binary files are, all you have to do is fire up your newsreader and go directly there.
  • Binary Newz Search is a search engine for usenet binaries. We do not host any files, we do not link to any files, these files are not downloaded to our system. We merely index the headers only from usenet and offer them in a searchable form. BinaryNewz is now much more than just a usenet binaries search engine. We offer a complete index of all usenet binaries and now we offer an index of usenet text posts, a usenet nfo search and a live ftp search.

  • Newsreader.com is and excellent resource centre for the first time news group fan.
  • Usenet providers offer information on all the well known (and not so well known) newsnet providers. This is  definitive list.
    • The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors and this is the link to the Newsnet guide.
  • AnchorDudes Usenet Newsgroup Server FAQ The pages on this site try to explain UseNet services in normal, everyday terms - primarily focused at normal Windows users.  The two tables on the site reflect the experience and opinions of the Anchordudes, based on their memberships with each, as well as discussions we participate in on some file-trading networks. They try to keep the "Best Usenet Providers" table updated at least monthly.

 

  
  • Agent  is very basic but also very easy to use.Forte Agent and Free Agent It will allow e-mail downloads and the folders etc are easy to arrange and sort. The software I use is Agent I have used it since I first became interested in Newsgroups and still think its the best. It is not a WYSWYG product but is excellent. Over the years many other products have arrived. Most have a prettier interface but none do the job like Agent. There are many areas where you can get add-ons and help for Agent such as Lance Brady's and Madhat. 
  • NewsLeecher is a tool made for fetching and managing articles from the Usenet. It downloads Usenet articles in a snap, and uses it's inline engine to assemble and decode all the downloads. The powerful featureset and state-of-the-art user interface makes it an application "you simply can't live without" if you are a serious Usenet user.
    It has a built-in Super Search engine, you can search *all* the binary usenet groups at once, for a specific keyword or key-string, in less than a second! The Super Search engine is totally unique in it's speed and it's ability to perform true wildcard searches! Superb and highly recommended!  
  • News Rover is a really superb tool for reading News. It excels at sifting through multiple servers, multiple newsgroups, and all the ensuing messages, then downloading only those that match the criteria you set. You can program News Rover to dial up on a schedule you set, winnow Usenet, deposit messages and even binary files onto your drive, then log off. See Find Free Files for an excellent tutorial on how to use News Rover.
  • Binary Boy: finds and downloads files of all types, including music, pictures and movies, from newsgroups. Browse manually, auto download or let the scheduler dial-up and collect files. Search using single words, wildcards or AND, OR and NOT logic. Optionally apply custom search rules to each newsgroup. Binary Boy can decode damaged or incomplete files, which is handy for previewing movies before they are completely downloaded. This is a great program for newsgroup surfing.
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  • Find Free Files is a subscription based site that enables its paid members to download using newsgroups. This includes movies, software etc. There are a series of videos that train you in every aspect of downloading files from newsgroups. This is an excellent site.
  • Popfile KILLS SPAM! It is an automatic mail classification tool. Once properly set up and trained, it will scan all email as it arrives and classify it based on your training. You can give it a simple job, like separating out junk e-mail, or a complicated one—like filing mail into a dozen folders. Think of it as a personal assistant for your inbox.
  • Searchlores has an excellent section on Usenet search engines. It points out and links the best ones giving the user a great set of tools to search the usenet. The European site called Fravia is here>>
  • Slyk has an excellent guide for newsgroups as well as the guide for peer to peer in the music sharing section of this site. Software, utilities and providers are all discussed giving this s head start in helping you with the newsgroup community.
  • Usenet Newbie guide was started to give you a very easy introduction to the topic Usenet. When It was started in September 2000, there was never a thought that it could ever become this popular. this is a great site too get all the basic information about news group usage.
  • Finding the appropriate newsgroup is for internet users, who want to learn how to find the correct newsgroup. Sometimes it is difficult to find the right news group, and this page is created to help people on their search for the best possible Usenet group. This page doesn't contain all the possible newsgroups, only a few examples.

 

 This page was last updated on 10/07/06

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