Re: Did Eternal September just stop?

On Sun, 13 Jul 2025 12:07:59 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sat, 12 Jul 2025 23:49:17 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant)
wrote:
>

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sat, 12 Jul 2025 13:37:04 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>

On Sat, 12 Jul 2025 11:20:54 -0600, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rms
wrote:
>

Did they just shut down today at 17:00 UTC?

Huh. Yes it did. For about 5 minutes.

>
  Phew!  Glad you're back!
>

Me too. That five minutes was an *eternity*.
>
I actually pulled headers from a different server.

>

It's always good to have a backup. ;-)

>

And when that doesn't work, Newsgrouper or Narkive so at least you can
get your Usenet fix until the servers are back up.

>

NNTP... it's a helluva drug.

>
Are those free?

>
Yes to both... but they aren't really intended as drop-in replacements
for a proper NNTP server.
>
NARKIVE (http://narkive.com, or {newsgroup.name.narkive.com for a
specific group) is, as the name suggests, primarily intended as an
archive where you can read older posts. It's slow to updatem, has no
real search features and (IIRC) doesn't allow posting, but if you need
a quick Usenet fix (or just want to see if your posts are making it
out) it's an option.
>
NEWSGROUPER (https://newsgrouper.org/)is a web interface to Usenet.
(Specifically, to the Eternal-september news-server). You can _read_
it for free and can even post, although the latter requires you to
register first. It's quicker to update than NARKIVE but has shorter
retention and (IIRC) a much more restricted feed (e.g., fewer groups).
But, again, if you just want a quick fix, it gets the job done.
>
But really, just get a secondary NNTP server that you can slot into
your newsreader software. There are a number of them available
(Eternal-September being the best known). The above should really be
depended on as 'read-only' access for devices that don't have proper
NNTP support.
>

I have Easynews for oddball, recent alt groups (like Windows 11 support)
as soon as they hit the servers. Also very limited binaries. Mostly MAME
rom updates and a Doctor Who archive group. I used to be more into
binaries in my 20s and 30s, but I grew up (and got disposable income).

As an homage to those days, I still run Agent 3.3. Unicode can suck it.

Easynews has superior text retention. The server pulled posts back to
2016 when I pulled the group. Like... damn. I had to purge the folder
three times after unmarking a bunch of watch filter posts to get it back
to where it was. It was going to pull 30,000+ messages at first go.

I use Eternal-September as a test to see if I can ditch Easynews, but 90%
of my NNTP usage comes from E-S at this point.

--
Zag

What's the point of growing up
if you can't be childish sometimes? ...Terrance Dicks, BBC