# News Groups **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 23, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-groups/203302 "2003-09-23T12:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toscar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f9ae1b/32.png) [@toscar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toscar)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-groups/203302/1 "2003-09-23T12:41:41Z")
Can anyone please suggest a good program to access NEWSGROUPS? I’m presently using NTL (Broadband) and it’s hopelessly slow. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-groups/203302/2 "2003-09-23T13:57:26Z")
[XNews](http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Reviews/r716.html) is free and popular. [Free Agent](http://www.forteinc.com/agent/index.php), is also good (or was; I’ve not used it recently). Netscape 7 incorporates newsgroup software as well as web browser, email, and a tonne of other features, but I’ve not used it. However, if your newsgroup service is slow or otherwise crap, the problem might be your ISP not your news reader software: many ISPs don’t seem to view newsgroups as a priority, and devote few resources to them. You may have to pay a subscription to a company specialising in news server access, who will keep weeks rather than hours of messages and carry many more groups. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/news-groups/203302/3 "2003-09-23T14:07:34Z")
If you don’t mind the lag there’s [groups.google.com](http://groups.google.com).