Can some not tech illiterate people help me out

[Bombtrack]

I'm trying to sign up for an account at http://www.usenetbinaries.com/

But everytime I click the signup section I get a "The page cannot be displayed" screen.

Can someone else try to see if it's me or it's the website.

Here is the direct link. https://admin.usenetbinaries.com/cgi-bin/signup

I don't completely understand the whole usenet/newsgroups thing yet, so I don't know if I need some program already or what.

Any help or advice is apprectiated.

[Systematic Chaos]

1. Did you install a newsreader program?

I used Usenet for one month last year and I really liked it but I was in a tight financial situation so I had to stop. It's been a while, but I remember you need a newsreader program of some kind. Did you download one? There is a list of recommended newsreaders somewhere on the Usenet site, IIRC. Some of them are free. The one I used was and it worked fine.

[amerikat]

2. the link works from here (nt)

[fknobbit]

3. Works ok

You probably have your security setting too high or a pop up blocker going.

[Bombtrack]

5. Security setting too high? What does that mean?

I did turn my popup blocker off. I tried from both internet explorer and AOL.

[Philostopher]

4. Worked fine on Mozilla 1.6.

I did get a 'you are entering an encrypted page' popup before the page would display, but I use a separate popup blocker (AdsGone), and it's usually good about not blocking information popups (as opposed to ads). Are you using IE with a 'dashboard' like Google? If so, you may want to disable the popup control, if it's an integrated popup blocker.

On edit -- if you're using Outlook Express or Mozilla or Netscape mail readers, you can read newsgroups through there without paying or registering for an extra service. I don't know about MS Outlook.

[Bombtrack]

6. I don't know what a "dashboard" is

I can use both AOL and comcast internet explorer.

[Philostopher]

7. Google and some others

offer a 'toolbar' -- sorry, dashboard is an old word processing software word for a third-party control cluster, I forgot it's kind of out of use these days.

If you're using AOL, AOL used to have Usenet feeds you could access through the main AOL control program. I used to, but I use Mozilla now, and when I want to read newsgroups I subscribe from there.

I just checked on AOL -- go to the menu bar at the top on AOL and select 'keywords' then enter 'usenet' in the keyword field.

I suspect it's some kind of filtering through AOL that prevents you from using the secure sign-in on the page you referenced. Even if you're using another browser, often you'll have trouble accessing some websites that way.

Sorry I can't be more help with the service you're trying to sign on with -- I don't use AOL anymore, except occasionally, and I'm not up on the latest with their browser integration. It may be part of the problem, though.

[SmileyBoy]

8. Try enabling all your cookies.

I had a similar problem when I was trying to register onto a new message board.

[ConsAreLiars]

9. you should not need to sign up there

You may want to if your ISP doesn't carry the groups you want, but to start out, use your own ISP's Usenet service. I would suggest getting a free-standing newsgroup reader, rather than trying to do it through a browser. Gravity is a good freeware program: http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tbates/gravity/super.html . You will need to give the program the address of the newsgroups on your ISP (usually news.ispname.com or similar) and your ISP username and password. Then you ask the program to retrieve a list of groups available on that server, pick the ones that interest you, etc. If you decide yo go this route and need advice (other than things having to do with AOL insanities) feel free to PM me.