The Medway Handyman wrote:

I keep missing the OP in a thread and some complete threads -

can happen either if someone adds a cross-post to this group mid-thread
from somewhere else, or as you suspect, if your ISP's news server is a
bit tardy.

although I can see them online.

where online? do you mean e.g. google groups

I'm using OE6 - would that be it? Would I be better off using Firefox to
read NG's?

I'd certainly say ditch OE6, if you want the firefox equivalent it is
called thunderbird, or as someone else has mentioned Forté Agent or
FreeAgent (I used to use Agent and it was very good, but not used it in
years, so can't comment on recent versions)