Frequenty Asked Questions.

Are there any limits on what newsgroups can be read?

Our news server carries all newsgroups. If you know of a newsgroup that we don't carry let us know and we'll have it added.

I have a fast broadband Internet connection. What download speeds should I expect?

We do not limit download speeds. Your speed is limited only by your connection to our server. We have seen people download at speeds up to 100KB/second.

Can my limit be raised?

Yes. We offer several packages that allow greater download limits.

What happens when I reach my download limit?

Your account is deactivated until the next day. You will receive an error message stating your password was not accepted. You will NOT be automatically upgraded.

What counts against my download limit?

Article and xover header data is counted against your download limit. Posting does NOT count against it. You receive unlimited posting even with the free account.

What if my ISP or government blocks all news servers with a firewall?

Almost all news client software allows you to change the port number it connects to. Firewalls block news servers by blocking port 119, the standard port number of news servers. We also provide news access on port 7501 (unreserved port). Change your news client to read news from port 7501 and you should have access through your firewall.

There is no real way to delete something from Usenet once it has been posted. From the moment you posted your articles it was transferred to our peering machine and propagated to 40 other servers. Each one of these servers did the same thing and within 60 seconds your article had been stored on 10,000 news servers around the world. Some servers allow what is called a cancel message. It's a message that requests that a certain article be removed. This cancel message has to propagate just like the original message. It idea is that it will follow the same paths as the original message. Our server, as do many others, does not accept cancel messages due to the huge amount of abuse caused by these. Had we accepted the cancel message your posting would have only been deleted on our server and other servers that accept cancel messages. Your message would still have still been available On many other servers. Cancel messages are a waste of resources due to the high amount of abuse and the low amount of effectiveness. We will never support cancel messages.

Can't find the help you need? Drop us an email and we'll give you personal attention to solve your problem!