I'm a customer of NDO/Namesco, who (if you believe my message headers)
access usenet via PlusNet. Whilst investigating why some groups
weren't updating it came to light that they are decommissioning the
usenet service -

PlusNet's reply to my support ticket

"2006-03-22
09:22:37
Michael Holmes
CSC Agent Actioned :
We do not provide 3rd party resale of usenet services. The usenet
service itself requires a PlusNet username and Login which should
belong to the Broadband or Subscription Dial-Up account the user has
with us.

Having said this, the Usenet service is being decommissioned very soon
as it is unsustainable within our business model.

I hope that this does not cause too much inconvenience.

Regards,
Michael Holmes
To administer your account and for all your help and support
requirements visit http://portal.plus.net/index_nlp.html"

The fact that they are denying that I'm managing to access their
newsfeed when the message headers say otherwise I find amusing -

NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.84.108.56 - resolves to Namesco Limited

Path, X-Trace & Xref - resolve to plus.net servers

Daytona

"Daytona" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:05j222lfmvjo6jlv00i57ohqah7aa52f1f@4ax.com...

Hmm ... PN have told their own customers that it is only the binary usenet
which is being dropped.

Still a b****y con as most contracts were sold on the understanding that
binaries were supported.

On 22 Mar 2006, "Roger Cain" <roger@rcain.plus.com> wrote:


" Having said this, the Usenet service is being decommissioned very
soon as it is unsustainable within our business model."

and cross-posted so other Plus.Net users could see it!

--
following added by news server, not me
*** Free account sponsored by SecureIX.com ***
*** Encrypt your Internet usage with a free VPN account from http://www.SecureIX.com ***

Daytona wrote in article
<news:05j222lfmvjo6jlv00i57ohqah7aa52f1f@4ax.com>:

The message they sent to all of their customers is that the binary
groups will be dropped from early April. The text groups are allegedly
going to improve as a result - although the service is pretty dire at
the moment. Maybe PlusNet's hoping that the current problems are load-
related and will go away as soon as the binaries are gone.

--
K A Nuttall
www.yammer.co.uk
Re-type the e-mail address how it sounds, remove .invalid

Aside from the point you are posting account specific information (in
the form of a private email sent to you) - NDO / Namesco have a special
arrangement with PlusNet as can be seen mentioned here:
http://www.ndousers.com/viewtopic.php?id=1892 - this is why the PlusNet
guy said they do not resell UseNet - they don't.

Issue between chair and computer.

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:49:27 -0000, "Roger Cain"
<roger@rcain.plus.com> wrote:

That is correct.

And logical, when you realise that 4 days (max) retention of binaries
takes 5 times as much storage as a year's worth of text.

Which means the daily feed is roughly 450 times as much for binary
usenet as for text usenet - with only a few hundred customers (out of
150,000) accessing it.

That is an "understanding" that PN have not fostered for quite some
time now, although it has been true, and with no indication until
recently that it would change.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

K A Nuttall <keith@yammer.coedotyoukay.invalid> wrote:

Which is irrelevant if they're ending usenet access.

Daytona

Alex Heney <me8@privacy.net> wrote:

I have a post awaiting moderation on uk.legal.moderated on the
subject, although it relates to the email confirmation I and others
received about usenet access from NDO/Namesco prior to signing up.

Daytona

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:00:24 +0000, Daytona <me@privacy.net> wrote:

Which they aren't.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

Alex Heney wrote:
During Ian Wild's previous incarnation He said a number of time that PN's
aim was to provide a usenet service, including binaries, that was up with
the best ISP provided services. Since the official change in policy, I have
not seen any acknowledgement that that was ever the situation.

PN do of course have the right to change the services they provide, subject
to the appropriate notice. However, these days they so often pretend that
nothing has changed.

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make people
believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

Daytona wrote in article <news:7ss2221j1neifrm1k59ln141p4mcmbcm5q@
4ax.com>:

?

