Americas #1 USENET Provider
The NewsDemon Blog
Downloading Headers
By Newsgroup Usenet December 7th, 2020
Have you been experiencing any issues downloading headers?
Due to our recent move, there is a change in the article numbering of headers. This can cause the articles to appear incomplete or missing.
In order to remedy the issue:
- Remove the newsgroup from your newsreader
- If applicable, clear cache thru settings.
- Close your newsreader.
- If applicable, clear cache folder
- Open your newsreader again.
- Re-add the newsgroup
These steps will fix any articles appearing incorrectly and will allow you to download normally.
Have further questions or requeire further assistance?
Contact our NewsDemon support team.
New Horizons at NewsDemon
By Newsgroup Usenet December 1st, 2020
We’re Moving!
As of December 1, 2020, NewsDemon will no longer be on the Omicron network.
Since we were unable to come to an agreement on a new contract, our term officially ended on Nov 30. To abide by our terms, we had been unable to make this announcement earlier. However, NewsDemon is prepared and you can rely on our due diligence for a smooth transition. We have successfully moved our member traffic onto our new partner network, UsenetExpress.
New USENET backbone.
We have committed resources and with the liberty of developing our own spools and platform; our own independent NewsDemon network is on an expedited timetable. We have agreements in place to backfeed the new NewsDemon spools to increase retention rapidly.
Our team will establish transit servers and peering relationships with multiple tier 1 backbones and fill our own spool set. Throughout our progress, we will provide periodic updates on all development and core services.
New West Coast Servers.
We’re also excited to announce our plans to launch a new server on the West Coast of the United States, which will only be available to NewsDemon members.
This location will provide increased speeds for a portion of the US, Australia and New Zealand. We anticipate to have an active server at this location by the middle of January 2021.
The NewsDemon team is very thankful to the Highwinds/Omicron team for their many years of excellent service.
We started out as a Newshosting reseller years ago and then moved over to Highwinds along with Newshosting. Since then, we established friendships and a great working partnership with the folks at Highwinds.
NewsDemon would like to thank all of our members for supporting the Independents in the Usenet space.
Your support of UsenetExpress and NewsgroupDirect and the growth of those properties has allowed us to be confident in our move to independence at NewsDemon.
What You Need To Know
TL;DR
/// As a NewsDemon member, you will not need to do anything. All current configurations will remain the same.
Unlimited members will see no change in their plans.
Monthly Limited members will see that their monthly quotas have all been reset.
Block Account members will find that their block accounts have all been reset to 100% available.
/// The transition started at Midnight of December 1st and members have been migrated to our new platform and network.
/// West Coast servers will be added to the NewsDemon network in 1st Quarter 2021.
/// The NewsDemon team recognizes and appreciates the relationships with our partners and most of all, our members.
Site down for maintenance today
By WebMaster October 22nd, 2020
The main (web) site will be down for maintenance today. Expected downtime is less than an hour. Back end (nntp) operations will NOT be effected.
Get 12 Months of Unlimited Access for $32.29 through our Price Matching Program
By WebMaster March 21st, 2020
We are currently getting a lot of people asking us to price match a competitor offer of $35.88 for 12 months unlimited access. I am trying to relieve some load on my support team, so I will match that deal here instead of requiring users to contact support to get it done.
I had previously stated that I would match backbone providers 110% so here is the link for price match on the deal. 12 months unlimited access for $32.29.
https://www.newsdemon.com/billinginfo.php?pricepointid=202003011
Stay safe!
Greg
40 Years of Usenet: The Online Milestones & Timeline
By Newsgroup Usenet January 31st, 2020
What a long, strange trip it’s been. For 40 years, Usenet has brought together people all over the world. Creating communities, sharing ideas, interests, conversations and more. Without it, who knows what would have become of the internet we all know today?
