On Monday, February 13, 2017 at 5:00:36 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Actually I did have Thunderbird set up at one time when my ISP (apparently) was having trouble with Usenet access.

Also, I am not fond of Google Groups because it does not give a tree view..

Now it is acting up more and more and in two different browsers. I need to do something else. There is one problem, I deal only in cash so there is no way to pay anyone online. The occasions when I do buy something I generally use a postal money order. I am actually not blacklisted by the banks, which is when they charge you $300 for a $1.00 overdraft, but it ain't ever going to happen. It happened to a couple of people I know and I am not letting it happen to me. Plus the fact that everyone I deal with at the moment takes cash. I work for cash, I spend cash.

Bottom line, no matter how much money is in my safe and drawer, there is no way to pay them.

I did have it set up with Thunderbird and AIOE (IIRC) and it did not solve my problem. It still had access issues. Then all that cleared up, but then so did Google, so I just went back to that. It bitches about my browsers but when it says "A problem occurred while communicating with the server" it is NOT a browser issue, especially when the same browser works a half an hour later. So I am not "upgrading" anything. But then if I have to go Thunderbird again I will probably get the new version of that. And it STILL might not fix my problem. Like updating drivers, it does not work, like I have no sound so I need the newer drivers, hows come it worked last week ? Bunch of bull****.

Is there free client software out there other than Thunderbird ? Is there something that is really about guaranteed to connect ?

Or is Usenet slated for a slow death by the PTB because of unmoderated groups and so forth promoting free speech ? (or at least enabling it)

Google groups has been working fine for me for a while.
Back several years ago it would "drop out" for days or weeks at a time.

George H.