For an on-topic question on this newsgroup for a change... :)

Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news servers?
Dizm news.dizum.net:119
ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
MIXM news.mixmin.net:563
NEOD news.neodome.net:563
NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
A: ?

Did I miss any purposefully free nntp news servers in that question?

Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:

> For an on-topic question on this newsgroup for a change... :)
>
> Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news servers?

> Dizm news.dizum.net:119
I think it's a troll-haven

> ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
I find it good, it's my primary service

> IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
I have no experience of this service

> MIXM news.mixmin.net:563
Too anonymous for my taste

> NEOD news.neodome.net:563
Was closed to general posting because of abuse.

> NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
I have no experience of this service.

> PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
IMO its reputation is improving; I haven't used it

> SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
Not known

> A: ?
>
> Did I miss any purposefully free nntp news servers in that question?

Solani; also one or two others that are not generally advertised.

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator.
My pet rock Gordon just is.

Google Groups articles not seen unless poster is whitelisted.

On Mon, 13 Nov 2023 18:08:59 -0700, Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:
>For an on-topic question on this newsgroup for a change... :)
> Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news servers?
> Dizm news.dizum.net:119
> ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
> IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
> MIXM news.mixmin.net:563
> NEOD news.neodome.net:563
> NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
> PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
> SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
> A: ?
>Did I miss any purposefully free nntp news servers in that question?

with current Tor Browser and Omnimix always running in the background,
in Windows 7 Omnimix > Tor tab > Cfg > Port is using "9054" (default),
and in Windows 11 Omnimix > Tor tab > Cfg > Port is using "9150"; the
Omnimix "News" tab is set to use "SOCKS Version 5" and "Implicit SSL"
to connect and download from the nntp server newsgroups host address:

Dizm - Y 563
ESEP - Y 563*
IP2N - Y 563
MIXM - Y 119
NEOD - Y 563
NOVA - Y 563
PAGA - Y 563
SAMO - Y 563

* "eternal-september" requires username and password, tor is disabled

using the above configuration, all eight of these news servers appear
to work fine in read-only mode afaict, with only "e-s" needing log-in;
as for retention, speed, reliability, etc., whatever works is probably
useful enough, and there are maybe dozens of other public nntp servers
such as listed with urls on the https://sybershock.com/#usenet website

Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote in
news:uiuhbb$3afch$1@paganini.bofh.team:

> For an on-topic question on this newsgroup for a change... :)
>
> Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news
> servers?
> Dizm news.dizum.net:119 - Good
> ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119 - Good
> IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119 - Haven't tried yet
> MIXM news.mixmin.net:563 - Good
> NEOD news.neodome.net:563 - Good
> NOVA news.novabbs.org:119 - Haven't tried yet
> PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119 - Good
> SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119 - Can't post
> A: ?
>
> Did I miss any purposefully free nntp news servers in that question?
>

news.nntp4.net - Have not retried yet (Was news.freedyn.de). It was
abused by the same shitstain who puked from albasani, neodome, aioe,
news.freedyn.de, netfront and other free public servers, currently
sporging from e-s.

news.solani.org - Good

Am 14.11.2023 um 02:28:44 Uhr schrieb Sn!pe:

> Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:
>
> > For an on-topic question on this newsgroup for a change... :)
> >
> > Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news
> > servers?
>
> > Dizm news.dizum.net:119
> I think it's a troll-haven

Mostly, but some normal users in de.* use it.

> > ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
> I find it good, it's my primary service
>
> > IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
> I have no experience of this service
>
> > MIXM news.mixmin.net:563
> Too anonymous for my taste

It was a huge source of trollposts, name forgery and general bullshit.
It closed for open posting, but is still being used (maybe Steve
permitted certain address ranges or offered accounts for certain
people).

> > NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
> I have no experience of this service.

Also offers a web interface and cares about spam, so a good service.

> > PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
> IMO its reputation is improving; I haven't used it

It was used by trolls, but the operator cares about it and implements
filters.

> > SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
> Not known

Is that a public server?

Sn!pe <snipeco.2@gmail.com> said:

> Solani; also one or two others that are not generally advertised.

Oops. Thanks. I forgot news.solani.org:119 and I did purposefully omit a
few that are basically like an invitation only nntp server (eg Jesse's nntp
server) or which cover very few newsgroups (eg news.tambov.ru:119).

