FAQ
April 19, 2009
What is NewsReader.Com?
We are one of the oldest Usenet service companies on the Internet. We started back in 1996 as the first commercial web-based Usenet service company and have continued to grow and prosper. As others have come and gone, we remain steady with one of the highest customer satisfaction levels in the business.
To make sure we keep all of our customers satisfied, we offer a no-questions money-back guarantee. If you ever find that the service isn't worth the money, just send us e-mail and let us know that you would like to cancel your account and get your money back for the current monthly period. We will be happy to do that for you.
NewsReader.Com is a subscription service. It costs $9.95 per month with a 30 GB download cap. Payment is by credit card or checkcard only. Charges appear as NewsReader.Com on your bank statement.
For NNTP server usage, only article bodies count towards your download cap -- all header downloads are unlimited.
For Web-Based access, only file attachment downloads count towards your download limit -- you get unlimited access to all text articles and headers..
With a paid account, you will get access to both our award-winning web-based (HTTP) newsgroup interface, and our NNTP server. SSL access on port 563 is included with every account.
You can try out the web interface for free. Check out the Free Web Demo page.
To sign up for the service, or to just check out the official Terms of Service agreement, click here.
What is your article retention like?
As of April 2 2009, the retention of the text groups was about 500 days, and the retention of the binary groups was about 150 days.
On the web interface, there's a software limit of 10,000 articles per news group. This will limit the retention of the highest volume binary news groups to numbers less than those quoted above. But this is only a limit of the web interface and not the NNTP interface. Also, the web interface works fine for small multipart binaries, but is not well suited for the large multipart binaries. For those, it is best to use an NNTP client which is designed for binary Usenet with our NNTP server.
What is your multipart completion like?
Excellent. We carry all the articles that are posted to Usenet.
Do you offer SSL access?
Yes. Secure SSL access to the NNTP server is available on port 563.
Do you have download cap?
Yes and No. Back on October 1, 2001, all accounts changed to include download caps. However, you can download as much as you want. Your account will never be blocked if you choose the auto-renew option.
This is how it works. The cap for new accounts is 30 GBytes per month. Your prepaid-period is over when either your month has ended, or you have reached your download cap. Once that happens, the account will either close or auto-renew depending on what option you selected on the Account Status page.
When you reach your download cap before the end of the month, and you have the auto-renew options selected, a new 30 day/30 GB period will begin on that day. If that happens, you are charged for a new period, and you have another full 30GB, and another full 30 days, to use the service. Each time you hit your download cap early, you monthly billing date will shift accordingly. So if you download, on average, 40 GB per month, you will simply be charged another $9.95 about once every 3 weeks. You can download as much as you want, and will be charged a little sooner if you ever go over your 30 GB cap.
If auto-renew is not selected (you have requested only one month of service on a new account), the account will close when you reach the end of your period. The account will remain on the service when this happens, and you can re-active it using the Account Status page. You will be asked to re-enter your full credit card number to reactive the closed account.
What about bandwidth limits on the NNTP connections?
NNTP server connections are bandwidth limited to 10 Mbit per connection. Because multiple connections are supported, your total bandwidth cap is much higher than this when you use a binary newsreader which supports downloading using multiple connections.
How many concurrent NNTP connections are allowed?
12 connections per user for the NNTP server.
What groups do you carry?
We carry most of Usenet. However, because there are a great number of "junk" groups, we try to keep our group list trimmed of the groups that were created as jokes, or created by accident, which no one really cares about.
In April 2009, we removed the 18 groups below along with other similar named groups related to child pornography in response to a request from legal authorities. Though I don't believe we were under any legal obligation to do this, it was not something we felt was wise to try and defend.
alt.binares.pictures.erotica.pre-teen alt.binaries.adolescents alt.binaries.adolescents.off-topic alt.binaries.camille alt.binaries.pictures.bdcompany alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.13-17 alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.age.13-17 alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.lolita alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.early-teens alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.early-teens.firsthair alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.early-teens.hardcore alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.mclt alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.mclt_repost alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pre-teen alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pre-teens alt.binaries.pictures.lolita.misc alt.binaries.pictures.underage.admirers alt.pedophilia.boys
So how many groups do you carry?
