AT&T Usenet Netnews Service Shutting Down

Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be
offering access to the Usenet netnews service. If you wish to continue
reading Usenet newsgroups, access is available through third-party
vendors.

Posted only internally to AT&T Usenet Servers.

On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 23:40:00 GMT, <news-support@sbcglobal.net> wrote in
<1244504415.98882_34742@flph199.ffdc.sbc.com>:

>Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be
>offering access to the Usenet netnews service. If you wish to continue
>reading Usenet newsgroups, access is available through third-party
>vendors.
>
>Posted only internally to AT&T Usenet Servers.

Tera News <http://www.teranews.com/>
One-time setup fee of $4, no monthly charge

"John Navas" <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
newspus251dvj6e1hhpm3joeq2cd70oeda397@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 23:40:00 GMT, <news-support@sbcglobal.net> wrote in
> <1244504415.98882_34742@flph199.ffdc.sbc.com>:
>
>>Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be
>>offering access to the Usenet netnews service. If you wish to continue
>>reading Usenet newsgroups, access is available through third-party
>>vendors.
>>
>>Posted only internally to AT&T Usenet Servers.
>
> Tera News <http://www.teranews.com/>
> One-time setup fee of $4, no monthly charge

I found Tera's posting to be wildly inconsistant if you tried cross-posting
to more than one group (that happens often here in the alt.cellular groups!)
Presumably Tera's spam filters chew on crossposts for awhile before
"green-lighting" them. Some of my posts disappeared for a day or more, or
were never propagated. They also are very lax about updating their status
page- if the server goes down, don't expect the status page to actually tell
you! (Apparently "system status" is too much to expect from a "status
page!" ;-) Having said that, they're certainly worth the lousy $4, even to
use as a backup, and I haven't used them significantly in almost a year-
after struggling with inconsistant posting and server downtime over a month
or two, I gave up. Perhaps they've addressed these issues.

Assuming you stick to text groups, rather than binaries, I recommend
www.usenet-news.net; they sell non-expiring "blocks" of access. I think I
paid $3 or $4 for 5GB over a year ago and still have 4.7GB left- essentially
a "one time fee" as well! ;-) They actually respond to support requests
and even update their status pages as well!

If you're a real cheapskate (and I certainly am!) and you use a newsreader
that allows you to configure separate servers for incoming and outgoing, you
could use "Tera Free" for incoming, and a more reliable pay-per-kb provider
like usenet-news for outgoing and stretch the GB-blocks even further. (I
used to do this on my mobile phone's newsreader, but I use so little usenet
data I stopped bothering and setup usenet-news for both in and out.)

On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:30:48 -0600, "Todd Allcock"
<elecconnec@AnoOspamL.com> wrote in <x%wXl.4$Sq7.2@newsfe10.iad>:

>
>"John Navas" <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
>newspus251dvj6e1hhpm3joeq2cd70oeda397@4ax.com.. .
>> On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 23:40:00 GMT, <news-support@sbcglobal.net> wrote in
>> <1244504415.98882_34742@flph199.ffdc.sbc.com>:
>>
>>>Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be
>>>offering access to the Usenet netnews service. If you wish to continue
>>>reading Usenet newsgroups, access is available through third-party
>>>vendors.
>>>
>>>Posted only internally to AT&T Usenet Servers.
>>
>> Tera News <http://www.teranews.com/>
>> One-time setup fee of $4, no monthly charge
>
>I found Tera's posting to be wildly inconsistant if you tried cross-posting
>to more than one group (that happens often here in the alt.cellular groups!)
>Presumably Tera's spam filters chew on crossposts for awhile before
>"green-lighting" them. Some of my posts disappeared for a day or more, or
>were never propagated. They also are very lax about updating their status
>page- if the server goes down, don't expect the status page to actually tell
>you! (Apparently "system status" is too much to expect from a "status
>page!" ;-) Having said that, they're certainly worth the lousy $4, even to
>use as a backup, and I haven't used them significantly in almost a year-
>after struggling with inconsistant posting and server downtime over a month
>or two, I gave up. Perhaps they've addressed these issues.
>
>Assuming you stick to text groups, rather than binaries, I recommend
>www.usenet-news.net; they sell non-expiring "blocks" of access. I think I
>paid $3 or $4 for 5GB over a year ago and still have 4.7GB left- essentially
>a "one time fee" as well! ;-) They actually respond to support requests
>and even update their status pages as well!
>
>If you're a real cheapskate (and I certainly am!) and you use a newsreader
>that allows you to configure separate servers for incoming and outgoing, you
>could use "Tera Free" for incoming, and a more reliable pay-per-kb provider
>like usenet-news for outgoing and stretch the GB-blocks even further. (I
>used to do this on my mobile phone's newsreader, but I use so little usenet
>data I stopped bothering and setup usenet-news for both in and out.)

Thanks for the tips.

I signed up with Usenet-News for backup service.
Setup was pretty slow, and the PayPal info is broken,
but I guess you get what you pay for.
Current prices for Lifetime Block download accounts
Block size Cost/block
2 GB $ 2.00 1.00 USD/GB
5 GB $ 3.00 0.60 USD/GB
10 GB $ 5.00 0.50 USD/GB
20 GB $ 8.00 0.40 USD/GB
30 GB $ 10.00 0.33 USD/GB
50 GB $ 15.00 0.30 USD/GB

--
Best regards,
John <http:/navasgroup.com>