From Newsgroup: news.software.readers


checking <news.neodome.net> server ... out of two thousand six hundred ninteen (2619) alt.binaries.* newsgroups, only about two hundred sixty (260) show activity (himark/column b - lomark/column c = column e > 0):

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2026.03.30 ...
Will use SOCKS 5 proxy at localhost:9150 to connect to news.neodome.net:119 >Looking up host "localhost" for proxy
Connecting to SOCKS 5 proxy at ::1 port 9150
200 news.neodome.net InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.6.3 ready (posting ok) >list
215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"
...

a b c d e >alt.binaries.boneless 618635822 617331280 y 1304542 >alt.binaries.games.encry 272402818 271394605 y 1008213 >alt.binaries.nl 62824933 61886336 y 938597 >alt.binaries.tv 20563627 19680803 y 882824

alt.binaries.ftd 28634398 27754386 y 880012
alt.binaries.misc 46787048 46591140 y 195908
alt.binaries.bloaf 58449675 58258560 y 191115 >alt.binaries.test 47411675 47323000 y 88675 >alt.binaries.mom 26873074 26811592 y 61482 >alt.binaries.usenet2day 43771380 43718823 y 52557 >alt.binaries.multimedia 19429929 19377705 y 52224 >alt.binaries.backup 33716948 33669404 y 47544 >alt.binaries.mp3.arabic 398024 355020 y 43004 >alt.binaries.sounds.mp3. 398148 355144 y 43004
alt.binaries 62002016 61959489 y 42527
alt.binaries.frogs 31184335 31151172 y 33163 >alt.binaries.etc 20471612 20447001 y 24611 >alt.binaries.movies 21298909 21277701 y 21208
alt.binaries.comp 7216827 7200145 y 16682
alt.binaries.a51 11896694 11881145 y 15549
alt.binaries.x 7396646 7381928 y 14718 >alt.binaries.multimedia. 5128518 5116561 y 11957 >alt.binaries.roger 3432384 3421192 y 11192
alt.binaries.jph 5825622 5814496 y 11126 >alt.binaries.hdtv 3543322 3532488 y 10834
...

random sampling of xover headers from several of these newsgroups show oldest available articles aged ~ 3.5 days (probable default in expire),
and neodome's most active binary groups indicate they are very popular

for those looking for binary groups, it might be worth testing smaller downloads, then progress to something more substantial, classic movies, games, etc . . . probably slower than pay-servers, but it looks robust


--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2