Newsgroup Issues

I've recently formatted/reinstalled my OS (XP) and consequently, everything else I use. The issues with my HD speed bogging down are gone, and things are working well. I'm very pleased with the result, except for one thing: my newsgroups.

Since reinstalling, I've had intermittent, but frequent newsgroup outages. Things will hum along for awhile, then when my back is turned, my newsgroup program will think the files are no longer on the server. They are. I'll quit the program, wait awhile, and then restart it, and the files that were 'missing' are mysteriously there again. It will work fine for a half-hour to several hours, and then it will happen again.

I'm hesitant to do anything right now, as I've had some experience with coincidental secondary problems occurring after another issue. It COULD BE that Charter is having issues with it's newsgroups. I'd call to find out, but I usually need to call 2 or 3 times to find a rep that even knows what Usenet or newsgroups are. It's been a couple days now, and I'm thinking of trying another newsreader/downloader soon.

What do you guys use for your newsgroup program?

I got nothing Doc, I don't use newsgroups since ooo year 2000.

Bubbaspanky wrote:I got nothing Doc, I don't use newsgroups since ooo year 2000.

Thanks for responding anyway.

The lack of interest in, or even knowledge of the existence of, newsgroups, seems to have resulted in very little software development for that purpose. Occasionally you'll hear of something new, but it'll be a poorly written piece of crap, or it will be abandoned due to the lack of interest anyone has in paying for it.

I guess I'll stick with what I have for now, and do some searching over the next few days to see if I can come up with anything new.

ETA:
Here's some info on the subject I thought I'd share.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...net_newsreaders

BAH! I made a few phone calls tonight, and had a go at Charter's on-line chat version of customer service. One CSR did not really understand what Usenet was and screwed up the working part of my internet service as well. . . I had to undo the changes he had me make.

The second guy I talked to knew what I was taking about, but couldn't fix it - he thought there was a problem with their servers. . .but speaking from my own CSR experience, he probably heard something somewhere was down, and was using it as an excuse for every issue he couldn't figure out tonight. I remember ppl doing all sorts of things, except doing their jobs right. When you ran into a rep that knew his or her stuff, it was like making a new best friend. . .that joy that overcame you when you got to deal with someone that knew as much as you did, or even MORE, was just sad in retrospect.

The on-line chat thing is a waste of time. First, the guy typed like he had one finger, and he still had to do all the stupid-ass things the voice reps do, like mirror what I say back to me in his responses: "I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems with your Usenet access today. . ."

Second, the next thing he told me was that they have no responsibility to help me with Usenet beyond making it available. . .before he even knew the nature of the problem! Dude was "not my problem"ing it from the get-go.

Lastly, when I told him that I questioned that they WERE making it available, he said that he had no way to find out if they were having service issues or interruptions.

Useless damn people. . .I'll give it a few more days, then look into DSL. Even though it might take them a week or 3 to get it done, companies place SOME importance on giving the new customer what he's paying for, instead of pleading ignorance, passing it off, or just saying it's NOT THEIR PROBLEM.

I found a new forum to bookmark:

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/4

Select the forum for your provider, and when you have internet issues, check back and see if you find anything out. Motivated end-users are oftentimes more helpful than under-trained support ppl - and it's nice to be able to post and see if it's "just you."

As it turns out, the Usenet issue I'm having isn't just me. I don't have any hard info to go on as to why, and when it will return, but it's happening all over, even up to MA and MI.

Grrrrrr. It's like losing my TIVO. Usenet IS my TIVO, since I don't have one.