Discussion:
Why can't I have an ISP with free nntp servers?!?!?
(too old to reply)
Terry Olsen
2005-11-27 17:44:17 UTC
Permalink
Ok, teranews really sucks! Since OE isn't compatible with it, I figured i'd use it for posting only and use one of the numerous free read-only servers out there for reading.

Well, teranews rejects 99% of my posts with "doesn't taste right. smells like spam." Several emails to them have not been responded to in over a week.

So lets try mail2news.
The Wizard of Oz
2005-11-27 19:00:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Terry Olsen
Ok, teranews really sucks! Since OE isn't compatible with it, I figured i'd use it for posting only and use one of the numerous free read-only servers out there for reading.
Well, teranews rejects 99% of my posts with "doesn't taste right. smells like spam." Several emails to them have not been responded to in over a week.
So lets try mail2news.<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ok, teranews really sucks!&nbsp; Since OE isn't
compatible with it, I figured i'd use it for posting only and use one of the
numerous free read-only servers out there for reading.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Well, teranews rejects 99% of my posts with
"doesn't taste right. smells like spam." Several emails to them have not been
responded to in over a week.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So lets try mail2news.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
Since you are using OE (my condolences) you may want to switch to a much
better news reader. There are plenty of free programs available. Before I
switched to Linux I was using Free Agent by Forte (http://www.forteinc.com).

Your current solution isn't much better. You should be able to see a good
portion of your message is taken up with HTML. Since this isn't an HTML
group, reading this code is rather painful to the majority. Particularly
since this is an Apple// group. Those people reading this with their
Apples are likely to be using a text only interface.

My last point is to ask if complaining about news servers is appropriate
in an Apple// group? You may want to check out alt.free.newsservers
instead. Also to test a new piece of software you may want to do so in
alt.test.

Later
Mike
tolsen64
2005-11-27 20:20:01 UTC
Permalink
Tried Free Agent, hated it. Guess i'm just used to the way OE displays
the groups & articles.

I'm in an apple II group because I'm trying to get usenet working on my
Apple II bbs, which requires that I be able to post to an NNTP server.
I can read just fine. I've been to alt.free.newsservers,
freenews.maxbaud.net, www.newzbot.com, etc, etc, etc. The only servers
you can find there (that work) are read-only servers. The ones I've
found that actually allow you to post (post.usenet.com,
post.newsfeeds.com, & news.winisp.net) do not propogate the posts.

I've been posting like crazy to alt.test. Just thought i'd rant here
about my woes.
The Wizard of Oz
2005-11-28 19:28:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by tolsen64
Tried Free Agent, hated it. Guess i'm just used to the way OE displays
the groups & articles.
Too bad you aren't running *NIX because there is a program called
Evolution which mimics either Outlook or OE without all the problems. I
asked a guy from Novell if there were plans to port it to the M$ market
and the response was it was more trouble than it was worth.

If it turns out to be an OE thing you aren't going to have much choice
other than to use a different program. Try Netscape/Thunderbird and see if
they work If so then you can narrow down your problem to software.
Post by tolsen64
I'm in an apple II group because I'm trying to get usenet working on my
Apple II bbs, which requires that I be able to post to an NNTP server.
I can read just fine.
You didn't mention that in the original post. :-)
Post by tolsen64
I've been to alt.free.newsservers,
freenews.maxbaud.net, www.newzbot.com, etc, etc, etc. The only servers
you can find there (that work) are read-only servers. The ones I've
found that actually allow you to post (post.usenet.com,
post.newsfeeds.com, & news.winisp.net) do not propogate the posts.
What sort of outgoing volume are you looking at? If it's small enough you
may be able to work out a deal with pay companies. If you are looking at
importing the groups to your BBS, you can use the R/O servers to get the
posts. You can use the pay server to forward posts from your BBS. I think
some pay servers allow their customers to buy data in blocks. I was
looking at them (for download) a while ago. For small amounts of data,
they are really quite cheap.

If you can make a connection to public education, many universities (at
least locally) are willing to help. You may even want to determine if
there is a local freenet in your area.
Post by tolsen64
I've been posting like crazy to alt.test. Just thought i'd rant here
about my woes.
Good enough. Just have to make the connection to the topic of the group.
Even if it's a tenuous one.

