Usenet-News - No nonsense, just Quality Usenet


System Status and Event History:

Date/time	Status/Event

2021-03-28 14:00:00 GMT	Amazon payment issues SOLVED ** We are currently experiencing communication issues when paying with Amazon. The payment goes through but the user accounts is not changed accordingly. We are currently handling the quota additions and extensions manually. Please contact our support if you experience these issues. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2018-10-21 06:45:00 GMT	Login Issues SOLVED ** We have a network issue with one of our providers, causing login failures due to some front end servers not reaching the central Auth system. Our networking provider is workning in the issue, and it will be solved asap.

2015-10-02 20:00:00 GMT	Intermittent login issues SOLVED ** We currently have an issue causing intermittent login failures to the nntp servers. The issue is intermittent, and always temporary, 1-2 minutes at a time. If you are getting a login error to the NNTP servers, please just try again after a minute or two. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2014-11-30 08:00:00 GMT	* EU SSL connection issue * SOLVED Some users are reporting SSL connection issues with the EU Servers. Our engineers are working on the issue. Ordinary EU connection (nntp) is okey and the US servers are not affected. We apologize for the inconvenience. UPDATE: The Issue is now solved, and SSL works on the EU servers on all ports.

2014-11-29 07:00:00 GMT	* EU connection issues * Solved * Some users are reporting connection issues with the EU Servers. Our engineers are working on the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2014-11-24 03:00:00 GMT	SSL issue EU servers Solved ** We currently have issues with SSL on the EU Servers. Normal connections works, and SSL works on the US servers. Our engineers are working on the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience. UPDATE: SSL now works on the statndard port 563 on the EU servers. Work continues to provide the alternate ports asap. UPDATE 2: The Issue is now solved, and SSL works on the EU servers on all ports.

2014-04-01 15:00:00 GMT	Solved: Network issue US Servers -------------------------------- There is currently an issue with one of the Backbone networks connected to the Datacenter where our US servers are located. This is causing bad performance for users in some locations. Engineers from the Datacenter and the Backbone provider are currently looking into the issue. The EU servers are unaffected. We apologize for the inconvenience. Update: This issue is now solved.

2014-03-16 07:00:00 GMT	Authentication issues Solved ** At the moment we are having some authentication issues. The technicians are working on solving the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2013-03-29 12:00:00 GMT	EU SSL connection issues SOLVED ** Some users have reported issues causing SSL connections to fail to the EU servers. Our engineers are investigating this issue. The US server is unaffected by this issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2012-12-24 10:30:00 GMT	Authentication issues Solved ** At the moment we are having some authentication issues. The technicians are working on solving the issue.

2012-11-18 20:50:00 GMT	Authentication issues Solved At the moment we are having some authentication issues. The technicians are working on solving the issue. This issue is now solved **

2012-02-16 22:08:56 GMT	Header issues Solved At the moment we are having some issues with the headers on the US servers. The technicians are working on solving the issue. This issue is now solved **

2011-12-05 22:00:00 GMT	Network issues US server Solved Currently there is a network issue at the data center where the US server is located, causing connection issues for some users. The data center engineers are troubleshooting, and we hope to have full connectivity back asap. We apologize for the inconvenience. This issue is now solved **

2011-12-04 21:32:45 GMT	* Solved * We currently have some issues in our EU server system, causing performance and connection issues for some users. Our Engineers are working to solve the issue asap. The US server system is unaffected by this issue, and may be used even by customers normally using the EU servers. We apologize for the inconvenience. * This issue is Solved *

2011-11-16 16:45:00 GMT	* Database issues * Solved * We\'ve had an issue with our central database for several hours today, causing updates to not be saved properly. This is affecting new users who signed up when this issue was ongoing, and current users who had paid for renewals, or bought new quota blocks. It also affected our support ticket system, so tickets submitted during this time wasn\'t saved in the system. We are currently working on bringing everything up to date, which will take a few hours. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. This issue is now solved ***

2011-11-07 16:00:00 GMT	* Accounting delay Due to maintenance on the accounting system the past week, all downloads from the past 10 days has been accounted today, and not when it was generated during that period. This may have put some accounts over quota several days after the actual downloads were made, but reflects the actual downloads made during this period. Nothing extra has been added, the accounting was only delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2011-10-09 15:00:00 GMT	Our engineers are currently investigating connection issues reported by some users. Solved This issue, which was caused my a malicious ddos attack, is now solved and the attack contained. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2011-08-18 21:45:42 GMT	Network issues US Solved There is currently an issue preventing connections to the US servers from some ISPs. The technicians are looking for a solution. This issue is now solved **

