Trying to get gnus working

[Brett I. Holcomb]

I'm looking for a better email/news client than Thunderbird so I thought 
I'd give gnus a try as it does have some features I like. However, it 
sure isnt' working.  I run Xemacs and then start gnus.  This gives me a 
"nntp (news.linux-sxs.org) open error: '' Continue (y or n)" error. 
Yes, I've checked all the FAQs, tutorials, asked Jeeves and they all say 
"Just set up ~/.gnus file this way".  Wronnnngg!  I have it setup but it 
does not work.  The file (below) is setup exactly as the gnus tutorial 
and other docs state but gnus doesn't work.  Any ideas on where to look 
and how to fix it would be appreciated.

Here's the ~/.gnus file - one line wrapped in this post but is a full 
line in the file.

(setq user-mail-address "brettholcomb at charter.net")
(setq user-full-name "Brett I. Holcomb")
(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "news.microsoft.com"))

(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nntp "news.linux-sxs.org"))
(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nntp "news.charter.net"))