As of April 2, 2009, our group list contained 88028 groups. If there is a group you want, and we don't carry it, just send an e-mail message to support@newsreader.com telling us the correct name of the group and we will add it.
The Newsgroup Propagation Search Engine is a wonderful resource for checking which Usenet servers carry any given group. Enter the group you are interested in, and it will tell you which servers carry it (of the many it is able to search).
Newsgroup Propagation Search Engine: http://groupsearch.alt-config.net/engine.html
Can I get a list of the groups you carry?
Yes. This URL will give you the current full active file: http://newsreader.com/cgi-bin/active
What is the NNTP server name?
The NNTP server is news.newsreader.com.
This is the name you must put into the NNTP server configuration of your newsreader.
In addition to the standard NNTP port of 119, the
news.newsreader.com NNTP server can also be accessed on port 23 (TELNET),
port 53 (DNS), and port 443 (HTTPS).
Some people find these non-standard ports to be useful when trying to deal with firewall limitations.
SSL access is supported on port 563.
With the NewsReader.Com web-interface,
you can read news from any web browser, from anywhere you
can access the Internet; from home or from work. Our
server keeps track of what you've read so nothing's lost
when switching locations.
Firewalls that can block NNTP access aren't a problem when using the web interface.'
If you can browse the web, you can read news.
There's no special software to install or configure. If you have a web
browser, you have everything you need.
Our service gives
you advanced features not found on other Usenet web
interfaces. You get in-line pictures and files (including automatic decoding
of multipart articles) which are easy to download; constant re-scan
for new news (your posts show up in seconds - not hours);
complete newsrc information stored on our
servers; the ability to reply by e-mail, news, or both;
the ability to cancel, and supersede your articles; and
many more features. NewsReader.Com is the
only web-based newsreader to receive the GNKSA award for meeting the minimal standards for
decent net-behavior. Do you still want to use
your favorite newsreader anyway? We understand that. That's why we
offer NNTP access as well with every account.
Yes - Traceroute
You can use the information on the traceroute page to understand more about
the speed of the network between the NewsReader.Com servers (located on the
east cost of the US in the Washington D.C. area) and your computer.
It will run a traceroute from our server, back to your IP address.
All system status information as well as announcements about the service are
posted to the local
newsreader.announce
and
newsreader.general
newsgroups. Please be sure to read the messages posted to these groups
for important information about the service. You can use a web "demo" account to
both read the messages in those groups and post messages to them.
Click the link above and enter "demo"
for the user name and pick a password at random.
You can do that from the Account Status page.
Set the "End of Period" option to "close". Your account will then be blocked at the end of
your current period. You can re-activate a closed account by re-entering your credit card
information. If you would like your account completely removed from the system, send
an e-mail message to support@newsreader.com
and be sure to include your account user name in the message.
You can do that from the Account Status page.
You can change the information at any time during your month. The next time it's billed, we will
use whatever card is listed for your account.
We can send you your password and/or account name by e-mail, but we must first verify that you are
the true account holder.
If you have supplied your e-mail address when you signed up, we can send the account information
to that address.
If you didn't give us your e-mail address, you can send us the last 6 digits
of the credit card the account is being charged to and we can located the account that way,
and send you the user name and password.
It's not on the Account Status page as it should be.
It's located on the User Information page of the web-interface:
User Info
Contact us by e-mail at support@newsreader.com for
any and all questions about the service or your account.
Are there alternate ports for accessing the NNTP servers?
Why would anyone want to use a web-based newsreader?
Do you offer a Traceroute page?
Is there a system status page?
How do I cancel my subscription?
I need to change the credit card for my account, how can I do that?
I've lost my password or account name, now what?
How do I check what e-mail address is listed for my account?
What if I have more questions?