Virgin.net Newsgroups & Spam emails

I will soon be leaving BT for Virgin, but what are the Newsgroups
like for accessing. I have read a few complaints from users but
you always see the complainers and not the satisfied customers.

Do Virgin combat Spam emails or is it left for the users to sort out.?

Is there anything else I should know before I move ?

Thank you to all who replied to my last question. (AOL,BT or Virgin)

"Merlin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bim0nv$6ie$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I will soon be leaving BT for Virgin, but what are the Newsgroups
> like for accessing. I have read a few complaints from users but
> you always see the complainers and not the satisfied customers.
>
> Do Virgin combat Spam emails or is it left for the users to sort out.?
>
> Is there anything else I should know before I move ?
>
> Thank you to all who replied to my last question. (AOL,BT or Virgin)
>
>

Merlin

As a Virgin customer I've no real complaints about their Newsgroups.
Occasionally they've been offline or slow, but what I considered
acceptable.
I don't believe Virgin do anything about Spam. I receive about 4 a day
which is a lot better than when I was with BTO.
The important thing (if you use the Newsgroups, which you obviously do)
is to hide your correct email address somehow.

Good luck with the changeover. I was offline (from Broadband) for
about 10 days.

eric

--
Remove the dross to contact me directly

I am a happy Virgin.net customer.
I found the newsgroups slow and occasionally offline until I changed
newsgroups server from news.virgin.net (binary server) to
text.news.virgin.net (text server).
Now the newsgroups are always quick and online.

I never include my email address in newsgroups, therefore I never get any
spam.

Cheers

Darren

"Eric Parker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsIE3b.904$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Merlin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bim0nv$6ie$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > I will soon be leaving BT for Virgin, but what are the Newsgroups
> > like for accessing. I have read a few complaints from users but
> > you always see the complainers and not the satisfied customers.
> >
> > Do Virgin combat Spam emails or is it left for the users to sort out.?
> >
> > Is there anything else I should know before I move ?
> >
> > Thank you to all who replied to my last question. (AOL,BT or Virgin)
> >
> >
>
> Merlin
>
> As a Virgin customer I've no real complaints about their Newsgroups.
> Occasionally they've been offline or slow, but what I considered
> acceptable.
> I don't believe Virgin do anything about Spam. I receive about 4 a day
> which is a lot better than when I was with BTO.
> The important thing (if you use the Newsgroups, which you obviously do)
> is to hide your correct email address somehow.
>
> Good luck with the changeover. I was offline (from Broadband) for
> about 10 days.
>
> eric
>
> --
> Remove the dross to contact me directly
>
>

"Merlin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bim0nv$6ie$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I will soon be leaving BT for Virgin, but what are the Newsgroups
> like for accessing. I have read a few complaints from users but
> you always see the complainers and not the satisfied customers.
>
> Do Virgin combat Spam emails or is it left for the users to sort out.?
>
> Is there anything else I should know before I move ?
>
> Thank you to all who replied to my last question. (AOL,BT or Virgin)
>
>

The main advice for stopping spam is to setup a e-mail account purely
for newgroups. I set one with Tiscali and all my spam goes there and
my primary account is quite spam free. It's interesting how much spam
you get when you start using newsgroups.

Matt (using fake address at the moment, ongoing experiment)

Virgin is one of the best .We have 10 e-mail addresses 5 from Virgin and 5
from BT. Most of the spam is from the BT addresses, but I use K9, a freeware
spam filter for Outlook Express & Outlook which is virtually 100% effective,
learns as it goes and sets itself up with your Outlook accounts.

"Merlin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bim0nv$6ie$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I will soon be leaving BT for Virgin, but what are the Newsgroups
> like for accessing. I have read a few complaints from users but
> you always see the complainers and not the satisfied customers.
>
> Do Virgin combat Spam emails or is it left for the users to sort out.?
>
> Is there anything else I should know before I move ?
>
> Thank you to all who replied to my last question. (AOL,BT or Virgin)
>
>


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 28/08/2003

> <snip> I use K9, a freeware spam filter for Outlook Express & Outlook
> which is virtually 100% effective

You should be able to use it with *any* normal email program - I tried it
on The Bat, and while I was quite impressed with the interface and
filtering (95%+ accuracy right from the start), I was less impressed with
being back to having to download potentially virus infected emails to my
machine.

I went back to Mailwasher within two days - my logic being that if I
don`t download a virus to start with, there is even less chance of
infection.

If it could combine the features of Mailwasher I would be very happy to
go back to using it. Perhaps by downloading the first 20 lines of each
email, and filtering based on what it sees, then deleting "suspect"
emails direct from the mail server.

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
or you are likely to be spam filtered :-}

"Merlin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bim0nv$6ie$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I will soon be leaving BT for Virgin, but what are the Newsgroups
> like for accessing. I have read a few complaints from users but
> you always see the complainers and not the satisfied customers.
>
> Do Virgin combat Spam emails or is it left for the users to sort out.?
>
> Is there anything else I should know before I move ?
>
> Thank you to all who replied to my last question. (AOL,BT or Virgin)
>
>


I believe Virgin essentially use NTL's network (that's actually a good
thing) and their newsgroups (not such a good thing). I used to be with NTL
and my friend is currently using Virgin Broadband... both of us found that
the newsgroups are sometimes unavailable at peak times. If you can work it
so you access them outside of say 6pm til 10pm then you shouldn't have any
problems.

Otherwise, the newsgroups are very comprehensive and very quick.

I agree with the other posts concerning Spam... if you post to the
newsgroups use a fake email address, or copy mine if you want to frustrate
those who try sending you mail. Go on, mail me!

Is there anything else? Only that Virgin seems to be offering a very good
BB service - yes they've had a few hiccups but then so has pretty much
everyone else recently.

Good luck with the move and count your blessings you never got sucked (or is
that suckered) into AOL ;-)

John