Would Tim Berners-Lee (who was an active participant on Usenet) ever create the World Wide Web? Larry Page was also part of Usenet groups, seeking answers to Java questions. Would he have been able to figure them out without Usenet to later create Google? Luckily, we pushed away those altered paths by the birth and sustaining resources Usenet newsgroups have been able to provide. And not just for individuals, but also as the foundation and framework for many other online platforms that have been created since (we’re looking at you, Reddit and Twitter)
In celebration of the first 40 years, we’ve included a timeline of major milestones in the online world since Usenet has been released to the masses and the advancements…and sometimes a step back….we’ve taken throughout this historic journey.
1979
Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, graduate students at Duke University, conceived a computer network to link together those in the Unix community. They met and discussed their idea with other interested students, including Steve Bellovin, a graduate student at the neighboring University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Once the program was functioning on their respective machines, Jim Ellis went to a meeting of what was then the academic Unix users group known as Usenix. This marks the origin of USENET
1980
During the summer of 1980 at a Usenix meeting in Delaware, Usenet was first announced via handouts that were distributed at the conference that explained the technology and goals that Usenet could offer.
1991
On August 6, 1991 Tim Berners-Lee (while working at CERN in Switzerland) announced his idea for the WorldWideWeb on the usenet group alt.hypertext. The post was one of the most important steps in bringing the modern communication age into existence.
1993
The Eternal September (September that never ended). It refers to the time period when Usenet saw its heaviest influx of users and especially newbies, after AOL starting providing Usenet access to its users.
Also, the first Web browser, Mosaic (created by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications), is released. Mosaic later becomes Netscape which ultimately fails, but partially rises again within the soul of Firefox..
1994
SSL was developed by Netscape in order to secure communications between a client and server online.
TLS was actually based off of SSL 3.0, despite this, the two are not interchangeable.
Amazon is first launched.
Forté Agent, one of the first and a highly popular usenet newsreaders, was conceived
1996
Many who have been kicked off of newsgroups for breaking Usenet rules find sanctuary in ICQ
1997
A little company called Netflix is launched with a business model that consists of DVD sales and rentals by mail.
The Usenet Death Penalty (UDP) is implemented to combat spam
1998
The birth of Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Google was founded. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) is created to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks.
At the same time, a new version of accessing Newsgroups, named Usenet II was launched.
1999
Wireless technology called 802.11b, more commonly referred to as Wi-Fi, is standardized
Accessing Usenet newsgroups without an ethernet cable is now a thing.
2000
The dot-com bubble bursts. Web sites such as Yahoo! and eBay are hit by a large-scale denial of service attack, highlighting the vulnerability of the Internet. AOL merges with Time Warner
Deja.com sells its Usenet archive to Google
2001
Blackberry is the first internet cellphone with push email.
Google Groups is launched that provides a gateway to Usneet newsgoups via a shared user interface.
2004
In his dorm, Mark Zuckerberg launches a small social website named Facebook
Usenet still leads as the largest online community.
Thunderbird, a Mozilla Foundation product, is released and is a Usenet newsreader
2005
YouTube and Reddit are launched. Cat videos explode online.
2006
Twitter is launched (#hashtagseverywhere). By the end of the year, the number of websites reaches 100 million.
Usenet reaches 7.54 Million Daily Posts
2007
First iPhone is released. Hulu was launched.
Access to over 1 billion newsgroup articles in over 100,000 newsgroups are available on Usenet
2008
Google index reaches one trillion URLs. Android Market is launched.
PC Magazine declares Usenet dead, later that year they announce they will stop printing their magazine.
Usenet traffic exceeds all previous years.
NZB is born. SABnzbd is first released.
2009
ARPANET turns 40
2010
Photo sharing evolves with the launch of Pinterest and Instagram. The first iPad is released.
Usenet achieves 5.42 TiB in daily volume
2011
First NZB newsreader is released for iOS and Android phones. Linux turns 20
Newsdemon reaches 1000 Days Binary Retention
2012
The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, which would have enacted broad new rules requiring internet service providers to police copyrighted content. The successful push to stop the bill, involving technology companies such as Google and nonprofit organizations including Wikipedia and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (where Brad Templeton is a chairman), is considered a victory for Usenet and sites such as YouTube that depend on user-generated content, as well as “fair use” online..