Adding Solani and fixing typos
DIZM news.dizum.net:119 (read only?)
ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
MIXM news.mixmin.net:563 (read only?)
NEOD news.neodome.net:563
NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
SOLA news.solani.org:119

What else did I miss that is a reliably purposefully free news server?

The goal is to list experiences for the purposefully free news servers that
actually work, as you can go nuts trying those that don't really work, eg
FDYN news.freedyn.de:119
GRCN news.grc.com:119
HUFU hufu.ki.iif.hu:119
INFO news2.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de:119
NETF freenews.netfront.net:119
NEVA news2.neva.ru:119
NTP4 news.nntp4.net:119
RIPC remote5bge0.ripco.com:119
STUT news.uni-stuttgart.de:119
WIES wieslauf.sub.de:119

The nntp news server has to actually work to be useful to anyone.

denver <denver@notreal.no> said:

> news.nntp4.net - Have not retried yet (Was news.freedyn.de). It was
> abused by the same shitstain who puked from albasani, neodome, aioe,
> news.freedyn.de, netfront and other free public servers, currently
> sporging from e-s.
>
> news.solani.org - Good

Thanks for the solani omission (which was a big boo boo on my part).
Sorry for that. I forgot about it because it stopped accepting people.

But I saw the thread that it just doesn't like some email domains I guess.
So I put it back on the list.

As for news.nntp4.net/news.freedyn.de, in the past every time I tried it I
received a web page in German basically saying I should go to hell.
https://www.freedyn.de/registrieren.php

Can an English speaking person actually register on it?
I can't. https://i.postimg.cc/3NpRxZZm/freedyne.jpg

Same with OpenNews being often suggested but never working.
http://open-news-network.org/register

Can you get it to register you?
I can't. https://i.postimg.cc/FFx82SvB/opennews.jpg

The question is asking for free news servers that actually work.

Marco Moock <mm+solani@dorfdsl.de> said:

>>> SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
>> Not known
>
> Is that a public server?

Oh. My bad. I should have remove SAMO from my listing, just as I didn't
list Jesse's "blue" nntp server because it is essentially invitation only.

Samo is, like "BLUE", a private server that only accepts people who won't
abuse it. I'll take Alexander's samoylyk server off the "approved" list.

You know a lot Marco so maybe you can help fix the list so that it contains
the approximately dozen reliable purposefully free nntp news server please.

DIZM news.dizum.net:119 (no registration,read only)
ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119 (registration required)
IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119 (registration required)
MIXM news.mixmin.net:563 (no registration, read only)
NEOD news.neodome.net:563 (registration required)
NOVA news.novabbs.org:119 (registration required)
PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119 (no registration, posting limited)
SOLA news.solani.org:119 (registration required)

Who else am I missing that is free & that works for posting to text ngs?

Am 14.11.2023 um 02:13:34 Uhr schrieb Gunther F:

> FDYN news.freedyn.de:119

Got replaced by nntp4.net.

> GRCN news.grc.com:119

IIRC they only support their own private hierarchy, but works.

> HUFU hufu.ki.iif.hu:119
> INFO news2.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de:119

IIRC not intended for public unauthenticated posting, reading works
fine.

> NETF freenews.netfront.net:119

Reading works fine, posting not allowed.

> NEVA news2.neva.ru:119

Offline and maybe routing problem

> NTP4 news.nntp4.net:119

Works, people use it.

> RIPC remote5bge0.ripco.com:119

domain parked.

> STUT news.uni-stuttgart.de:119

Reading ok, unauthenticated posting disabled

> WIES wieslauf.sub.de:119

Currently offline.

Am 14.11.2023 um 02:35:39 Uhr schrieb Gunther F:

> Who else am I missing that is free & that works for posting to text
> ngs?

news.tambov.ru
news.tlt.ru
news.kraft-s.ru

Gunther F wrote:
>
> For an on-topic question on this newsgroup for a change... :)
>
> Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news servers?
> Dizm news.dizum.net:119
> ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
> IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
> MIXM news.mixmin.net:563
> NEOD news.neodome.net:563
> NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
> PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
> SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119
> A: ?
>
> Did I miss any purposefully free nntp news servers in that question?

You just can't have enough servers to forge from, can you?

Why do you nymshift and forge, Arlen?
Your posting style is unique to you and so all your forging and nymshifting is
easily recognised.

Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:

> GRCN news.grc.com:119

ITYF that is not on Usenet proper, AIUI it's for GRC local groups only.

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator.
My pet rock Gordon just is.

Google Groups articles not seen unless poster is whitelisted.

[rk nyg.serr.arjffreiref]

Jvyyvnz Fgvpxref <ovyy.fgvpxref@vaabprag.pbz> jebgr:

[...]

> > Qvq V zvff nal checbfrshyyl serr aagc arjf freiref va gung dhrfgvba?
>
> Lbh whfg pna'g unir rabhtu freiref gb sbetr sebz, pna lbh?
>
> Jul qb lbh alzfuvsg naq sbetr, Neyra?
> Lbhe cbfgvat fglyr vf havdhr gb lbh naq fb nyy lbhe sbetvat naq alzfuvsgvat vf
> rnfvyl erpbtavfrq.

!! - ernyyl?

--
\|/
(((Ï))) - Mr Ön!on
When we shake the ketchup bottle
At first none comes and then a lot'll.

Mr Ön!on <onion@anon.invalid> wrote:

[...]
> !! - ernyyl?

Sorry, wrong group. [fu2: adn]

--
\|/
(((Ï))) - Mr Ön!on
When we shake the ketchup bottle
At first none comes and then a lot'll.

Mr Ön!on wrote:
>
> [rk nyg.serr.arjffreiref]
>
> Jvyyvnz Fgvpxref <ovyy.fgvpxref@vaabprag.pbz> jebgr:
>
> [...]
>
> > > Qvq V zvff nal checbfrshyyl serr aagc arjf freiref va gung dhrfgvba?
> >
> > Lbh whfg pna'g unir rabhtu freiref gb sbetr sebz, pna lbh?
> >
> > Jul qb lbh alzfuvsg naq sbetr, Neyra?
> > Lbhe cbfgvat fglyr vf havdhr gb lbh naq fb nyy lbhe sbetvat naq alzfuvsgvat vf
> > rnfvyl erpbtavfrq.
>
> !! - ernyyl?

Lrc, ernyyl. Jura lbh'ir frra nf znal bs Neyra'f cbnfgf nf V unir vg'f rnfl gb
fcbg uvz. Ur sbetrf n ybg guebhtu bcra freiref.

Using <news:MPG.3fbd6e2ef3fbb67989850@news.thecubenet.com>, % wrote:

> vf vg ernyyl sbetvat be vf vg sebttvat

Fb fnlf gur hygvzngr gebyy, ebq fcrrq.

In article <uj0bb9$rnua$1@i2pn2.org>, this@is.invalid says...
>
> Using <news:MPG.3fbd6e2ef3fbb67989850@news.thecubenet.com>, % wrote:
>
> > vf vg ernyyl sbetvat be vf vg sebttvat
>
> Fb fnlf gur hygvzngr gebyy, ebq fcrrq.
>
>
qvq ebq fcrrq obbg shpx lbh, nffung

david <this@is.invalid> wrote:

> Using <news:MPG.3fbd6e2ef3fbb67989850@news.thecubenet.com>,
> FAKE % wrote:
>
> > vf vg ernyyl sbetvat be vf vg sebttvat
>
> Fb fnlf gur hygvzngr gebyy, ebq fcrrq.

Hmm. There seems to be quite an infestation of forgers and
fr0ggers in here. Time for some k/f maintenance, I think.

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator.
My pet rock Gordon just is.

Google Groups articles not seen unless poster is whitelisted.

Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:
> Q: What's your opinion of the known (purposefully) free nntp news servers?
> Dizm news.dizum.net:119
> ESEP news.eternal-september.org:119
> IP2N news.i2pn2.org:119
> MIXM news.mixmin.net:563
> NEOD news.neodome.net:563
> NOVA news.novabbs.org:119
> PAGA paganini.bofh.team:119
> SAMO news.samoylyk.net:119

Posting via Mixmin failed last time I tried, so I switched to using
Paganini as my fall-back option for a server with no-account
posting access. It also has long retention, but I'm not sure how
long exactly. Some people complain about overly-aggressive
automatic post filtering, I haven't used it enough to comment on
that.

news.i2pn2.org and news.novabbs.org are both run by "Retro Guy",
but are separate servers and might be configured slightly
differently although both are based on the same custom "Rocksolid"
software which has a web interface with access to a great archive
of old posts. It requires accounts so I haven't tried posting.

news.dizum.net seems to attract some odd people. I don't mind the
crazies that much, but I do assume that anyone using it is likely a
bit unhinged, and apparantly some people have killfiled all posts
from there so it's probably not a good option for posting from. I'm
not sure whether there's public posting access except via its email
to news gateway.

