|
1. General Usenet and Newsgroup Questions |
| What
is Usenet? |
| Usenet is a special part of the Internet that
consists of many interrelated machines around the
world. The machines that participate in this worldwide
network are personal computers and bigger storage
machines, called news servers. Individual users
like you connect to these news servers through
their PCs to access and download their content. |
| What
are News Servers? |
| The news servers host all the content in Usenet.
Content, in the form of news articles, or posts,
is posted by individual users from their own machines
and is stored on the servers because they have
the capacity to store an enormous amount of information.
Users can also download content from the news servers
onto their machines for personal use. |
| What
are Usenet Articles? |
| The Usenet articles,
also known as posts or messages, are the articles
people post to Usenet. They
are the medium that is used to carry the information
that is posted in Usenet. |
| Who
Creates Usenet Articles? |
| The interesting thing about the articles in Usenet
is that no organization, company, or individual
are solely responsible for what goes in and out
of Usenet. It is the individual users, like you,
that determine what Usenet will contain. Every
post or article in Usenet has its author. It could
be me, it could be you or it could be anyone on
this planet. Usenet contains whatever the participants
decide they should put in it. |
| What
are Newsgroups? |
| Newsgroups are entities that contain the articles
that people post in Usenet. Articles are grouped
in newsgroups by topic for easy retrieval and differentiation
purposes. Imagine that the millions of different
articles Usenet contains today were all thrown
in one bucket. How would be able to find anything
in that bucket? It would be impossible. Therefore,
the whole Usenet content is divided into hundreds
of thousands of different newsgroups which all
have their own topics and purpose. This division
makes it much easier for the users to find what
they are looking for in Usenet. When it comes to
searching for something, thousands are better than
millions, correct? |
| What
are Moderated Newsgroups? |
| Moderated newsgroups work a little differently
than non-moderated groups. Normally a newsgroup
post is sent directly to the news server for publication.
Postings to moderated groups are instead sent to
a moderator, who reviews the post to make sure
it is on-topic, and meets any other rules of the
newsgroup charter. Only after the post is approved
by the moderator, can it be sent to the whole group.
The moderator is usually an active poster to the
group, and is happy to answer any questions you
might have concerning the group, unless the question
is clearly addressed in the FAQ post of the group. |
| Who
Controls Usenet and the Newsgroups? |
| Perhaps the best thing about Usenet is the answer
we can give to this question. No one. No one has
control or rights over what goes on in Usenet.
No one. We can say this as many times as we would
like because there aren’t many things in
today’s world that are controlled by no one.
Usenet is truly a great forum of free speech that
not only Americans can enjoy. Newsgroups.com does
not control the content of Usenet, nor do we censor
what you can read, download or post. It’s
a free forum and everyone can do whatever they
want in it. |
| Who
Can Use the Newsgroups in Usenet? |
| Everyone. Here is another great feature about
Usenet and about Newsgroups.com as a Usenet provider.
No matter who you are or where you are in the world,
you can take advantage of all that Usenet has to
offer you. Regardless of your age, gender, nationality,
religious beliefs, or sexual preference, Usenet
is the place for you. No one is discriminated and
no one is turned down. As long as you can afford
your monthly access fees, you can stay a Usenet
user forever. |
| Is
It Safe? |
| The Usenet access we provide leaves your privacy,
anonymity, and freedom of speech intact. We do
not interfere in your personal affairs in any way.
Period. We meticulously serve the rule that “Customer
is King” and that “Customer Privacy
is a Must.” We are in business to server
your needs and protect your privacy. To give you
even additional protection while you browse the
newsgroups, we have teamed up with SecureTunnel.com
to offer you the maximum security you can get while
in Usenet. SecureTunnel.com provides an encrypted
tunnel through their servers which makes you virtually
invisible to other Internet and Usenet users. Postings
with viruses are very uncommon, but they do occur
once in a while. We recommend that you always keep
updated anti-virus software installed on your computer
for your protection. |
| How
Can I Participate in Usenet? |
| We are certain that
you will like Usenet. If what you read above appeals
to you, you can easily become
a part of the Usenet community. All you need is
a computer with Internet access (which we assume
you already have since you’re reading this)
and an account with us so you can enter Usenet.
Go to the Sign Up link to join Newsgroups.com today. |
| I
am an MSN TV / WebTV User. Can I Access the Newsgroups? |
|
Certainly! Because you cannot use a newsreader,
you would need to log into to our servers using
our Web News Gateway located here.
