Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 22:28:45 -0500 (EST) From: BCPLNET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: [BCPL.NET NEWS] Access To NEWS.ABS.NET To Be Discontinued --------------------------------------------------------- ACCESS TO USENET NEWS VIA NEWS.ABS.NET TO BE DISCONTINUED --------------------------------------------------------- This announcement is of importance to BCPL.NET customers who participate in Usenet News groups via the ABSnet news server at news.abs.net. Our long-standing contract with ABSnet Internet Services (now part of Charm Net) to provide BCPL.NET customers access to Usenet News will be terminated effective February 1, 2006. BCPL.NET customers will not be able to access the ABSnet news server (news.abs.net) after that date. We have provided Usenet News access via the ABSnet news server since 1995, so this was not an easy decision. Once an extremely popular form of group communication, Usenet News has declined in popularity in recent years. Only a very small number of BCPL.NET customers still use news.abs.net. Most customers who still participate in Usenet News now do so on web-based news sites like Google Groups. In light of this, continuation of the contract with ABSnet no longer makes business sense. For those of you who still want to use Usenet News, the by far largest and most popular free access site these days is the Google Groups site at http://groups.google.com. Anyone can read the newsgroups on Google News, but free registration is required if you want to be able to post to the newsgroups as well. If Google Groups isn't to your liking, check out the following two sites for extensive lists of public access Usenet News servers: http://www.disenter.com/ http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9594/public.htm -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES 320 York Road Towson, MD 21204-5179 U.S.A. Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Who To Contact For What: http://www.bcpl.net/contacts/