> Did I miss any purposefully free nntp news servers in that question?

For me news.ausics.net:119 works well, but it only accepts
connections from Australian IP addresses, and has some quirks. It
doesn't expire articles anymore, so has built up a bit of an
archive for the last decade or so. New groups still get added.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _# | Note: I won't see posts made from Google Groups |

Marco Moock <mm+solani@dorfdsl.de> said:

>> Who else am I missing that is free & that works for posting to text
>> ngs?
>
> news.tambov.ru
> news.tlt.ru
> news.kraft-s.ru

Thanks for those three as the goal is to list the dozen good ones that work
for posting to most text newsgroups without too many hoops to jump through.

The problem I've had in the past with TAMB is it serves only newsgroups
that nobody uses but maybe they've expanded their repetoire recently?

I forget the correct command to list postable newsgroups in telnet.
Is this it?

telnet news.tambov.ru 119
list newsgroups

If so, what that lists is almost nothing of any use to anybody.
But maybe this command is the correct command to list postable newsgroups?

telnet news.tambov.ru 119
list active

For that, the list is longer but it's hard to capture.
Is there an easy way to capture the output of "list active" for telnet?

Likewise with the others.

telnet news.tambov.ru 119
200 news.tambov.ru InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.5.4 ready (posting ok)
list newsgroups
list active

telnet news.tlt.ru 119
200 news InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.4.3 ready (posting ok).
list newsgroups
list active

telnet news.kraft-s.ru 119
200 news.kraft-s.ru InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.6.4 ready (posting ok)
list newsgroups
list active

It's hard to grep for any given newsgroup as they fly by fast.
But there aren't many & none of the popular text newsgroups are there.

Given the paucity of the output in all three situations, what's the best
command to determine exactly what newsgroups are supported for posting?

On Nov 14, 2023 at 8:33:05 PM CST, "Gunther F" <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:

> Marco Moock <mm+solani@dorfdsl.de> said:

<SNIP>

>
> Given the paucity of the output in all three situations, what's the best
> command to determine exactly what newsgroups are supported for posting?

Without attempting to post to a newsgroup, I don't know of any way you can
tell. With INN, for example, the ability to post to specific groups can be
restricted globally, per-user, per-IP, etc.

On 2023-11-15, Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote:
[...]
> telnet news.kraft-s.ru 119
> 200 news.kraft-s.ru InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.6.4 ready (posting ok)
> list newsgroups
> list active
>
> It's hard to grep for any given newsgroup as they fly by fast.
> But there aren't many & none of the popular text newsgroups are there.
>
> Given the paucity of the output in all three situations, what's the best
> command to determine exactly what newsgroups are supported for posting?
Generally, you can record a telnet session like this:
https://superuser.com/questions/1025187/how-to-record-or-log-telnet-session-using-the-command-line

Gunther F <grunther@nospam.edu> wrote in
news:uiveb1$3bse2$1@paganini.bofh.team:

> denver <denver@notreal.no> said:
>
>> news.nntp4.net - Have not retried yet (Was news.freedyn.de). It was
>> abused by the same shitstain who puked from albasani, neodome, aioe,
>> news.freedyn.de, netfront and other free public servers, currently
>> sporging from e-s.
>>
>> news.solani.org - Good
>
> Thanks for the solani omission (which was a big boo boo on my part).
> Sorry for that. I forgot about it because it stopped accepting people.
>
> But I saw the thread that it just doesn't like some email domains I
> guess. So I put it back on the list.
>
> As for news.nntp4.net/news.freedyn.de, in the past every time I tried
> it I received a web page in German basically saying I should go to
> hell. https://www.freedyn.de/registrieren.php
>
> Can an English speaking person actually register on it?
> I can't. https://i.postimg.cc/3NpRxZZm/freedyne.jpg

"User registration blocked!"
"Registration for new user accounts is currently not available because
there has been an increase in misuse of the service recently."

