A: We have two server systems, each can be accessed via standard connection (nntp), or SSL (nntps):

NNTP:

• news.us.Ngroups.NET (US Server farm, Ashburn, VA)
• news.eu.Ngroups.NET (EU Server farm, Amsterdam, NL)
• Ports: 119, 443

NNTP+SSL: (NNTPS)

• news.ssl.Ngroups.NET (US Server farm, Ashburn, VA)
• eu.ssl.Ngroups.NET (EU Server farm, Amsterdam, NL)
• Ports: 563, 80, 81

Normally you should use the system closest to you, but if there is some issue at that system, or the network between you and that system, you might use the other system.

A: Please check the following before opening a support ticket:
- If you have a recurring subscription, please check if the latest renewal was successful. The payment service (CCDeb or PayPal) does send an email error message to you is a recurring debit fails. You can also see the status in your account with the payment service you used. 90% of all users contacting support having issues with 502 errors are subscribers where the latest recurring debit has failed. When that happens you may need to update your payment details at the service in quuestion.
- If you are using a "Manual Renewal" account, please check so the account hasn't expired.
- If you have just paid for a new period, or just signed up, please note that it may take up to 30 minutes before your account is updated.
- Make sure your login info is configured correctly in your newsreader, including the part after the @-sign in the username.

A: Currently our Binary retention is up to about 600 days. Please note that header retention may be less, but 600 days should be available in most binary groups via message-ID. (If you use nzb files, or a reader with built-in search function.)
Both the US and EU systems have the same retention.

A: Not necessarily. If you have a PayPal account with enough balance, you might buy one of our "one time payment" accounts using PayPal. However, all recurring subscriptions, even using PayPal, requires a credit card or some other type of "instant funding source" tied to your PayPal account.. (There is nothing we can do about that, it's how PayPal's recurring subscriptions works.)

A: Yes. We do not provide a web interface to Usenet, so you need a newsreader like Mozilla Thunderbird or MS Outlook Express to access the newsgroups. You find some newsreaders on this link.

A: You need a newsreader program to log on. (Like, for example, Outlook Express.) In your newsreader you configure your login, and which server(s) to use. Please refer to your newsreader's documentation on the details for your specific software.

A: Most newsreaders have an option to toggle if the reader should try to log on to the server or not. Please make sure that the option "News server requires login" or eqvilalent is checked in your newsreader's configuration.
If it is, and the problem persist, please recheck that the login is entered correctly. The best way is to copy and paste the usernname and password from our welcome letter into your newsreader config.
You also get access denied if you have a limited account, and have passed your quota for the current period.

A: This is usually due to lack of capacity on your local net, or traffic congestion somewere on the net between you and our server location. Additionally, some ISP:s are capping usenet downloads. You may then try to use an alternate port instead of the standard port. Currently the standard port 119 and alternate port 443 are available for connections to the standard servers, and the standard port 563 and alternate ports 80 and 81 are available for the SSL servers. (See above.)

A: This happen for several reasons. First of all binaries articles become incomplete when the individual parts begin to expire from a server. If articles are incomplete already when new, the most likely reason is that some of the articles (or parts of articles) were filtered out as spam before they reached our servers. Many news servers limit the maximum article size and if any articles are in excess of that size the server will cancel it automatically and it will not propagate out. Also, all news servers have the right to filter out anything that passes through their server. Keep in mind that usenet was designed to carry only plain text, not large binary files.

Other causes may be:

• The poster may have used a bad posting server, where the post didn't propagate out to other servers.
• Bad posting software. Some posters use posting software that creates invalid Message-IDs, caiusing those articles to either not propagate correctly, or not be found by the server software, since the message-IDs doesn't follow correct RFC standard.
• Propagation delays. The message, picture or other post may be part of a batch but for some reason did not make it to the main server.
  Sometimes these posts appear anytime up to 48 hours after they were originally posted.
• The poster missed the particular file while posting. (easily done)
• There was an error in the file and it was not posted or the news server rejected it. Some posting software and peer servers can reject files with errors.
• The post was missed in some way by the person downloading it.

Suggestions:

Before asking for a repost the following steps should be taken.

1. Use par or par2 files, if available.
2. Do a normal header refresh for the particular newsgroup to make sure you do not miss any recent posts.
3. Delete all headers from the newsgroup and then make sure you clear the cache for the group.
4. Unsubscribe from the group making sure that you do not save any settings.
5. Re-subscribe to the group.
6. Download all headers for the group.
7. Check to see if the missing files are there.

Processing binary articles places several times as much strain on the server as plain text articles do. For these reasons no guarantee regarding completeness of binary articles is expressed or implied by us.

A: Another news server may be canceling them . We can take no further responsibility for articles not propagating once they have been sent to our upstream servers. Another reason could be if you have a record of abuse on our servers your posting access may have been disabled. Once your posting access has been disabled due to posting abuse it will never be restored, so don't even ask. Nor will we issue refunds for this reason.

A: The monthly download limit is reset on the same day in the month as you signed up, 00:00 GMT

A: The weekly download limit is reset at Mondays 00:00 GMT

A: "Unlimited Extra" subscribers may use up to 50 simultaneous connections. All other account types are allowed 20 simultaneous connections to our server systems, (total, not 20 per server), to increase speed and reliability.

A: No, only one IP at a time is allowed. The accounts are for personal use only, and allowing more than one IP would open up for account sharing, so we can't afford to allow that.

A: The username and password, as well as other information concerning our servers and services, is sent automatically to the e-mail address that you have registrered at the payment processor you used, CCDeb or PayPal. Please check that you have received a receipt from CCDeb/PayPal. If not, the address you have provided CCDeb or PayPal is probably incorrect. Please correct it at CCDeb or PayPal and contact us providing the correct address.

A: Use our lost login form, and you will get them sent to you automatically.

A: On the signup page there is a "Cancel Subscription" link, that will take you to a page detailing how to cancel, depending on which service you used for signup. (Or you can use this link.) Your account will still be active until the end of the current period. Please note that only automatically recurring subscriptions can be cancelled. Manual renewal accounts automatically expire if not renewed.

A: Log in to your account at PayPal or CCDeb (depending on which you used for the signup). There you may change your active credit card.