Free Newsservers

[sander]

If http://www.appelboor.com/newsserver.txt is down, you could try http://www.appelboor.com:8888/newsserver.txt

[Vyp3R]

you could try http://www.appelboor.com:8888/newsserver.txt

Thanks sander, that link does work, since the site has gone down again! (What the hell is going on?)

I wish the formatted list of servers worked with the port number: http://www.appelboor.com:8888/newsserver-checker/ but it doesn't. As the text listing is so unorganised and harder to understand in a glance.

Ah well, beggars can't be choosers and we are damn lucky the text version does work while the site is unavailable, I guess.

[Vyp3R]

Damn it! Not only has test.news-service.com been down for a while now. (The best server in the world as far as I am concerned.) But now reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl has gone down too!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed at least test.news-service.com comes back soon sometime, as I miss it badly. 

[sander]

Damn it! Not only has test.news-service.com been down for a while now. (The best server in the world as far as I am concerned.) But now reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl has gone down too!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed at least test.news-service.com comes back soon sometime, as I miss it badly. 

2001:67c:174:101::3 still works, both over native and tunneled (6to4) IPv6:

Code: Select all

sander@vadmin648:~$ telnet 2001:67c:174:101::3 nntp
Trying 2001:67c:174:101::3...
Connected to 2001:67c:174:101::3.
Escape character is '^]'.
201 reader-e01-08.ipv6.xsnews.nl NNRP Service Ready (no posting).
quit
205 Transferred 67 bytes in 0 articles, 0 groups.  Disconnecting.
Connection closed by foreign host.
sander@vadmin648:~$ 

[sander]

you could try http://www.appelboor.com:8888/newsserver.txt

Thanks sander, that link does work, since the site has gone down again! (What the hell is going on?)

I wish the formatted list of servers worked with the port number: http://www.appelboor.com:8888/newsserver-checker/ but it doesn't. As the text listing is so unorganised and harder to understand in a glance.

Ah well, beggars can't be choosers and we are damn lucky the text version does work while the site is unavailable, I guess.

Does http://www.appelboor.com:8888/report.html help?

[Vyp3R]

2001:67c:174:101::3 still works, both over native and tunneled (6to4) IPv6

Thanks for the quick response Sander.
Yeah tried it but it is giving me the same time out response as the other reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl servers are. So no go.

Edit:
Oh, tell a lie. It is working for me now but slow as buggery.

I'm using gogo6 to access IPv6 and this has been having some problems of late. So I've signed up with SixXS to see if they'll give me a go. (I tried HE but I have to change a setting in my modem to use it, and that is just not possible in my preconfigured free-from-my-ISP POS modem unfortunately.)

[Vyp3R]

Does http://www.appelboor.com:8888/report.html help?

Oh awesome! Way better!

[fractus]

Is reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl still down for everyone? I can't connect to them anymore, and I just wanted to download some music for the holidays
And if they are up and it is just me, maybe I can fix it

[bluenote]

reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl seems to be working for me (off and on) but is ridiculously slow ranging from X kb/s to 100kb/s
I'd be curious to know if anyone else sees same behaviour?

[Haskell Noob]

reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl seems to be working for me (off and on) but is ridiculously slow ranging from X kb/s to 100kb/s
I'd be curious to know if anyone else sees same behaviour?

reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl works only sporadically and when it does it is quite slow as you mentioned.

[kelemvor]

I have been using the reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl server since I started using this program but I too have noticed that it's retardedly slow lately. Used to fly and now it barely crawls.

Is there another free server that I can use instead? I simply use SabNZB with Sickbeard to download TV shows so I don't need many special features at all.

Thanks.

[Vyp3R]

@kelemvor
These are the three I use:

- reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl
Connactions: varies 14 to 25
Retention: 100+ days
IPv6
They were giving out free registrations (username and password) to test this server, but have stopped doing so a while back. So if you still have one, hold on to them like gold.
Recently, a few of the connection servers have had a bit of trouble, hence the slow speeds and difficult connections. But I'm sure this is only temporary. Even with the problems SABnzbd says this pulls in the second highest amount of data for me.

- test.news-service.com
Connections: 25
Retention: 400+ days
IPv4 and IPv6
Username and password was anything as long as both were longer than 6 characters.
Until recently this was the best server in my collection. It was always reliable, fast and pulled the most data of all. Plus the huge retention was a great bonus. But if you read my posts above, it has since gone down, come back up again for a short while, then gone down once again. God knows what is happening with the server, but I miss it badly. Fingers crossed it is not down for long this time.

- newszilla6.xs4all.nl
Connections: 25
Retention: 18 days
IPv6
No username and password needed.
Last but not least is this server. SABnzbd says this server is pulling down the most data for me, but this is only recently because of the problems with the other two above. Because of its short retention time it is only useful for recently released stuff such as TV shows or newly released movies. But it does have good speed and I'm glad I had it available. So it might be just what you need.

Good luck.

[Gigahertz21]

@kelemvor
These are the three I use:

- reader.ipv6.xsnews.nl
Connactions: varies 14 to 25
Retention: 100+ days
IPv6
They were giving out free registrations (username and password) to test this server, but have stopped doing so a while back. So if you still have one, hold on to them like gold.
Recently, a few of the connection servers have had a bit of trouble, hence the slow speeds and difficult connections. But I'm sure this is only temporary. Even with the problems SABnzbd says this pulls in the second highest amount of data for me.

