USENET... biggest forum/newsgroups on the planet?

[Soeru]

I've been trying to learn a bit about newsgroups and all the shit that goes down in them. I keep hearing about how l33t newsgroups are, where you can discuss and download just about anything before it is proliferated anywhere on the internet. I found a site called GigaNews, but they require some registration and monthly fee to access Usenet, supposedly a massive lump of private discussion centers where new releases are tossed about and such. Care to inform me a little more on Usenet and point me in the right direction?

[Vagabond]

I'll see what I can find, but I thought usernet was a search engine.

[MasJ]

You could try free servers. For example: news.cyberrec.com
Just pop that into your Outlook Express and take a look : )

[Soeru]

Sadly, I don't use Outlook, since I prefer to use FireFox and a plug-in to handle my emails. Is there a site or something instead of having to subscribe? Oh yes, and are newsgroups what I think they are? It still doesn't sound real to me for some reason...

[djnickname]

You can browse tru newsgroups with the so called newsreaders , like newsbin .

[Ragnar]

I'd reccomend Xnews. It's freeware and the best news client out there IMO.

I donno if that server MasJ mentioned would host binaries (not all free ones do...), but if it doesn't you're missing the biggest chunk of usenet. So don't be dissapointed if you don't see craploads of files to download.

[Norgus]

I got a good few albums off of my ISP's free newsgroup.. oh and one of the doom 3 CDs.

I find them far from convenient, so I don't use them now.

[djnickname]

The newsgroups from my ISP suck , but soon I will get another ISP and I heard the newsgroups there are great