If you'd like to post to alt.anagrams and find Google Groups a truly wretched interface or a bastion of evil, it might be worth checking out one of the free news servers listed below. Many of them require registration rather than just plugging the server name into your newsreader/browser settings.
The servers on this list were last checked in August 2010. Please help to keep this list up to date by letting me know of anything that should be added to or removed from this list.
In addition to the free servers, I should mention the well-respected news.individual.net (successor to the venerable free DFN news server), who charge only 10 EUR per year for reliable USENET access.news.datemas.de
Free to read and post. No binaries.
AIOE - see http://news.aioe.org/
Albasani - see http://albasani.net/index.html.en
Solani - see http://news.solani.org/
CNNTP - see http://www.cnntp.org/cnntp
ETT - see http://news.ett.com.ua/
(Page down on 3 October 2010 but still in Google cache, so there might be a transient error)
Eternal September (Formerly Motzarella) - see http://www.eternal-september.org/
Tornevall - see http://news.tornevall.net/
Usenet4all - see http://www.usenet4all.se/
Blocks all posts from Google.