MTW wrote:
- quote -

Which has just announced that they will be going to paid as
of April 1st.

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

1. Get a newsreading client that has nothing to do with AOL.

2. Get online via AOL.

3. Start your new client and configure it to point to the other
server.

Details depend on the client and server chosen.

Seth

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

I don't know. What I do know is that I participate in some
newsgroups that only appear on special, independent news
servers. When I encouraged a friend to participate in one
of them, I did extensive research into how she might do
that. But being a member of AOL, it was, at that point,
impossible for her to do.

Stu

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

rick++ wrote:

- quote -

It's great to know that. How do you do it?

Stu

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

http://news.individual.net/

--
Don EA in Upstate NY

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

"MTW" <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:
- quote -

I use that server as well. I'm forced to use Outlook Express
(a/k/a Outhouse Excuse) from work, but the server gives me
no problems.

Gary

--
E-mail to the above address is rarely read. If you want to
contact me directly, please send an e-mail to: gary at
gdgoodman dot com.

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

AOL might not help them, and certainly won't pay for it, but
how would AOL prevent it? I'm pretty sure AOL doesn't block
Port 119.

Seth

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

Wrong. I've frequently used non-AOL readers on AOL
dialup.

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

This is true of most newsreaders, including Outlook Express
(although I cannot, in good faith, recommend that anyone
actually use that reader).

IMHO, what you need to do is (1) get a real newsreader, or
see if you have a copy of Outlook Express, and (2) contact
your ISP to see if they provide news service, or contact a
third-party news service. In regard (1), I'm presently
using Netscape, but that may also no be considered a "real"
newsreader by the professionals. In regard (2), there's a
German free newsserver with a fairly long expiration time
for text only newsgroups. Unfortunately, I don't remember
what it is.

It is difficult to transfer your "read" settings from one
newsreader to another, and VERY difficult to transfer them
from one news server to another. If you keep a number of
articles intentionally marked "unread", you may have
difficulties. (Waves hand frantically for attention. Me!
Me!)

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

This is my first time using Google to respond to a message.
Most of my contributions have been lost, to MOST of my
newsgroups, since the beginning of the New Year. I just
discovered Google about a week ago and receive a list of
posts, daily, in my e-mail. Really don't like it as well
as the AOL setup (it does take more time) but believe I will
adjust as time allows!!=

"Jack"-

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

Victor Roberts <xxx[at]lighting-research.com> wrote:

- quote -

You can set up a (free) account at news.individual.net, or
pay any of several companies (e.g. supernews) to use their
servers.

Seth

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

Victor Roberts wrote:

- quote -

I'm probably not the only person around here using this
excellent FREE newsserver operated by a German university:

http://news.individual.net/

MTW

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

Victor Roberts wrote:

- quote -

I think you misunderstand. AOL is discontinuing access to
newsgroups for everyone. And, at least the last time I
checked, AOL has never allowed its subscribers to get access
to any outside news server.

I think what happens is that to have AOL over broadband, you
have to have a separate broadband account, which may allow
you either to access their own news servers or independent
ones.

This has nothing to do with the news reader.

Stu

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

I would appreciate some private or group tutoring on what to
do next. The AOL newsgroups feature shows me the MTM topics,
allows me to mark those I've read, and the next time I look
at MTM, I only see the postings I haven't read, listed by
date.

When I went to Google, the listings on MTM seemed to be by
thread and it was much more time consuming for me to look at
the new posts.

I don't understand much about the "behind the scenes"
workings (I didn't even realize that I was seeing something
different for MTM than non-AOL users were seeing) so would
appreciate some simple step-by-step instructions about the
easiest/cleanest way to view MTM. The Mozilla link that AOL
gave us goes to a 404 error code -- not much help!

Happy tax season to all, Jan Zobel EA

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

I don't think the "third party reader" was meant to be a
separate option. It is meant to be read in conjunction with
the preceding sentence about contacting your broadband
provider to see if they offer newsgroups. Thunderbird would
be used to access the broadband ISP's news server. I don't
have AOL, but I assume they had newsgroup access built in
to the AOL software, so that people who were accessing
newsgroups through AOL did not already have a separate
newsreader program.

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

- quote -

I understand this has nothing to do with taxes, but your
original message was posted so I have a question.

If AOL is discontinuing newsgroup service for dial-up
customers how does it help to switch to a different reader -
since the people have lost their newsserver? What
newsserver would they access via thunderbird?

--
Vic Roberts
Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

Helen P. OPlanick EA wrote:

- quote -

Earthlink/Mindspring is not _discontinuing_ newsgroups, as
far as I know, but they only make it available through their
own server. This means that, as they don't provide
broadband service here, I'm going to have to maintain the
dial-up account or transfer to another news provider.

(In case your wondering, that's one of the reasons why my
responses are slower than usual. Pending the completion of
data transfer from my old computer to my new computer, I'm
presently only accessing newsgroups through my old computer.
In a few days, I may receive another data switch which
allow allow me to choose which computer gets the dial-up
line, which will allow me to access newsgroups from the new
computer if I can keep both dial-up and broadband active at
the same time.)

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued
in early 2005.

For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband
provider to see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services
can often be accessed through a third party reader, such as
Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).

Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Helen, EA in PA
Director, NAEA; Immediate Past President, PSEA; Tax Expert, AOL
Enrolled Agents - THE Tax Professionals

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->