- test.news-service.com
Connections: 25
Retention: 400+ days
IPv4 and IPv6
Username and password was anything as long as both were longer than 6 characters.
Until recently this was the best server in my collection. It was always reliable, fast and pulled the most data of all. Plus the huge retention was a great bonus. But if you read my posts above, it has since gone down, come back up again for a short while, then gone down once again. God knows what is happening with the server, but I miss it badly. Fingers crossed it is not down for long this time.

- newszilla6.xs4all.nl
Connections: 25
Retention: 18 days
IPv6
No username and password needed.
Last but not least is this server. SABnzbd says this server is pulling down the most data for me, but this is only recently because of the problems with the other two above. Because of its short retention time it is only useful for recently released stuff such as TV shows or newly released movies. But it does have good speed and I'm glad I had it available. So it might be just what you need.

Good luck.

I don't get how to use these servers, I tried entering newszilla6.xs4all.nl into sabnzbd as the host and can't get a connection. The port is 119 correct and no username and password needs to be entered as you said. I know what IPv6 is sort of, but what does it mean these servers require ipv6? Do I have to have an IPv6 address or something in order to use these servers? Any info on how I go about doing that? I'm on Qwest DSL internet service in the U.S. if that matters, running Windows Vista.

(EDIT) Did a little more reading and if I understand correctly, the only way to use the IPv6 servers is to go through a tunnel broker that way you can get a ipv6 address, but how much does that cost and how would it affect my internet service/router settings? Is it even worth trying to use free usenet servers as it seems like most of them are problematic from what Vyp3R said above

[Vyp3R]

the only way to use the IPv6 servers is to go through a tunnel broker

That is correct if one of two cases are true:
1. You have Windows XP or below (Windows Vista and 7 have IPv6 built in.), or...
2. Your ISP doesn't support IPv6 yet.

In my case it is my ISP that is the problem, as I have Windows 7 x64. And it looks like this is your problem too as you have Vista.

Over the next year or two ISPs will have this facility available to you, as they need to change. There are very few IPv4 domain addresses left for people to create web sites on the Internet. IPv6 is the answer, but your ISP needs to upgrade their equipment in order for you to access he new addresses. And this takes time and money, so it is slow going. You never know, maybe your ISP is already testing it, and if you contact them they might switch you over to it early and you can help them with the testing?

My ISP is currently upgrading and testing their equipment but are not testing with customers, only in house. So I went with an IPv6 tunnel broker.

I see you did ask about them. First off, they are free and neither you nor your ISP will notice any difference on your usage or how you use the Internet. The IPv6 tunnel broker just allows you to go to these new addresses.

A good little tutorial about using IPv6 and the usenet servers I know of is here:
http://www.kaisersblog.com/2009/01/free ... sing-ipv6/

I have tried all three of the IPv6 tunnel brokers listed, and here's my experience...

Hurricane Electric (http://tunnelbroker.net/)
Doesn't require a program to run on your computer and seems the easiest to set up. However you do need to sign up with them, but this is free and easy. Unfortunately I couldn't use it, as it requires a certain switch in my modem to be set and my modem (which is ISP supplied and preset by them) doesn't allow my to access the deep internal settings.

Freenet6 / gogoNET / gogo6 or whatever they are called (http://gogonet.gogo6.com/page/freenet6-ipv6-services)
Requires a program to be initially run, but after that you can just set it to run as a Windows service each time the computer starts and close the program. Registration is optional, as you can use the tunnel broker program in anonymous mode if you wish.
Note: the program is set to pick a server for you, but this is not always the best choice. ie. For me it was selecting Montreal, Canada as the best server, but clearly Sydney was the best server as it was in my own country! But this was easily to set in the program.
I would recommend this tunnel broker if you have some sort of problem with Hurricane Electric.

SixXS (http://www.sixxs.net/)
Requires a program to run in the background. You also have to register with them and each registration is looked at by hand. So it can take half a day for the registration to be approved. Plus the details that they want to know upon registration is quite full, as they like to know exactly who is using their service. So it is not as simple a registration process as the others above. Also, once you have the program running and registration done, you then have to apply for the server you would like to use your tunnel through. So this is more extra wait time to get started.
It may be complicated to get going, but I've found their service to be rock solid. With gogo6 (remember I can't test Hurricane to judge) you will on occasions need to disconnect and reconnect their service, as it seems to have the occasional hiccup. But not SixXS, it just connects and keeps going.

So my recommendation is to test them in the order I've listed them. But personally I've settled on SixXS as the one I like to use.

Good luck.

[Edit]
Forgot to reply to you last question: are free usenet servers worth the trouble. I think so yes. At least two out of the three servers I listed previously are working at the one time. So you just set things to download and away you go. You just have to be mindful about which servers are going so you can judge your retention and know which downloads you can get. I find my free servers are better than my friend's who has binary usenet through his ISP, as they have limited his retention to 100 days.

Are they better than a paid news service? Well no. Especially the unlimited accounts that are available from most providers with 1000 plus days retention. With those you don't have to worry about what you are clicking on to download, you just grab anything you want. Also, because you are paying for a service, you always have someone to call for help or to fix problems.

[Gigahertz21]

Awesome, thanks for the very informative reply Vyp3R. That link you posted about ipv6 and usenet is very helpful as well, thanks again!