Free Newsgroup Servers - FAQ
Yes they really exist - but they may not really have what you want
These servers really do have free articles on them, but often only have
content in the text newsgroups. There are exceptions to this however, in
some cases there are companies or universities that provide test servers, or
intentionally leave a server with binaries open to the public, but these
usually operate with very restrictive rules. In some cases the operator of
a server fail to properly protect their server and those servers usually
get fixed fairly quickly when the owner discovers he is having problems
browsing the world-wide web due to the Usenet traffic eating up his T1.
Free Usenet servers that are usually free/open to the public
This usually occurs when someone sets up a new Usenet server or a new NNTP
server which accesses their existing newsgroup server. Typically, the owner
puts the server up on the Internet and just forgets to require passwords to
access the server. Lots of people have tools that scan the Internet on a
continual basis and if they find an open news server they post its address
on a web site somewhere, or send a message to a newsgroup which lists free
servers. Because of the decline in Usenet popularity (due to the
availability of blogs, forums and wikis), and the low cost of most
commercial Usenet providers, very few people or companies feel the need to
set up new Usenet servers for themselves or their companies nowadays, so
this doesn't happen as much as it used too. As I mentioned earlier, if
someone has made this mistake, and they have groups people want (ie. binary
groups) they usually notice fairly quickly that the traffic on their
Internet connection is way too high and track down its cause and fix the
server.
Some corporations (Microsoft and Adobe come to mind) have operated servers
that allow reading and posting articles in newsgroups. These servers only
allow access to newsgroups in their own corporate hierarchy, such as
microsoft.* and adobe.*. The justification for operating a corporate Usenet
server, when most ISPs and commercial providers also carry the same
newsgroups, vary. Corporations usually do it because they can retain many
or possibly all articles posted to their hierarchies and they can provide it
to the public as a form of knowledge base.
In the past, many Universities have made their Usenet servers available to
the public, at least for reading text articles. The arguments for this
vary, some did it to help foster free speech, others did it because they
received public funds (also called tax dollars), and the operators felt that
if peoples tax dollars are paying for the Usenet servers, the public should
be able to use a server they are paying for. Over the years, most
universities have shut down access to their servers in the US, but there are
still some universities in Europe and Asia which allow reading text
newsgroups, although many only allow access to groups in their native
language, such as the de.* (Deutsch) and es.* (Espaņol) groups.
Free web-based reader services
These are websites that allow users to read Usenet newsgroups in their
browser. These web-based readers allow visitors to read text articles, but
there are no servers that I know of which allow reading or downloading
binaries at this time. The most dominant of these web-based readers is
Google Newsgroups which took over the
old DejaNews service and has about 20 years of articles in its archives.
Sites that list free servers
This website (freeusenetnews.com)
freenews.maxbaud.net (oldest operating index of free Usenet servers)
Open Directory Free Server Listing
freenews.maxbaud.net has a scorecard for sites listing free servers
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