In ,
Guv Bob typed:

Thanks, Tom, this is great info! I've still got Win2000 for now,
which has Outlook Express. I'm using earthlink for outgoing email
and usenet because of all the limitations with sending email via
Verizon. Earthlink includes all the newsgroups I've ever heard of
and keeps adding more. However, it would be nice to drop the extra
$15 or so per month I'm paying if I could get usenet for free. Will
be going to cable Time Warner soon....

Since you have Outlook Express, you can try setting up free newsgroups by
starting Outlook Express and then click on:
Tools
Accounts
News
Add
News

Then put in a fake name that you want to be known as (such as Gov Bob), and
a fake email address.

Then for News Server (NNTP) try putting this in: news.aioe.org

Don't put in that my news server requires a user name and password.

I think that should work.

Once it is set up, it will work on any Internet Service Provider that you
are using, including when you switch to Time Warner.

Another free news server is: news.eternal-september.org

But that one requires that you set up a user name and password to log in.
If you do the news.aioe.org one first and get it to work, and then want to
also add the news.eternal-september.org one, post back here and I try to
explain how to do that one.