2011-08-18 09:45:00 GMT	* EU server issues * Solved * Currently users may experience intermittent connection issues when using the EU server system. Our engineers are troubleshooting the issue. We recommend our users to experiment trying the EU2 and EU3 server addresses to find which currently works best for you. (Please see our FAQ for exact addresses to try.) We apologize for the inconvenience. This issue is now solved **

2011-03-07 18:45:00 GMT	Network issues EU * Solved * There is currently an issue preventing connections to some EU servers. eu1.Usenet-News.net is still available, but eu2.Usenet-News.net and eu3.Usenet-News.net are currently unreachable. This also affects the general address news.eu.Usenet-News.net, which may work if it connects you to eu1, but not it it directs you to eu2 or eu3. Our on-site engineers are working on the issue, and we hope to have it solved shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience. Solved ** This issue was solved 2011-03-07 20:15. There may be some remaining latency causing slowness for some users for a few hours while the systems are getting updated. We apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused.

2011-01-20 07:45:00 GMT	Issues EU systems We currently have some issues in our EU server system, causing performance and connection issues for some users. Our Engineers are working to solve the issue asap. The US server system is unaffected by this issue, and may be used even by customers normally using the EU servers. We apologize for the inconvenience. Solved This issue is now solved. However, depending on location, some users may still experience less than optimal performance from the EU systems. FYI, in about a month we will launch an all new EU server farm, in the very well connected Equinix data center in Amsterdam. Then any remaining speed issues should be history.

2010-12-05 12:00:00 GMT	* Final Migration * We have now closed the old servers, and the old server addresses are now pointing to the new server system. This means that all who didn't already change server address as directed in our email announcements, now are getting connected to the new server system anyway. If you haven't received the announcement, due to incorrect email address or spam filtering, a copy of the announcement is available in the status message from Nov 15 below. If you are unable to connect to the server, please check so you don't have any peer blocking software running, or that any such software allows connections to our servers. If you are using headers, you may need to download all headers again, depending on your newsreader. (If you get "article not found" using old headers.)

2010-11-15 12:00:00 GMT	All our users have now been sent a notification about system upgrades and changes. The email has been sent to your registered email address. If you haven't received it, this is a copy: ******************************************** Subject: Important Service Notice: Usenet-News upgrades & Changes Dear Usenet-News.net subscriber, You receive this email because you have an active Block account with Usenet-News.net (If you already have recieved this email, and made the migration, please ignore this message.) Usenet-News.net is proud to announce an ALL NEW Usenet Newsgroup server back end system. The new server back end includes significant improvements: - An increase to OVER 790 days binary retention, INCREASING daily - Better completion, close to 100%, for the full retention - Better reliability and stability - Headers available for close to the full retention* Current header retention slightly less than 750 days. Retention via Message-ID or .nzb files is over 790 days. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO You can switch over to this new system any time from the time you get this email, but access to the old system will be discontinued for your account within about a week after you receive this email. We recommend switching as soon as you receive this email. You will need to change settings in your newsreader software to access the new system. New settings include new server addresses, and skipped "domain" from the username: To access the new system, please use the following server addresses: US Server: news.us.Usenet-News.net EU Server: news.eu.Usenet-News.net * You use the SAME server addresses, no matter if you connect using SSL or not. ** Currently, for migration reasons, we recommend primarily using the US server, even if you are located in the EU. Even if you have a high bandwidth connection, you should be able to get full speed from the US server. Standard, (non-SSL) ports: 119 + 20, 23, 53, 443, 2000, 8080, 9000, 9001, 9002 SSL ports: 563 + 80, 81 Your USER NAME should be entered WITHOUT the domain part. (No �@Usenet-News.net� or similar, any more, just "username".) IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY USING HEADERS If you are currently using headers downloaded from our old system, you MAY (depending on your newsreader), need to re-download the headers for those groups. In many cases this should not be needed, but if you get �article not found� errors when using old headers, please re-download for that group. KNOWN ISSUES Users with very high bandwidth connections, (over 25-30Mbps), may initially experience lower download speeds from the new system, compared to the old. The new system is optimized for the highest reliability and completion, which in some cases may mean a trade-off in speed. We have used the philosophy that it�s better to get a complete download a few minutes slower, than an incomplete, in need of repair, faster. The system is constantly optimized, so speeds will keep increasing even for high bandwidth users over the next few months. Please NOTE; You may use 50 simultaneous connections. IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS WITH THE MIGRATION If you are experiencing any issues switching to, or using, the new server system, please don�t hesitate to contact us, via our support ticket system at our web site. Thank you for using Usenet-News.net, The Usenet-News.net Team http://Usenet-News.net

