[nycbug-talk] OT: cheap usenet

[N.J. Thomas]

I canceled my old university account some time back and along with that
went my last access to a proper Usenet server.

I have a great provider here in NYC providing me with shell access,
email, web hosting, etc. for a great price, but they don't provide any
newsfeeds.

Can someone recommend a service/site that provides Usenet access?

My requirements:

    - cheap: I don't mind paying monthly/yearly charges, but I don't
      want to pay an arm and a leg for what is more or less
      non-essential for me

    - groups: no alt.binaries.* needed, I only read rec.humor.funny and
      the comp.* groups.

    - access: I must be able to access it via FreeBSD/slrn -- I don't
      want to jump through any proprietary-OS authentication schemes.

I've heard good things about Giganews, but I think they market
themselves towards people who want to download binaries and their
pricing plans reflect that. Their cheapest plan (Bronze) is $8 per
month. This is what I am thinking of going with.

Usenet.com offers a $4.95/month service, which sounds about right, but I
only found them through a web search -- I've not heard anything about
them yet.

Any advice appreciated.

Thomas