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Author Topic: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.  (Read 2770 times)

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Namco

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Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« on: July 16, 2008, 11:09:55 am »
Those idiots over at Verizon have seen fit to remove all the alt.* newsgroups, so no more binary newsgroups, no more alt.games.mame, no more Howard Stern, no more.... thousands of great newsgroups gone.

So since Verizon has removed 30% of my Internet experience, are they going to lower my bill 30%? I doubt it. I should've checked my newsgroups more often, here it's been almost a month since they removed them and I barely noticed. This makes me sick. Now I'm debating a Giganews subsrciption, but that's going to raise my Internet bill another $12.99 per month.

I'm almost speechless. ---daisies---.

This is just an excuse to lower the amount of services they offer while charging the same price in the name of stopping child porn. It's like chopping your leg off to cure an ingrown toenail. And when the creeps move to IRC chat, they'll kill that too. And when they move to private, encrypted torrent sites, they'll have an excuse to choke off bittorrent packets next. Soon the Internet will become a tiered service like your cell phone plan with access to nothing but corporate pay services where you get to pay .03 cents to page.

Quote
IMPORTANT: CHANGE IN VERIZON NEWSGROUP SERVICE
 
On 06/24/2008, Verizon will be modifying its Newsgroup offerings to
only offer groups in the Big-8 Newsgroup hierarchies, which are listed
below. Users will not be able to post or download from any other
newsgroups.
 
comp.*
humanities.*
misc.*
news.*
rec.*
sci.*
soc.*
talk.*

More information on the Big 8 hierarchies is available at
www.big-8.org.
 
The 0.verizon.* newsgroup hierarchy will also continue to be
available.
 
In preparation for this change, you will need to modify your news
client(s) and unsubscribe from all newsgroups other than the
newsgroups listed above. Failure to do so may interfere with the
functioning of the Verizon network or use of the network by other
Verizon users which is a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy.
 
 
 
INFORMATION ABOUT CHANGES TO YOUR NEWSGROUP SERVICE
 
 
When will Verizon change its News service to carry only the Big 8?
 
The change will be effective on June 24, 2008.  After June 24th,
Verizon’s Newsgroup service will carry only the Big 8 news hierarchies
and the 0.verizon.* hierarchy. 
 
If I continue to use the Verizon News service, are any changes to my
software required?
 
There are no changes required to your software, but you will need to
unsubscribe from all Newsgroups other than the Big 8 hierarchies and
the 0.verizon.* hierarchy noted above.    The following link explains
how to subscribe and unsubscribe in Outlook Express:
 
 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171190
 
Users that continue to subscribe to unsupported newsgroups may
experience poor computer performance and slow throughput speeds over a
period of time. Failure to unsubscribe may also interfere with the
functioning of the Verizon network or use of the network by other
Verizon users which is a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy.   
]
 
If I want to access Newsgroups different from the ones you carry, what
are my options?
 
There are several commercial news providers that you can consider.
You may want to check out some options at
http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm.  The content available, posting
policies, terms and prices will vary, so you should select the one
that is right for you.  If you elect to access a non-Verizon newsgroup
over the Verizon Network, our terms of service and acceptable use
policy will still apply to your use of our Service. 
 
Will this change to the newsgroup service affect my Internet service?
 
No.  This change will NOT affect your ability to use the Internet or
other commercial newsgroup services. The change only affects the
number of newsgroups accessible through Verizon’s newsgroup service.
 
« Last Edit: July 16, 2008, 11:14:23 am by Namco »

Namco

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2008, 11:37:25 am »
Welcome to a month ago, and they're not blocking the traffic, they're just not providing the servers for 'free' anymore.




The servers are still there and they are still free. What they did was remove all the newsgroups that generated any traffic. News.verizon.net has not gone anywhere, it's just missing the entire range of alt.* groups and they're NOT forwarding any traffic from those groups. They don't have to block any traffic, since they effectively killed it all by killing newsgroups.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2008, 11:40:16 am by Namco »

Namco

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2008, 11:44:37 am »
Also, they did not inform their customers of this. The only way I would have known about it as a customer of theirs is if I subscribed to 0.verizon.announce and read a post there. There were no letters mailed out to their customers and no email sent informing of the change. There has been no announcement in the media about it, it's just not right.

hatrick

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2008, 12:36:54 pm »
Most ISP's are going with this trend. Mine did the same (cableone). The newsgroups are used by a small minority and are an expense that draws little customer base (according to them).

There are lots of subscription based servers out there...some very cheap.

I do sympathize with you. It always sucks when you loose a service and the price stays the same.

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2008, 01:04:32 pm »
Wow gee wiz. Wooptidoo. 

Welcome to the real censor happy world.

Time to invest some pennies into a proxy news server.  I don't visit the news boards anymore, but the favourites are still there if you look.

I used to like alt.2600 but these days its a sewer for all kinds of trash and spam.

http://www.giganews.com/?gclid=CN-A5vnwxJQCFQEq1AodbXxiFw

You could also google free news servers.  Some work, but no binaries.
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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2008, 01:05:42 pm »
Antiquated service in an ever-competitive service.

