Hello Norman Dunbar,

> My work has just put in a new firewall and no NNTP is allowed in or out.
> Our news feed from our ISP (uunet) has also dies and cannot (!) be made to
> work.

> My only contact is through email now.

No phone for security reasons? ;-)

> I can't even see the Oracle NGs which are most useful for my 'real' job. :o)

IMHO it would be more useful to write this email to your boss and your
ISP. I do not know if I should laugh or cry if a UNIX and Database
admin is not allowed to read news or has no contract with his ISP that
describes what is routed or not. Is it not allowed in the UK to change
the ISP because of bad services? This sounds more like being slaves than
UNIX admins. ;-)

Sorry for being a bit polemic, but it is a great mistake for me to let
proved and reliable protocols die because of those strange arguments.
Shure there could be the same reasons for the bosses and ISPs not to
allow receiving emails from yahoogroups.com as to drop ntp. What we
are doing then? Drums and Pipes?

I would have no problems with a news solution. Think of the next auto
responder emails with 'Sorry, I am out of office till ...'

Dieter Tremel