Can't get messages

I am not sure what you mean. You cannot subscribe and unsubscribe to RCTN. Anyone can read and post at any time. There is no "list" of members.

You most certainly can subscribe and unsubscribe from a group, it is an oft used method to unblock news group posts.

Carol you did know that google groups had a humongous problem last week, involving most groups? It just seemed to burp uncontrollably.

Keep trying.

Hi Carol, Have you tried resetting RCTN?

Highlight the newsgroup name in the list and right click. Choose Properties..... Local File..... Reset..... Yes. (All the posts will disappear.) Click Compact. Exit the newsgroup then return. The most recent posts should download. If you want to go back farther click Tools.... Get Next # Headers.

If this doesn't work there's probably a problem with Roadrunner's news server and you should give tech support a call (which may or may not help depending on if you get someone who knows what Usenet is).

Subscribing to newsgroups is the method used by people who use newsreaders to access Usenet rather than web portals.

Maybe we are talking semantics. I never subscribed to RCTN. We get adverts from all sorts of outsiders who I am reasonably sure have not subscribed. There may be some ISPs who have software that demands that you "subscribe" to RCTN. But if so, it is the software of the ISP, not RCTN itself.

No, it's the newsreader software. For those who read news using a newsreader, the method by which the software knows which newsgroups to display is by checking which newsgroups you've subscribed to. If, in fact, it's your newsreader that is somehow hosed, unsubscribing and resubscribing to the newsgroup not infrequently clears up the problem by clearing out some newsreader setting that might be creating the problem. There may be newsreaders that don't use that terminology, but most of them do.

Best wishes, Ericka

Absolutely, it is the method by which one reads and posts to usenet, specifically in this case RCTN.

When you use software such as a mail program to participate in a newsgroup, the program will pull up whatever newsgroups your ISP sees, and then asks you to subscibe to those you're interested int. Outlook, Entourage, etc all refer to your newsgroups as those you're "subscribed" to.

So, I guess the rest of us knew what the issue was, and you evidently do this through google or something similar and didn't. It's the standard term, subscribing. Else when you opened your mail window, and looked down at News there would be thousands of groups and it would take forever. This way, the groups to which you're subscribed look like just another mailbox folder.

So, it's not really the ISP - which would allow you access via the web, but rather how you choose to get to the group in conjunction with what news sources your ISP is hooked into.

Ellice