Do TimeWarner Road Runner customers get access to a news server - either in-house or through a specialty news service (e.g. GigaNews)? I've just spent 1 hr on the phone with TimeWarner and Comcast reps, and none of them knew if TimeWarner's Road Runner service includes a news server or even what Usenet or a news server is.
*TimDaniels*
If you go to
Also, pinging news-server.nyroc.rr.com succeeds.
I assume there are regional news servers depending on your location.
--Gene
Yes.
NEWS-SERVER..RR.COM
In New York it's: NEWS-SERVER.NYC.RR.COM
A_C
Thanks, A_C and Gene. How is the breadth of NGs and retention time for text NGs on the Road Runner news servers? The switch-over to TimeWarner from Comcast will mean losing access to GigaNews, and I'm wondering if it will mean fewer NGs and shorter retention time. Otherwise, the drop from $57/month to $45/month (for 5Mbps downstream speed) sounds quite good.
*TimDaniels*
Retention and completion are TERRIBLE on Roadrunner. I'd strongly advise a premium news service, such as Giganews.
A_C
"Timothy Daniels" asked:
In the text groups, my impression (based on the 100+ I subscribe to and comments by others) is that completion is decent and retention is 4+ days, up to a couple of weeks, depending on total volume. Their 'history' file, though, seems to be only 2 days long, so sometimes articles from 2 days ago reappear as new articles. That *may* be a hack to try to improve binary group completeness.
In the binary groups, my impression (based on complaints from others a couple of years ago) is that completion wasn't so good and that retention was as low as 2 days when volume is high.
As to the number of groups, RR policy (last I heard) is to carry only those groups that their customers have expressed interest in. If you want one they don't have, just ask and they'll add it (usually on the next Monday).
HTH, -WBE
You're DAMNED lucky!
Here in SoCal, we're lucky to get 24 hour retention and 50% complete on binaries. Text groups are better, of course.
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"Timothy Daniels" asked:
I replied:
... and it was the text groups Timothy asked about and that I was talking about in the part you quoted. Sorry to hear that binary groups in your region are still so bad. -WBE
Well, maybe I'll have to convert my Comcast account with GigaNews to an individual account. That will really bite into the $12/month difference in subscription costs between Comcast and TimeWarner, though. I guess you get what you pay for. It seems that with all ISPs, the 1st thing to go as the price comes down is Usenet service.
*TimDaniels*4 days can be a bit restrictive in the case of vacations and long holidays. I guess I'll have to check out RR's news server for a while before deciding on GigaNews. Thanks for the info. *TimDaniels*
Luckily, I'm in SoCal and TW has left us on Adelphia's Giganews for the time being. The longer they take to do any switching - the better. Would be nice if they would just leave it there permanently.
I'm in SoCal, too, and I'm still getting service from GigaNews via my Comcast account. A brochure that I received a couple days ago from TimeWarner said that email domain name switchovers will be available starting October 23rd (and mandatory after a year). I guess we'll have until October 23rd to enjoy GigaNews.
What teases my imagination is that TimeWarner provides cable infrastructure for Earthlink broadband in some areas, and maybe I could eventually consolidate my Earthlink dialup with Earthlink cable.
*TimDaniels*
I've subscribed to Agent Premium News.
Unlimited speed and volume, $14.75 a month.
I also have my own domain, and get it hosted for $2.95 a month, which gives me unlimited email, AND no bogus 'account doesn't exist' bounces that I got constantly with RR.
Sure, it costs me, but the cost is what I WOULD have spent on RR Premium, and maybe a digital package or two, so RR is the one who is losing by not having reliable service.
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Looks like the TW takeover is not going to be a great thing for us Adelphia users. :(
In some binary groups, retention is less than 24 hours.
A_C
It's probably more a space than time issue.
Are you saying that your mailbox would fill up easily at the RR domain so RR would bounce email back to the senders?
*TimDaniels*
When I was on RR before moving to Comcast territory, it wasn't that the mailbox would fill up. Instead, we'd go through periods where the mail server would go offline. The worst that I can remember was a
10-day outage one November. We weren't happy campers.I previously posted:
Ouch! You'd almost have to run your own private news server + slurp or suck or something. That would certainly be a pain. :( -WBE
No, I checked mail every 15 minutes, yet at least once a week, I'd be told that mail to me had bounced, claimed there was no such account on the server. Just complete incompetence on RRs part.
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