Kurt wrote in
:


Except that many access through other ISPs and news services.

I use Giganews for my Usenet access. Higher retention and a larger
selection of groups than offered by Google or regular ISPs. Google
bought Usenet a fgew years ago and has adapted it to its own format
for Google viewers.

My ISP (SBCGlobal) does not carry this group. Most ISPs have severely
cut back on offering news, with low retention and eliminating the
binary groups (take up too much bandwidth).


Really? I don't think so. I've been accessing rpm through
news.snet.sbcglobal.net since 15 March... Tom Ippolito (SBCGlobal
Usnenet guru) added it to the sbcglobal servers, like, ten hours after I
asked for it.

You might want to go to sbcglobal.help.tech.newsgroups, or send Tom an
email at to ask if there is some account or
technical issue with you. From where I sit, SBC has the best Usenet
support of any provider I've ever had, and they'll add groups based on
a single user's request, binary or not (retention times are shorter
than Giganews, though... *shrug*). If they're your ISP, Giganews should
be a redundant expense.

Regards
DaveZ