[ Classic Linux. ]

Usenet access is not directly provided on our new servers, but you can sign up for a free account at:

• https://www.eternal-september.org/.

You will receive a username name and password. In the instructions below, replace USER with the actual username, and PASSWORD with the password. Now you can access Usenet by logging into the Linux shell on the Classic Linux machine aqua-new.rahul.net via ssh.

Note. If you are looking for legacy postings from many years ago, try these sites:

Also, postings from the old local newsgroups a2i.announce and a2i.general have been archived; please see: Read-only archives of a2.* newsgroups.

You must already have used Alpine at least once.

In your existing .pinerc file, look for a line beginning with nntp-server= and edit it to read:

nntp-server=news.eternal-september.org/user=USER

Now invoke Alpine as alpine, and enter PASSWORD when prompted.

At the main menu, hit the L key for the folder menu. One of the folders will be entitled News and it will let you access Usenet.

Alpine uses a file .newsrc to keep track of which groups and articles you have read.

Create a file called .slrnrc and into it enter the following lines:

set force_authentication 1
nnrpaccess news.eternal-september.org USER "PASSWORD"

Make sure this file is not world-readable. E.g., you can use the command:

chmod o= .slrnrc

Now invoke Slrn as:

slrn --create

You should now be in slrn, with all available newsgroups listed.

To subscribe to desired groups. type these three keys: ESC 1 s

When prompted, enter the name of a newsgroup, or enter a wildcard pattern, that may be * to subscribe to all newsgroups (can take a while). Now you can browse the available newsgroups.

From now on, invoke Slrn as just slrn without the –create option.

Slrn by default uses a file called .jnewsrc to keep track of which groups and articles you have read.

Create a file called .newsauth and into it enter the following line:

news.eternal-september.org "PASSWORD" USER

Make sure this file is not world-readable. E.g., you can use the command:

chmod o= .newsauth

Then invoke Tin, now and always, as:

tin -A

You should now be in tin, with only a few newsgroups listed.

To subscribe to desired groups. type this key: S

When prompted, enter the name of a newsgroup, or enter a wildcard pattern, that may be * to subscribe to all newsgroups (can take a while). Now you can browse the available newsgroups.

Note: If you invoke tin without the -A, it won't find all postings.

Tin by default uses a file called .newsrc to keep track of which groups and articles you have read.

As currently configured, all these programs use an unencrypted (insecure) connection. You might be able to reconfigure some of them to use an encrypted connection.