You can subscribe to newsgroup servers for pretty cheap and they won't be "limited".
NO MORE!!

ark_ader

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2008, 01:13:12 pm »
I was looking at that proxy and found this:

http://www.giganews.com/blog/2008/06/special-offer-for-sprint-and-verizon.html

Interesting eh Namco?
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Namco

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2008, 01:22:41 pm »
I was looking at that proxy and found this:

http://www.giganews.com/blog/2008/06/special-offer-for-sprint-and-verizon.html

Interesting eh Namco?

I'd probably go with a Silver account for $12.99

Quote
* Offer restricted to members with a valid Sprint or Verizon email address who have not maintained an active Giganews account since June 18, 2008. Discounts are applied to the first month of service only.

Shame the 20% off is only for the first month. So the special deal is $2.60 off. Woohoo, 6 games of Indiana Jones!  :D

So I lose newsgroups and have to go sign up for an external service at the cost of $156 per year, Verizon gets terrabytes less traffic across their network, and I get to stick my thumb up my.... lan port. Just awesome  :applaud:

 :angry:
« Last Edit: July 16, 2008, 01:25:07 pm by Namco »

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2008, 01:54:34 pm »
I'm surprised they had those groups available at all.  I lost free access 6.5 years ago according to my Easynews stats.  I'm paying $15 for almost 60 gigabytes per month and much better retention/completion than I ever got from free servers.

Seems to me that FIOS + alt.binaries.* = quick trip to bankruptcy.

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2008, 01:58:50 pm »
If you don't need binary service, you can use a free group.  Since reading this thread, I checked out news.aioe.org.  It has all the alt groups I read, so I'm happy now.

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2008, 02:15:55 pm »
Oh wah...

CableOne stopped providing free newsgroup service 6 months ago.  IE: All newsgroups.

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2008, 02:41:21 pm »
I never found the ISP provided news servers to be worth squat anyway.  Horrible retention, speed, and completion.  I've been using Easynews for years now at $10 a month.  It's one of the few recurring monthly charges I pay that's actually worth it. 

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2008, 03:27:57 pm »
I never found the ISP provided news servers to be worth squat anyway.  Horrible retention, speed, and completion.  I've been using Easynews for years now at $10 a month.  It's one of the few recurring monthly charges I pay that's actually worth it. 

Ditto.

I also found, after reviewing my agreement with my ISP, that usenet access was not amongst the services provided under the agreement.

I am kinda surprised that it took you a month to notice that 30% of your Internet experience was missing ...  ;)
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Namco

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2008, 03:34:21 pm »
Wow, I didn't know it was so widespread. It's a shame too because Newsgroups were the backbone of the Internet forever. These ISPs should stop calling it Internet service and instead just call it WWW service or something. At least they're not blocking the traffic.  :-\

Verizon was great. I would pull down 10 concurrent connections with good throughput and unlimited data. I would get my demos, linux distros, and public domain media very efficiently  ;). Retention was around 3-7 days on the busiest of servers, but people reposted so much, it didn't really matter to me. I think I'll miss alt.games.mame and alt.binaries.howard-stern the most though.  :'(

But Cest la vie. There's always offshore torrents and 3rd party NG servers to fill the void.  :applaud:

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2008, 03:39:18 pm »
I never found the ISP provided news servers to be worth squat anyway.  Horrible retention, speed, and completion.  I've been using Easynews for years now at $10 a month.  It's one of the few recurring monthly charges I pay that's actually worth it. 

Ditto.

I also found, after reviewing my agreement with my ISP, that usenet access was not amongst the services provided under the agreement.

I am kinda surprised that it took you a month to notice that 30% of your Internet experience was missing ...  ;)

My hard drives were full man. It Takes me a long time to clean them up so I can start downloading again. I took a few months off and just recently finally got around to burning all the isos and "stuff" off my disks so that I can update the groups. Whenever I update my groups and browse what's out there, I end up queuing up hundreds of parts and fill up my hard drives pretty quick. That's quite a lot of shareware, indie music, and silent-movies that ends up on there.  ;)

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2008, 06:55:13 pm »
Hmmm...my ISP hasn't dropped newsgroup service, and they haven't mentioned doing so either  :woot
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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #16 on: July 16, 2008, 10:06:07 pm »
If you don't do a ton of downloading, Astraweb (http://www.news.astraweb.com/) is pretty cool.  Pay $25 for 110G, and download 'till its gone.  I think I've been on the same 110G for 6 months now.
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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2008, 06:57:16 am »
I think I'll miss alt.games.mame and alt.binaries.howard-stern the most though.  :'(

You can still get alt.games.mame on the link I posted above.

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2008, 03:42:14 pm »
Use private bittorrent sites there is  only few game sites.  fast and have plenty of content.  Invites are easy to come by.

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Re: Well, it's finally started, the gestapo is moving in.
« Reply #19 on: July 21, 2008, 03:22:18 am »
I use iGoogle and read my groups (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.games.mame/topics) via RSS feed. For the rest I use the usual  :censored: sources.
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