You can still experience all advantages of Usenet,
however. |
| 2. Service Usage Questions |
| How
Do I Sign Up? |
| It is very easy to
sign up. We have several sign up options for you
to choose from on our “Sign
Up” page. All you have to do is pick one
and sign up, using a credit card or online check.
You could even mail in your payment if none of
the other options work for you. After
you join, you will be able to log into our servers
using the username and password you selected at
sign up. |
| What
Happens After I Sign Up? |
| After you go through our quick sign up process,
your username and password will be activated and
you will now have access to our two news servers,
News-East.Newsgroups.com and News-West.Newsgroups.com,
located on the East and West coast respectively.
You will need to download a few software applications
to get started. Look at our “Software” page
to see what programs you will need. |
| Is
Your Service Easy to Use? |
| You may not think so when you read about it,
but we assure you that Usenet is for everyone and
it is easy for use. You need to familiarize yourself
with the way it works but that is true for every
other article sharing service, such as KaZaa. It will
not take you long to learn how it works but the
benefits will be long-term as you will be able
to download everything you want for as long as
you are a member of Newsgroups.com. It is a small
time investment versus a huge long-term benefit.
Just think about it! We also have an easy to use
web interface which allows you to access the newsgroups
without using a newsreader. Our so-called Web News
gateway (which you can access from our home page)
is very convenient to use when you are not on your
own computer. All you need is a connection to the
Internet and a browser, such as Internet Explorer
or Netscape Communicator. We recommend the Web
News to beginning users who are not yet familiar
with how a newsreader operates. |
| What
is a Newsreader? |
| You will need a piece of software to access Usenet,
find the newsgroup you need and the content that
you are looking for. There is a special kind of
software that allows you to do all that plus download
articles from Usenet. This software is called a “newsreader” and
there are many different ones to choose from. However,
one of the best newsreaders that we have been able
to find so far has been News Rover. That is why
we had News Rover customized for us with out servers
so it’s easy for our customers to download
and use. We provide every member with a free copy
of this great application that you can use to access
Usenet and download articles. |
| Do
I Have to Use a Newsreader? |
|
Having a newsreader is not required to access
Usenet, but it does make things much easier when
it comes to downloading and decoding multi-part
articles. You may access our service through a
Web News Gateway. We recommend this option to users who are new to Usenet because it is more user friendly than a newsreader. If you would like instructions on using the Web News Gateway, please visit our Instructions Page. |
|
What
is a Web News Gateway? |
|
The Web News Gateway is a tool that
gives Newsgroups.com members access to Usenet via
the web, through the use of an Internet browser,
such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator.
Web News can be accessed from our home page. Therefore,
we recommend trying out the web gateway to beginning
users and later switching
to a good newsreader, such as News Rover to save
time. If you would like more information on using
the Web News Gateway, please visit our Instructions Page. |
| Do
You Have All the Newsgroups? |
|
We have almost all of them, more than 100,000. No Usenet provider in the world has all of them, however. If you wish to add an existing newsgroup that we don't have to our servers, please submit a newsgroup request that contains the name of the newsgroup and your username. We will add newsgroups for members only. |
| What
Happens When I Subscribe to a Newsgroup? |
| Subscribing to a group just changes a setting
in your computer. No one is informed that you subscribe
to a group, and we do not record which groups you
subscribe to. You can also just visit a group,
without subscribing, with most newsreaders. People
often visit groups to check out the activity in
the group, and subscribe only if they like what
they find. |
| Can
Other Newsgroup Members See When I Subscribe to
a Newsgroup? |
| No one is informed or knows when you have subscribed
to a group, unless you post a message to the group.
Be aware that any newsgroup post is shared with
all of the news servers in the world that host
the group so many people around the world may see
and read your message. |
| How
Can I Download Newsgroup Posts? |
| Newsreader applications
differ in the command sequence to download a group.
In general, after
you subscribe to a group and select it for download,
only the message headers (sender, subject, date
and size) are downloaded and not the actual posts.
You then must select only the postings you want
to read. |
| What
Kind of People Use the Newsgroups? |
| Everyone and anyone can be a member of Usenet,
as long as they have a computer with an Internet
connection and a Newsgroups.com account. There
are people all over the world that use it so don’t
be surprised if you find yourself into a group
with 30 or more different nationalities. This is
what makes it more exciting, there are all kinds
of people that you can communicate with or learn
from. Human knowledge is not contained within the
borders of North America and the newsgroups make
it very easy for people to spread that knowledge
and share it with others around the world. The
newsgroups are a truly International, worldwide
medium for exchanging information in the form of
text or articles and that is what makes it so rich
and powerful. |
| 3. Account Questions |
| What
is Retention on the Newsgroups.com Servers? |
| The term retention describes the amount of time
a given article stays on our servers before it
is expired and replaced by a newer article. We
are proud of our consistently high retention rates.
