Usenet
From Cship
The Usenet is a over 20 years old Internet system which uses the NNTP protocol for discussions. Technically it works a little bit like E-mail. The messages are not stored on one server but on many servers which distibute their content constantly. Because of that it is impossible to censor the Usenet, however access to the Usenet can and is often censored.
Like with IRC there are various methods to censor the access to Usenet. One method would be blocking the IP adresses of Usenetservers. Since there are several thousands that is really difficult and you should always find one which is not blocked. Test it with a traceroute before you subscribe. The most common way is blocking the standard port 119, but most commercial Newsgroups provider offer access on non-standard ports. Just ask them before signup.
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[edit] List of Usenetproviders on non-standard ports (other than 119):
- Giganews - news.giganews.com and news-europe.giganews.com on ports 23 and 80 or ports 443 and 563 for SSL.
- Usenet-News - eu.usenet-news.net and west.usenet-news.net on port 443 and 563 for SSL.
- Easynews - proxy.news.easynews.com on ports 22, 23, 53, 80, 110 and 443 or try their web-based service at members.easynews.com port 81
- Newshosting - unlimited.newshosting.com on ports 23, 25, 80, 3128, 7000, 8000 and 9000.
- Usenetserver.com - news.usenetserver.com on ports 23, 25, 119, 1720, 3128 and 8000 or secure.usenetserver.com on ports 443, 563 and 8080 for SSL.
- Megabitz.net - news.megabitz.net on ports 20, 23, 80, 110, 120, 443 and 1024-3999.
- Astraweb - news.astraweb.com and europe.news.astraweb.com on ports 23, 1818 and 8080
- Octanews - news.octanews.com on ports 80, 120, 443, 8000, 8010, 8080 and 9000 or snews.octanews.com on port 563 for SSL.
- Readfreenews - news.readfreenews.net and allnews.readfreenews.net at port 80 and 120.
Note: Usually all traffic on the Usenet is unencrypted so you can access these newsservers but the censors can easily monitor all your traffic. I strongly recommend you using SSL which more and more providers offer. If you only sometimes want to read some very common Newsgroups you can easily visit them via free web-based newsservers like Google Groups (formely DejaNews) or Mail2Web.com
[edit] Free Newsservers (text only):
- Aioe - nntp.aioe.org on ports 80, 119 and 443 + 563 for SSL. Posting allowed, no authentication, 15 days retention.
- Motzarella - news.motzarella.org or reader.motzarella.org on port 119 and ports 443 + 563 for SSL. nntp.motzarella.org on 119 or 563 for SSL. Posting allowed, needs registration, 30-360 days retention.
- Usenetserver.com - freetext.usenetserver.com on ports 23, 25, 119, 1720, 3128 and 8000.
- Albasani - news.albasani.net on ports posting allowed, needs registration, 300 days retention.
- Open-News-Network - various servers, needs registration.
