Finding OLD USENET - Newsgroup postings from 2001-2002 is it possible?

Let's just say that if it were possible to find these postings that it would be a life changing event in my life and I am pretty certain of the dates I posted
I'm not going to say on here, but let's say from Sept 2001 till about Dec 2002 is where my posting would be along with lots of discussion related to the post (probably upwards of 300-500 posts related to one topic).

The problem is that I don't know what news group it was in as it was a computer related news group (of which there were maybe 1,000 or so, many more when you get into specific topics like languages, programming and other niche sectors). I do remember it would have been a more main stream group with lots of postings (IIRC the first time I pulled down all the headers it was over 1/2 million postings) and it may have been something like alt.sci.comp or alt.sci.comp.network(ing). The problem is that I also subscribed to probably 200-300 groups related to computers and electronics (I swear NO porn, I was in college for Pete's sake, I didn't need that !)

(On a side note, wow, was that the place to find nudies and videos back in the day when you didn't want to pay for an adult website and the CC billing showed up as "Giga News, or GigaNews Media Service" - see mom, just keeping up with current events!

SO I know there was a long (probably 2-3 month) conversation about one topic in one specific group.

I also was a member on probably 30+ tech support and computer forums where I talked about this same topic, though to a lesser extent (probably on 5-8 pf the boards), people weren't as engaging or as knowledgeable on those sites, but at least there is possibility of a record showing discussion about "topic X". I have a suspicion that there are probably only a couple of these sites left and the chances of them being the one I talked on about this issue is probably pretty slim.

I've looked for online services that say they archive old USENET groups but many of them don't seem to go back very far and some have very spotty coverage on the groups covered, let along the individual topics.

Here is my thought, since most big ISP's (AOL, Comcast, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc) usually provided access to USENET (some it was an extra expense that you paid for) they would host their own USENET servers to keep network traffic & costs down (instead of paying a USENET service for each access by subscriber). So maybe there are old backup tapes sitting somewhere with all the USENET data from 1995 - 2005 or something (minus the porn b/c that was probably about 97%+ of the data storage on these boards). The rest was basically the same as emails and postings, just text, some pics and occasional file here or there an exe, scrip, whatever). I wonder if I could find some nice IT manager who could pull a backup tape of their USENET server (offer some cash, bitcoin, date with a lovely man/woman of choice, Wal-Mart of Costco gift cards, IDK - I'm open to suggestions as this is the only avenue that I think MIGHT be possible).

I miss the old days when USENET was big. THAT was the internet and that was one of the best features hands down. IDK if it's even still around or if it could even be revived w/o spammers polluting it.

For those nosey and NEED to know what I'm searching for, well if I find it, you will know and it won't be from me telling you on this board but it is very interesting (especially for me!) and would explain a lot of things we have experienced (as a society) since about 2005-2006.

On a side note, I have about 300 DVD's I burnt from 2002 - 2006 that backup my hard drives (yes I was dedicated back then!) and I'm hoping that I have saved my Forte Agent data files which contain all the posts. Problem is that many of them were over 4.7GB and I don't think I did multi-session recording so I may have missed all the large single groups (each group - like alt.sci.comp get's own data file, single LARGE file, porn ones were over 300GB back then, could have been a whole drive or more lol!!). I'm not even sure I would have selected the Agent program to back up b/c who thinks you are going to need internet jabber 5, 10, 20 years down the road, even though it would have been a relatively small amount even with 1/2 million postings.

So if anyone was like me and backed up USENET groups (related to computers or computer network/s/ing - there are probably 30-60 more groups with similar names like alt.binaries.comp.network/s/ing or works for an ISP/service/etc that was around even 8 years ago (post retention for text posts can be 10 years easily), then please let me know! If I find what I need, I will be generous to those who help me.

Just to get an idea of the scale of the number of groups, this is just a list playing on the word computer network, and there are probably 200x more than these. One service that caters to VERY niche groups counted over 287,000 individual news groups on USENET alone - not counting Yahoo, google and other providers that have started their own groups!
alt.binaries.comp.network
alt.binaries.comp.networks
alt.binaries.comp.networking
alt.binaries.comp.pc.network
alt.binaries.comp.pc.networks
alt.binaries.comp.pc.networking
alt.binaries.comp.mac.network
alt.binaries.comp.mac.networks
alt.binaries.comp.mac.networking
alt.binaries.comp.unix.network
alt.binaries.comp.unix.networks
alt.binaries.comp.unix.networks
alt.comp.network
alt.comp.networks
alt.comp.networking
alt.comp.pc.network
alt.comp.pc.networks
alt.binaries.comp.pc.networking
alt.comp.mac.network
alt.comp.mac.networks
alt.comp.mac.networking
alt.comp.unix.network
alt.comp.unix.networks
alt.comp.unix.networks

Have you tried that way back machine thing?

Google seemed to be hosting them last time I pulled them up.

Just for the mention of Forte Agent

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

USENET has 3500 day retention afaik. If the data has been dead for 10 years, forget about it. My local ISP had newsgroups at one time if i recall correctly, and their policy was either 90 or 120 days, so nearly 10 years is a pretty good standard.

can you read through old news groups and postings if you were never a member?

like as an archive?

where would i do this?


there is supposed to be a treasure trove of shawn lane information out there but i cant find it


thanks

Google Groups has some messages archived, I could find some of my messages from 1998.

a reply to: TinySickTears

you've been pm'd!

originally posted by: Nivek555
a reply to: TinySickTears

you've been pm'd!

thanks man
appreciate it