I
finally found the rating area I promised. Better late than never, eh? As always, take these rating with a grain of salt (and maybe a cracker..)
http://www.newsgroupservers.net/
Here is a link to some free Usenet servers. I have poked around on things like this for years, but most of the time free servers are either incredibly slow or have rather small groups that they serve. But still...free....
http://www.disenter.com/
For reference with free news servers: there are currently over 104,000 newsgroups out there.
NewsHosting FAQ
http://www.usenetforyou.com/provider/index.php
And a plug for UsenetMonster. No, I don't work there. Might be fun though.
http://www.usenetmonster.com/index.asp