The current retention in our article groups is approximately
150 days in text/discussion groups, it is about
5 years. Not bad, huh? |
|
Do headers count towards my Newsfeeds.com bandwidth? |
|
No. We provide access to over 100,000 newsgroups
because we want our customers to be able to enjoy
as much of Usenet as possible. Go ahead, download
all the headers you want. It's on us. |
|
Are the Member's Area stats in real-time? |
|
Yes, all Newsgroups.com Member's Area stats are in real time, so you will never have to wait to get the latest information regarding your account. |
|
Are There Any Speed Limits? |
| As with download limits, we impose none on you.
We don’t like limits ourselves and do not
favor imposing any on our customers. We let you
download at whatever speed you can. Your download
speed depends on Internet traffic, your Internet
connection speed, and your route to our servers.
If you want to be able to use more bandwidth, we
allow you to open up to 3 simultaneous connections
to our servers. |
| How
Can I Open More than One Stream or Connection? |
| Some of the more popular newsreaders such as
Newsbin Pro and News Rover allow you to have more
than one simultaneous connection to a server. This
will speed up your downloads by having more than
one download going on at a time. Some newsreaders
will not allow you to open more than one stream.
Outlook Express and Forte Agent only allow one
stream at a time. To avoid that drawback with Agent,
you can install Agent more than one time on your
computer and then have two or more instances of
Agent running at the same time. This will allow
you to have more than one connection open. |
| How
Often Do I Have to Use Your Service? |
| As often as you want. Period. You can use it
24-7 if you wish or you may use it once a month
or once every 3 months. As long as you have an
appropriate membership plan, you can use it whenever
you want, for as long as you want. Newsgroups.com
accounts do not operate according to the principle “Use
it or Lose it.” Your account will not become
inactive or expire in case you don’t use
it. So if you go on vacation for a month, you need
not worry that your Newsgroups.com account will
be gone when you return. It will be there, waiting
for you. |
| How
Can I Update My Member Information? |
| You can update your password and email address
if you go to the account administration page within
our Member’s Area. If you want to change
other details of your account such as username
or account type, please submit a support
request and we will assist you. |
| How
Can I Change My Billing Information? |
|
Our billing agents ccBill and USAePay don't allow us or customers to change credit card information for security reasons. What you need to do is cancel your current account, after your account is canceled and expires your can sign up again with a different credit card or updated credit card information. If you would like to use the same user name you have to wait for the account to expire at midnight on your final day. For more information about changing your billing information please contact customer support.
|
|
What
if I Forget or Loose My Password? |
| No Problem! Please go to this page and enter
the email address you used when you signed up.
We will send you your password right away. |
| Can
I Cancel My Account if I’m Not Happy? |
| We don’t see how it is possible for you
to not be happy with our service but we do give
you the option of canceling your service. To cancel
your account, please submit a support request with
your name, username, and subscription or transaction
number. You can get your subscription or transaction
number from the account administration page in
the Member’s Area. Cancellations are usually
handled within 48 hours except on weekends or holidays.
You will receive a cancellation confirmation from
us once your request has been processed. |
| How Can I Cancel My Account? |
|
Either Newsgroups.com or you may cancel your Usenet account with us by providing the other party with written notice of termination, which may be made by email or otherwise. Newsgroups.com has the right to terminate your access and use of this website in the event you infringe or otherwise violate the copyright, trademark, or any other proprietary right of any other party. No fees, charges, or other amounts paid by you to Newsgroups.com are refundable. Further charges will be discontinued after the current billing period is over. |
| How Do I Report Abuse? |
| You may report newsgroup and Usenet abuse issues
to abuse@newsgroups.com.
Please include the name of the group and the article
ID when reporting abuse. We will do our best to
remove the offending posts as soon as possible. |
|
How
do I add Secure Tunnel™ to my account? |
|
To add Secure-Tunnel™ to your Newsgroups.com plan you must sign up with ccBill, our secondary billing agent. Please note, iPay is the default option, so signing up with ccBill requires you to manually switch your billing agent preference. To do this, simply click the ccBill button on the first sign-up page. After choosing and approving your plan you will be taken to the ccBill transaction page to finalize your order. At the bottom of this page there is a box called Today's Special. Check that box to add Secure-Tunnel™ to your package.
If you would like to learn more about our partnership with Secure-Tunnel™, please visit our information page. |
| Any
Other Questions? Please
submit a new support
request |
