It looks like my comment wasn't saved properly on Paul's server, so here goes   
   again.   
      
    PQ> say that it rides on the back of telnet). So, being able to connect via   
    PQ> telnet, and, seeing the responses from the news server would suffice for   
    PQ> confirmation that that server was operating.   
      
      It seems our Comrades are right after all. I just tested "your" four   
   servers with my news client, and none of them were operational.   
      
      So I guess you've earned those brownies after all. :)   
      
   --- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20101125   
    * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)