Alan wrote:
Don't forget guys - AOL is just a net pipline like
anyone else.

No, AOL is not a net pipeline at all. AOL was actually a messaging service
that was independant of the net, and with the huge publicity about the internet
in the early nineties, they gatewayed themselves (very badly) to Usenet and
then to the web services. AOL in fact does not provide complete connectivity
at all, but only a very simplified set of ports are available and many of those
are proxied in some way.

AOL is not really intended as a regular ISP, although over the years they have
done more and more thing to it to make it function as one.

My guess is that not enough people use Usenet and it costs them money to run,
so they are eliminating the gateway. Perhaps they should never have installed
it in the first place.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I have been in contact with AOL about the dropping of the newsgroups
and their official response is basically "not enough participation" but
my guess is that they are cheapening out. Everyone who reads this list
on AOL needs to write them about keeping it. I told them that this was
the last straw and I may go to a DSL which is actually cheaper. And
they complain about losing members.... makes you wonder which non
customer oriented MBA thought this one up. By the way, you can get the
newsgroups free by going to http://groups.google.com and signing
up.---Mike

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:58:43 -0800, tchrme wrote:

I have been in contact with AOL about the dropping of the newsgroups and
their official response is basically "not enough participation" but my
guess is that they are cheapening out. Everyone who reads this list on AOL
needs to write them about keeping it. I told them that this was the last
straw and I may go to a DSL which is actually cheaper. And they complain
about losing members.... makes you wonder which non customer oriented MBA
thought this one up. By the way, you can get the newsgroups free by going
to http://groups.google.com and signing up.---Mike
Losing money? Too expensive? I work for an aggregator and we re-sell
Supernews tp ISPs (we give it away to our retail customers.) We get $50 a
month from an ISP for news, no matter how many users they have.

--
Mike McGinn
Registered Linux User 377849
"more kidneys than eyes!"

AOL sucks.
You guys just now figuring that out?
Better late than never, I guess.
73
H.