Because of the heavy storage requirements, most ISPs don't offer Usenet access. However Google, as well as other specialty services, do offer access to current and archived Usenet message traffic. A variety of specialty software packages, called newsgroup readers, are available to browse and download newsgroup content.

Recommendations     Background

Browsing Searches

Newsreaders     Newsgroup Services

The value of Usenet discussion groups cannot be overstated! I use them all the time to research technical problems I'm having, plus I answer questions in the newsgroups to give back as much as I take!

QBasic Newsgroups
These are the most active newsgroups which specifically cover QBasic related topics.

• alt.lang.basic
• alt.lang.basic.compiler
• comp.lang.basic
• comp.lang.basic.misc
• microsoft.public.basic.dos
• microsoft.public.basic.other

Newsreaders     In addition to using a newsgroup newsreader, you can also jump straight to the nnseek and Google newsgroup search engines.

Beginners Information
In addition to the QBasic Newsgroups listed further down this page, beginners should consider looking over the news.newusers.questions newsgroup. It is not about QBasic, but will answer a lot of your questions about the Usenet and how to get the most from it.

Other Programming Newsgroups
These popular newsgroups cover other programming topics which will be of interest to QBasic programmers, particularly those who deal with Windows applications.

• comp.programming
• microsoft.public.msdn.general
• microsoft.public.technet