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| Author | Freie Universität Berlin discontinues providing Usenet access (Read 104205 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023 
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on: October 02, 2025, 09:06
The Freie Universität Berlin (Free University Berlin) is shutting down providing Usenet access. In their words: Quote Discontinuation of the NetNews / Usenet service as of 30 September 2027 Being a registered user of them, I bemoan the passing of what might have been the last educational facility to provide Usenet access with a commercial-grade support. It means we'll be down to using private access via projects like eternal-september.org, which is what I'll have to switch to eventually, I suppose. Any other suggestions? |
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wove
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1024 MB  Posts: 1363
Reply #1 on: October 02, 2025, 14:23
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I have not used or look at usenet in a couple decades. I gave a search for "free"* usenet servers and all it brought up was "free trials". A search for "best usenet servers" brought up a "Tom's Guide"* and they were all paid accounts with most being about ten dollars a month. I would not get any value from that. * Both require newer browser and contain lots of ads. More a waste of time than a useful place, sorry  <https://greycoder.com/best-free-usenet-servers/> <https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/the-best-usenet-providers>
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1178 System 7, today and forever
Reply #2 on: October 02, 2025, 16:05
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Here's what I fundamentally understood about Usenet: - email-like platform around forever for messages and file sharing - it's divided by topics/interests, so you can subscribe to any given topic As Wove mentioned, at about $10 per month, unless there's some software or media out there no longer available elsewhere, it's time feels like it has passed; it'd be nice if a repository of sorts existed for the vast amount of files shared that could be stored like at archive.org as I do recall seeing a few items here and there that were of a bit of interest, like really old Mac software and a couple of videos not available anyplace else, except maybe Cornica.org? 
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Knezzen
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Administrator 512 MB Posts: 608 Village idiot
Reply #3 on: October 02, 2025, 20:26
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I'm still using Eternal September which works great and is free (but without the warez, but who cares about that?). Usenet is like a decentralised "Facebook groups" in plain text and has been around since the early 80's. There's clients around for more or less every major computer platform dating from 1982 or so until present day. I'll recommend anyone who's curious to register at Eternal September and browse around using your client of choise (like MT-NewsWatcher).
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MTT
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256 MB Posts: 394 SSW7 Oldtimer
Reply #4 on: October 03, 2025, 08:04
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"30 September 2027" I don't think that you'll be asked to keep paying for the service if your current subscription is nearing a due date. But you will probably be able to use the service for another 2 years, which is a fairly good length of time in which to find a replacement I've heard that Astraweb (https) is a good option if you like to pay for a reliable service. Look at their "Block Account" plans - US$10 for 25GB data. Now, if you only want text access, then 25GB will last you for a very long time. Myself, I use the free (text only) alternatives. Mostly Eternal September these days. Some other free servers to consider: Paganini - nntp//paganini.bofh.team (port 119) I find it's a good alternative if ES is down for some unknown reason. No User Pass or authentication required. Dotsrc AKA SunSite - https://dotsrc.org/usenet/ Requires registration, limited to Open Source related groups Solani - https://www.solani.org/ Requires registration, website is alive but I've heard the registration process may be broken. The following free servers I'm not familiar with, only they appear to be available currently. All require registration: https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com/ http://www.usenet.ovh https://news.gegeweb.org/ http://csiph.com/ https://pasdenom.info/news.html https://news.nntp4.net http://open-news-network.org/ The latter two are based in Germany, news.nntp4.net has a decent website, I might register for an account with this one, too.
Last Edit: October 03, 2025, 08:22 by MTT
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #5 on: October 04, 2025, 16:13
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Thanks a lot cballero, knezzen and MTT for your suggestions. Yes, I do have some time before migrating but I better not bet on them maintaining things as excellent as they did in the past. I actually e-mailed them and asked them for suggestions as they didn't name any recommendation. I wonder what they'll recommend. As for Usenet, I think it splits into the traditional bulletin board style and the Warez / pirate thing where most providers offer access to these days. Which is a pity, as it gives Usenet a bad rap. I think it's just such an excellent service for (any!) retro computer, it's sad that it isn't used more.
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