If you're interested in trying newsgroups but you don't want to spend the money, your broadband supplier may offer limited newsgroup access. My personal cable provider offers 30 day file retention, four connections, at about 225 KB/sec. If you end up liking it by this method and want to upgrade to a premium new server, I recommend
usenetserver and
giganews.
I've thought of another way to explain how News Servers work. The news servers connect to each other via the usenet, similar to the internet. All news servers synchronize with the each other, so they all contain the same files. The site
Newzbin.com organizes the posts to the usenet, so that you can download whole files more easily. You have to subscribe to Newzbin, but a one month subscription is only 1.2 British pounds.
You would also have to install a newsreader(I use Newsbin Pro). You can find either an install of an old version(I actually use version 4.32) or download a trial version and then download the full version off of Newzbin.com. You'll also need to install WinRAR(download trial then full version off newzbin), to extract RAR files, and
QuickPAR, to repair corrupted RAR files.
Another side comment, Newzbin.com is kept pretty clean of pornography, so you won't have worry about sifting through porn to find a movie or anything like that. All newsgroup porn is neatly organized by genre, format, and language on Newzxxx.com, run by the same people as Newzbin.com, so your account works for both sites.