Later
Mike
Simon D. Williams
2005-11-27 19:08:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Terry Olsen
Ok, teranews really sucks! Since OE isn't compatible with it, I figured i'd use it for posting only and use one of the numerous free read-only servers out there for reading.
Well, teranews rejects 99% of my posts with "doesn't taste right. smells like spam." Several emails to them have not been responded to in over a week.
So lets try mail2news.
I'd almost be willing to bet that the posts are being filtered because of
your "no-ip" address. I had a similar problem with mail being bounced
(especially by AOL) which seems to have been completely resolved by
getting a "real" domain name. When I first switched to broadband (canopy
satellite) the tech told me that their dynamic IP addresses are
practically permanent so I shouldn't have any trouble running servers...
Whether that's valid for all broadband ISPs or whether it would help in
your case, I have no idea, but it might be worth looking into.
-s

._____. SIMON WILLIAMS :::::::: LUDDITE ENTERPRISES UNLIMITED
|[LD8]! 8-BIT SOUND & FURY : APPLE ][ AUDIO & MUSIC RESOURCES
| o. | +------- http://8bitsoundandfury.no-ip.info/ -------+
!__!__! OLD APPLE WEB SERVER LIST http://www.ld8.org/servers/
Lyrical Nanoha
2005-11-27 19:46:50 UTC
Permalink
Post by Simon D. Williams
I'd almost be willing to bet that the posts are being filtered because of
your "no-ip" address. I had a similar problem with mail being bounced
(especially by AOL) which seems to have been completely resolved by
getting a "real" domain name. When I first switched to broadband (canopy
satellite) the tech told me that their dynamic IP addresses are
practically permanent so I shouldn't have any trouble running servers...
Whether that's valid for all broadband ISPs or whether it would help in
your case, I have no idea, but it might be worth looking into.
-s
At least for my broadband ISP (Verizon Online), it is not true. They
changed my IP every time I connected until I paid extra for a static IP.

-uso.
tolsen64
2005-11-27 20:24:06 UTC
Permalink
Yeah, I know about email and dynamic IP's. I can't send email to aol
or bigpond.au because of it. If your ip address is in a certain range
(assigned for dynamic ip's), even if it is actually static, a lot of
email servers won't take email from you.

But you would think that teranews, since they advertise & sell nntp
access, would take articles from a news client no matter what the
status of the ip address is.
Glenn Jones
2005-12-02 04:28:15 UTC
Permalink
Post by Terry Olsen
Ok, teranews really sucks! Since OE isn't compatible with it, I figured
i'd use it for posting only and use one of the numerous free read-only
servers out there for reading.
Well, teranews rejects 99% of my posts with "doesn't taste right. smells
like spam." Several emails to them have not been responded to in over a
week.
So lets try mail2news.
My ISP just informed me they are dropping usenet ...grrrr


Glenn
Terry Olsen
2005-12-02 05:28:20 UTC
Permalink
try news.sunsite.dk or www.greatnowhere.com

Both are free and seem to work good.
Post by Glenn Jones
Post by Terry Olsen
Ok, teranews really sucks! Since OE isn't compatible with it, I figured
i'd use it for posting only and use one of the numerous free read-only
servers out there for reading.
Well, teranews rejects 99% of my posts with "doesn't taste right. smells
like spam." Several emails to them have not been responded to in over a
week.
So lets try mail2news.
My ISP just informed me they are dropping usenet ...grrrr
Glenn
Knut Roll-Lund
2005-12-02 15:48:33 UTC
Permalink
My ISP decided to close down their server. But we protested and it
helped, it is probably just a stay of execution but it is still running.
Post by Terry Olsen
try news.sunsite.dk or www.greatnowhere.com
Both are free and seem to work good.
Because if this I have got an account with sunsite (free). This works
very well. Sunsite is nice because it is filtered, no need to wade
through spam. It is a text only service, which works great with groups
like this.

The only downside is that you have to post with a valid email, because
they only allow you to post with the email they can contact you on. As
you can see I don't post through sunsite now, the return email is
mangled, this is not possible on sunsite. I have worked around this by
using a separate email account, I do check this account too but it is
filtered with extra heavy filters. (I use MailWasher and like it very much.)
Post by Terry Olsen
Post by Glenn Jones
My ISP just informed me they are dropping usenet ...grrrr
Knut

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