Didn't I just say that they aren't?

--
K A Nuttall
www.yammer.co.uk
Re-type the e-mail address how it sounds, remove .invalid

Alex Heney wrote:
You're directly contradicting the quote in my op from PlusNet support.

Provide more recent evidence which backs up your assertion.

Daytona

K A Nuttall wrote:
You're directly contradicting the quote in my op from PlusNet support.

Provide more recent evidence which backs up your assertion.

Daytona

In article <78t222ptrqlm7d3u1d5u24jcfl1nhmlbmg@4ax.com>, Daytona
<me@privacy.net> wrote:

Certainly for PlusNet customers the binary usenet service was
advertised as part of the package until this month and there will be
some, a few perhaps, who chose PlusNet for this compelling reason. They
should make representation to the company for a reduction in
subscription now that the binary news service is being withdrawn.

Stan

Daytona wrote:
Sounds more like support staff misinformation to me, not a confirmation :-)

<junk721176@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143057248.402055.134640@i40g2000cwc.googlegr oups.com...
How about this reply from plus.net themselves in reply to your post above
that is available in plusnet.service.cusomer-feedback:-

"Hi,

I have spoken to this agent this morning regarding his response and
ensured that the entire contact centre are aware of this. The fact that
we offered NDO a news feed was not common knowledge across the call
centre (as we don't normally provide NDO customers with first line support).
NDO customers will continue to receive access to the text feeds in the
same fashion as with the Plusnet vISPS but binary access will be revoked
AAUI."

That do you?

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:55:47 +0000, Stan The Man said...
Unfortunately, this appears to be a global trend with ISPs. Rogers in Canada
dropped newsgroups entirely, Wanadoo is/has turned off their news servers, and
large ISPs like AOL have kept text groups while eliminating the binaries.

Many of the ISPs say that the decision is based upon legal concerns(copyright,
etc.), but the reality is that Usenet consumes a great deal of bandwidth, and
they're simply making a financial decision not to carry those costs.

That wouldn't be a problem, but these ISPs are forgetting that they advertised
and sold customers a bill of goods that they're changing after the fact.

I dumped my ISP news server long ago in favor of a dedicated newsgroup provider,
and that may very well be the only option for accessing all the newsgroups in
the future.

BigTony


--
Newsguy Usenet Accounts - 30GB / $9.95 month
Free Trial: http://newsguy.com/overview.htm

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:55:47 +0000, Stan The Man <man@pr100.com>
wrote:

No, they should just go to a company who provides what they want.

There is zero chance of any reduction, and no point at all in staying
around to fight it if binary usenet is important to you.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Too bad stupidity isn't painful.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On 22 Mar 2006 11:52:46 -0800, junk721176@hotmail.com wrote:

Your message was copied to plusnet.service.customer-feedback, where it
got the following response

<news:442186ee$0$9274$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

I have spoken to this agent this morning regarding his response and
ensured that the entire contact centre are aware of this. The fact
that we offered NDO a news feed was not common knowledge across the
call centre (as we don't normally provide NDO customers with first
line support).

NDO customers will continue to receive access to the text feeds in the
same fashion as with the Plusnet vISPS but binary access will be
revoked AAUI.

Regards,

--
|Bob Pullen...................Broadband Solutions for
|Training & Project Liaison.........Home & Business @
|PlusNet plc.............................www.plus.net
+ ----- PlusNet - The smarter way to broadband ------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am also a part of the Plusnet User Group, and have seen PLENTY of
messages about the removal of *binary* usenet access - and all of the
announcements say that this should result in a better text usenet
service.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Do steam rollers really roll steam?
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On 22 Mar 2006, "Beck" wrote:

Yes, but interesting how the load on the news service is not just that
of their own customers, but also for NDO users, yet most staff weren't
even aware of that arrangement. What a way to run a service! Finally
confirms that NDO would not be a reasonable choice for Usenet binaries
to be available, since the closure affects their customers too.