Re: Note - ISP Screwed Up - Can WRITE But Not SEE

D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

 
On Thu, 23 Jan 2025, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
 

On 23/01/2025 15:44, D wrote:

 
On Wed, 22 Jan 2025, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
 

On 1/22/25 3:00 PM, Marco Moock wrote:

On 22.01.2025 00:19 Uhr 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
 

Well, I can see - by posting with my normal ISP and
then reading from NeoDome (but can't POST from Neo).

 
Maybe they restrict posting to avoid abuse.
Ask the admin of it.

 
 Yep, they don't allow posting anymore - too
 many spammers. None of the other freebies
 seem to work at all any more or want you
 to "register". Some ISPs block port 119.
 This is not good.
 
 My provider finally did fix it. Alas they
 may only have one old guy who knows how
 the NNTP server works. Don't think they
 even offer it to newbies anymore.
 
 By modern standards, usenet is kinda small
 data-wise - and mostly just text. Would not
 take a super-box. Maybe some people are
 worried about liability - lots of weird
 stuff here ? Perhaps someone in a kinda
 off-the-map country can start a new free
 service. (hmmm ... Belize maybe?)

 
I think it should be entirely feasible, and fairly cheap, to start
your own usenet provider on a few hetzner VM:s.  The only thing
you'd need is a few peers, inn (or equivalent) and off you go.
 
I've toyed with the idea myself from time to time, but so far
haven't had the time to do something about it since other projects
have priority.

>
Yep.
I have set up a few INN servers.  The problem back in the day was
the binary newsgroups - people uploading pirate images of massive
size..

 
Isn't it very easy to just not offer the binary crap?

Yes.  But, if you don't "watch for it" (i.e., have some sort of filter
watching) then folks will start posting binaries into traditionally
non-binary groups.

There are way better methods today to get your hands on binaries than
trawling through newsgroups downloading and integrating small
compressed files.

That's not how "downloading from usenet" is done anymore.  One uses a
NZB aggregator and NZB downloader, and downloading and combining those
"small compressed files" is no more difficult than downloading a file
from a traditional FTP server.  NZB downloaders even offer automatic
par2 file fixup's to cover for missing/damaged parts.

It does take a bit of looking after.  If you let everyone access it
before you know it there is a huge amount of illegal shit being
transferred on legitimate newsgroups, ratware is smashing against
every door it can find and people are trying to DOS it just because
someone called them out for being a doofus.

 
It is very interesting!  How long before someone would try and
destroy your publicly available free news server?  ;)

Set one up, let us know how long it took.

Or, register for an eternal september account, which will then give you
access to the internal ES groups, and ask on the appropriate one there. 
Ray (ES operator) often answers posts there.

On the other hand, if spam increases too much or the complaints keep
piling up, maybe the peers will drop you?

Yes.