Is your ISP messing up access to Apple II
  news and information on the net? Check out these
Free Portals to Newsgroups

        by.Rubywand
 

There's no telling why an ISP's news server suddenly starts bombing. Whatever,
when you notice that the numbers of postings to your favorite newsgroups have
mysteriously plummeted or that your postings just aren't showing up, it's time
to check out an alternative news host.

Google and Mailgate are free news hosts offering reliable reading and posting
access to comp.sys.apple2 plus most other Apple II newsgroups. Based upon a few
tests, it looks like you can be pretty sure that, if a message is posted, it will show
up within no more than a few hours.

Speed on both sites is good, too. I still prefer my ISP's server (when it's working
correctly); but, it is very nice to have a couple good alternatives.
 
 

 Home.  .Csa2

Several months ago, Google took over most of what used to be Deja News.
At first it supplied free reading of most Apple II groups. Then, it offered
limited search capabilities of the newsgroup archive (going back about one
year).  More recently, searches back to 1995 became possible. And, now,
free subscribers can both read and post messages!

Google's current method for listing message headers takes some getting
used to. It lists titles of threads with recent messages along with the name
the poster. The most recently posted in thread title is listed first. Clicking
on a title produces the messages in the thread.
 

Apple II Newsgroups Supported

comp.sys.apple2
comp.sys.apple2.comm
comp.sys.apple2.gno
comp.sys.apple2.marketplace
comp.sys.apple2.programmer
comp.sys.apple2.usergroups
comp.emulators.apple2
 
 
 

 Home.  .Csa2

Mailgate is an Italian-based service which has offered both free reading
and posting for some time. Mailgate also has a search; but, it seems to be
somewhat limited.

Mailgate lists the 500 most recent mesage headers in chronological order
along with dates and names of posters. A nice plus is that users can quickly
switch to a display which organizes messages by thread.
 

Apple II Newsgroups Supported

comp.sys.apple2
comp.sys.apple2.comm
comp.sys.apple2.gno
comp.sys.apple2.marketplace
comp.sys.apple2.programmer
comp.sys.apple2.usergroups
comp.emulators.apple2
comp.sources.apple2
 
 

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