> Same with OpenNews being often suggested but never working.
> http://open-news-network.org/register
>
> Can you get it to register you?
> I can't. https://i.postimg.cc/FFx82SvB/opennews.jpg

"Website in maintenance mode"
"We are currently carrying out maintenance work on open news network and
should be available again soon. Thank you for your patience."

> The question is asking for free news servers that actually work.

This is why those two servers are not accepting new "public"
registrations.

From: PaxPerPoten <PaxPerPoten@magik.beanz.net> (forgery)
Message-ID: <su6n7u$177pr$38@news.freedyn.de>
From: Delta Kills Trumpers <hefsd@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <su6n8b$177qi$21@news.freedyn.de>
From: RichA <rander3127@gmail.com> (forgery)
Message-ID: <su6n7v$177pr$39@news.freedyn.de>

Look for this thread, "Subject: freedyne.de SPAMMER Will Be Blocked"

Now he is at eternal-september

From: WhiteRacistCrybaby <nowomr@protonmail.com>
Message-ID: <u55fo6$22kb3$1@dont-email.me>
From: PedoBoebert <nowomr@protonmail.com>
Message-ID: <u55ggd$22kb3$4@dont-email.me>
From: "Warren \"Potsie\" Weber" <nowomr@protonmail.com>
Message-ID: <u57h1p$2dgfv$1@dont-email.me>
From: "Trump - Inmate Number P01135809" <patriot1@protonmail.com>
Message-ID: <uj0n4e$1csu8$1@dont-email.me>

Easy enough to kf the bozo, but the end result is denial of service to
others.

On 11/15/2023 2:49 AM, Jesse Rehmer wrote:

>> Given the paucity of the output in all three situations, what's the best
>> command to determine exactly what newsgroups are supported for posting?
>
> Without attempting to post to a newsgroup, I don't know of any way you can
> tell. With INN, for example, the ability to post to specific groups can be
> restricted globally, per-user, per-IP, etc.

This is the basics for testing if any given newsgroup is allowed.
https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-78/how-can-i-use-telnet-access-news-server

This explains the difference between list "active" versus "newsgroups."
https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/linag2/book/ch22.html

Based on that, the 'list newsgroups' nntp directive outputs "the groups
supported by the server" while the 'list active' nntp directive "shows each
supported group and provides information about them."

When you run these commands on the listed news servers, you get different
numbers of "supported" versus "active" newsgroups. I don't know why.

telnet news.mixmin.net 119
list newsgroups

versus

telnet news.mixmin.net 119
list active

From the definition above, both commands should report the same number of
newsgroups but the results aren't even close in comparison for some reason.

Maybe an admin knows why.

On Nov 15, 2023 at 4:41:22 AM CST, "Larry Wolff" <larrywolff@larrywolff.net>
wrote:

> On 11/15/2023 2:49 AM, Jesse Rehmer wrote:
>
>>> Given the paucity of the output in all three situations, what's the best
>>> command to determine exactly what newsgroups are supported for posting?
>>
>> Without attempting to post to a newsgroup, I don't know of any way you can
>> tell. With INN, for example, the ability to post to specific groups can be
>> restricted globally, per-user, per-IP, etc.
>
> This is the basics for testing if any given newsgroup is allowed.
> https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-78/how-can-i-use-telnet-access-news-server
>
> This explains the difference between list "active" versus "newsgroups."
> https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/linag2/book/ch22.html
>
> Based on that, the 'list newsgroups' nntp directive outputs "the groups
> supported by the server" while the 'list active' nntp directive "shows each
> supported group and provides information about them."
>
> When you run these commands on the listed news servers, you get different
> numbers of "supported" versus "active" newsgroups. I don't know why.
>
> telnet news.mixmin.net 119
> list newsgroups
>
> versus
>
> telnet news.mixmin.net 119
> list active
>
> From the definition above, both commands should report the same number of
> newsgroups but the results aren't even close in comparison for some reason.
>
> Maybe an admin knows why.

The active and newsgroups files are mostly maintained separately. The
newsgroups file contains descriptions of newsgroups and in my experience is
not well maintained through the usual hierarchy administrative channels. Many
hierarchies have stopped sending checkgroup messages which help administrators
populate the contents of both files. Some newsgroups do not have a published
description. You may find groups and descriptions in the 'list newsgroups'
command where no matching group exists in the active file.

Note that the contents of 'list active' does not mean that you can post to all
of those newsgroups. Some may not accept any new articles, some may not allow
local postings, or are moderated, etc.