2016
Google unveils Google Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant program, marking the entry of the Internet giant into the “smart” computerized assistant marketplace. Google joins Amazon’s Alexa, Siri from Apple, and Cortana from Microsoft.
2018
The Cambridge Analytica scandal rocks Facebbok and sees a mass exodus from its social platform.
Usenet users and newsgroup posts remain anonymous.
2019
The World Wide Web turns 30 Years Old
Newsdemon launches new website
2020
Usenet continues on, 40 years strong
API Outage on Nov 18, 2019
By WebMaster November 19th, 2019
We had an outage with our upstream provider’s account creation API yesterday and anyone who signed up for an account yesterday may not have had their account properly setup. If you are having issues accessing NNTP and you signed up on that date, please let us know. We are working currently to make sure all those accounts are properly configured.
Black Friday Usenet Specials 2019 are coming!
By WebMaster November 17th, 2019
We have had a lot of people asking, so here is the URL for our upcoming Black Friday specials. We will not be announcing the actual deals until Black Friday, but you can at least save the page. It is important to remember that we will price match any competitor’s prices on new accounts.
Also somewhat important. Last year, some users complained that our Black Friday page was slightly NSFW. We had a lot more people in favor of the design than against it, but we would like to warn those who are worried.
NewsDemon Newsgroups Charters
By Newsgroup Usenet September 4th, 2019
There are a ton of specialty newsgroups available on Usenet. Ranging from Animals to Video Games, there is a discussion group for practically anything. How do these newsgroups get created? How does it get displayed?
Newsgroup Charters
A detailed statement is explained to USENET provider on what the group will be about and the general guidelines for the newsgroup members. After it’s submitted and approved, they may create an FAQ regularly. Both the FAQ and Charter would be posted to the newsgroup after creation so that new members (and old) are able to know about what the group is about.
NewsDemon has long kept a Charter Archive of the many newsgroups. Here, you can select by directory and find what you’re looking for by category and drilling down from there.
By example:
- if you wanted to find out about Linux, you can go to the main Charter Directory page
- Then go to Computers – OS and Platforms
- From here, you should see a sub category for Linux
- For Linux, you’ll find a charter for the Advocacy of Linux under the comp.os.linux.advocacy newsgroup as well as a General Charter for Linux pertaining to the comp.os.linux newsgroup
That’s it! Looking for a charter in particular you’re having trouble finding? Want us to add a charter in particular? Contact us at [email protected] and we’ll be glad to help.
Newsdemon Newsgroups is proud to be a hub for many of the newsgroup charters available on the web, helping the newsgroup community through our knowledgebase.
NewsDemon Blockbuster Summer Sale
By Newsgroup Usenet June 1st, 2018
Starting June 1st, get UNLIMITED USENET ACCESS for only $13
No subscription. No renewal. No other commitments.
Get unlimited access to all 140+K newsgroups, without any limits, until August 31st.
50 simultaneous connections and multiple server farms to ensure the fastest speeds.
VPN Access also included!
And SlickVPN service is part of the deal! Thousands of subscribers use SlickVPNand its advanced encryption and authentication to control their own internet experience. Some choose the service for enhanced online personal security. Others don’t like their IP addresses being collected by “Big Data” companies. And still others—foreign nationals among them– count on SlickVPN to allow them to access the entire internet—and not just the pages approved by governments in other countries.
Say you signed up after the deal started on June 2rd. You would still have unlimited access for 90 days. Pro-rated, that comes out to $4.33 a month and also provides unlimited access to SlickVPN – absolutely free!
Want to keep your account after August 31st?
Great! You can upgrade before August 31st and be billed only $7.00 a month for both Unlimited Usenet and VPN access.
Usenet New Year Super Sale 2018
By Newsgroup Usenet December 31st, 2017
Starting at midnight, celebrate more than just the New Years with an incredible deal
UNLIMITED USENET
FOR ONLY $3.99/MO
LIFETIME ACCOUNT
GET IT NOW!
Hurry! This offer will only be available for a limited time or until the number of accounts we have available are exhausted.
ACCOUNT INCLUDES VPN ACCESS FROM SLICKVPN.COM
