Sonic.net

Yeah, it is likely that we'll discontinue our relationship with Giganews/Supernews at the same time. We haven't officially provided that for quite a few years now.

dukeofur wrote:I finally bit the bullet and registered for an account on their news server, but I'm having trouble configuring Thunderbird for it.

Go to the server in the folder last, right click and choose "Subscribe."

A pop up box will ask for your user ID. Make sure you tell it to remember it.

Yup, that did it.

Thanks

Firstly, thanks to Sonic for investing in, and continuing to offer Usenet access for as long as you have.

In light of its fading relevance, small user base, and other factors, I can understand Sonic's rationale for abandoning it, purely on rational terms.

On the flip side, it's still one of the services I still rely upon, and to me a feature that helps characterize and separate Sonic as a premium service provider. Having reliable access in one package has been a great convenience, and one of the key factors why I've remained a customer for ~8 years.

However, now that I'm being compelled to begin to rationalize my own terms with regard to ISP service, I can't dismiss the fact that the combined cost of Sonic's service, as well as a separate Usenet provider will likely force me to seek other pastures in order to make the best use of my limited budget.

Sonic has provided great service overall, and the technical support has been top notch when I've required it, which has been seldom, but in light of the coming changes, the value proposition had dramatically changed, and I'll be forced, albeit reluctantly, to seek other pastures. I've resisted other overtures for many years, but I guess the time has come.

kgc wrote:Yeah, it is likely that we'll discontinue our relationship with Giganews/Supernews at the same time. We haven't officially provided that for quite a few years now.

That's too bad... I was hoping the limited Supernews service would at least be left in place.

Guest wrote: However, now that I'm being compelled to begin to rationalize my own terms with regard to ISP service, I can't dismiss the fact that the combined cost of Sonic's service, as well as a separate Usenet provider will likely force me to seek other pastures in order to make the best use of my limited budget.

Do you use Usenet for binary groups? I hope you know that you can get access to text-only groups for free.

Re: free usenet text groups: where is that exactly?

[email protected] wrote:Re: free usenet text groups: where is that exactly?

http://www.eternal-september.org/



-Scott

nullgoo wrote:

kgc wrote:Yeah, it is likely that we'll discontinue our relationship with Giganews/Supernews at the same time. We haven't officially provided that for quite a few years now.

That's too bad... I was hoping the limited Supernews service would at least be left in place. :(

Here's hoping Sonic could continue the Supernews access. I do use the binary groups at about 10 gigs per month but that was with the super fast sonic server. It would much less with the limited access on supernews but still valuable. Thanks for whatever you could do.

I'm another long-time Sonic user (since December 2000) who is quite disappointed by this. The Usenet access has always been an important aspect of Sonic. I'm also an alt.binaries downloader (primarily ABMS). Losing this access is potentially a big economic hit or facing up to not being able to download without dealing with Torrent site's with their slower speeds and idiosyncracies. Since Sonic hosts my business and personal website as well as being the best ISP I know, I'm not about to switch. However, I do hope you can reconsider this decision.