Its really free - News Groups

Not much in this world is truly free for the taking, but if you paid your Internet bill this month you can have an almost unlimited supply of information, knowledge, and fun. It is there for the taking, but even the most geekie nerds seem not to use it. I have used this service ever sense, Well a long time anyway. OK - enough, Its called the "News Groups" or "Usenet".

One source of both information and communication is newsgroups. A newsgroup is a continuous public discussion about a particular topic. You can join a newsgroup at any time to become part of a huge conversation between hundreds or even thousands of people.

Newsgroups originated in North Carolina back in 1979. That's when a couple of Duke University students hooked a few computers together to start an exchange of information with other UNIX users. Just down the road at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, another student was writing software that could be used to distribute the information. Eventually, the work of these three students became the first bastion of newsgroups, termed Usenet.

Newsgroups are most effective when:

* You don't need an immediate answer.
* You want to communicate with more than one person.
* You want to communicate with a group of people interested in the same topic.
* You need or want to provide extensive information about that topic.

The above was taken from: How Stuff Works Dot Com
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm
Go there to read everything you ever wanted to know on this and other subjects. How Stuff Works can do a much better job of telling you how it works and how to use it than I ever could.

One thing I may caution you on, as with anything, there are dangers, You should not post anything that will give away information that can come back and haunt you later, such as your personal information. I never post my real name, address, or email. Keep your eye on the kids if they have access. There are groups that contain porn, illegal movie, and music downloads.

If you like e-books there is a wealth just for the taking. Want the words to a song, or how to make ice cream, its all here. There are over 50,000 topics to choose from.

If you want a dedicated program other than the one you have (Outlook Express) you can download: "GrabIt" for free. Read or download it here:
http://shemes.com/
On this website you can find GrabIt, one of the easiest binary Usenet downloader in the world. With GrabIt you can search and download MP3 files, pictures, movies, software, games and more on USENET news servers, without downloading gigabytes of headers. The program features NZB file support, automatic batch downloading of multiple binaries at once, advanced error checking, filter options, multiple server support and more. You can also choose to save the downloaded files with a custom prefix and resume broken downloads. It can even shut down your computer for you when all downloads are completed. All features are controlled from an easy and intuitive interface.

Get with the program, get going in the fast lane with the news groups.