2010-09-28 20:30:00 GMT	Status: Solved There are currently some kind of issue causing logins to fail to the EU server farm. Our engineers are troubleshooting. If you can't log in to the EU server system, please switch to the US system until we have this issue solved. We apologize for the inconvenience. ************* This issue is now solved.

2010-05-06 16:30:00 GMT	Web system issues Due to an issue with a core server, our web site and support ticket systems were available for several hours today. The usenet newsgroup servers were unaffected by this issue. This issue is now solved. We apologize for the inconvenience this issue caused.

2009-11-19 23:00:00 GMT	NETWORK MAINTENANCE EU SERVER Date/Time: GMT: 2009-11-19 23:00 - 2009-11-20 08:00 CET: 2009-11-20 00:00 - 09:00 Duration: 9 hours Description: Extensive highway and overpass demolition and reconstruction is being done in the vicinity of our Amsterdam data center. As a result of this construction, fiber pathways into our data center are affected and fibers are being moved. Impact: We expect significant interruptions of service during this period and/or service degradation during that time. Impacts may last for a short period or could extend through the entire maintenance window. Our network team will be on-site and actively engaged in monitoring this maintenance and managing traffic throughout. We apologize in advance for any impacts that this may have on your service. Please note that there are two maintenance events that are similar. Please also see the announcement for the maintenance on 2009-11-18 21:00 UTC

2009-11-18 21:00:00 GMT	NETWORK MAINTENANCE EU SERVER Finished GMT: 2009-11-18 21:00 - 2009-11-19 05:00 CET: 2009-11-18 22:00 - 2009-11-19 06:00 Duration: 8 hours Description: Extensive highway and overpass demolition and reconstruction is being done in the vicinity of our Amsterdam data center. As a result of this construction, fiber pathways into our data center are affected and fibers are being moved. Impact: We expect no hard outages of service during this period. However, service may be degraded as capacity to our peers may become constrained. Impacts may last for a short period or could extend through the entire maintenance window. Our network team will be on-site and actively engaged in monitoring this maintenance and managing traffic throughout. We apologize in advance for any impacts that this may have on your service. Please note that there are two maintenance events that are similar. Please also see the announcement for the maintenance on 2009-11-19 23:00 UTC

2009-10-09 11:00:00 GMT	EU authentication issues Solved At the moment we are experiencing authentication issues for some users at the EU servers. The technicians are working on finding a solution. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2009-10-06 14:00:00 GMT	EU speed issue Solved There is currently an networking issue at our EU servers. Users in Germany may experience reduced download speeds. We are pursuing a solution with the utmost urgency. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2009-09-09 02:00:00 GMT	Web Site Down Due to an issue at our colocation provider, our web site was down for about 3.5 hours today, between approximately 22:00 GMT and 01:30 GMT. This affected the web site and support ticket system only - the usenet news servers were completely unaffected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2009-09-05 21:00:00 GMT	Solved There is currently an networking issue at our EU SSL servers. Currently, we estimate that 20% of users are being impacted. Specific effect on users can range from slow connections to an inability to establish a connection. We are pursuing a solution with the utmost urgency.

2009-08-24 12:00:00 GMT	Solved 2009-08-27 There is currently an issue at the upstream acquirer for our Credit Card processor CCDeb, causing recurring payments to fail. This may cause 502 login errors for subscription accounts, when the recurring debit hasn't been possible to process. According to CCDeb the solution is to update your credit card information in their system, even if it means entering the same information again. CCDebs acquirer (one of the largest in the world) is working with the issue, hoping to solve it soon. We apologize for the inconvenience. Update 2009-08-27: This issue is now solved - however if your subscription was due for renewal during the time the issue lasted, you may still need to update your details as mentioned above to expedite the reprocessing of your subscription debit. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2009-08-14 17:15:00 GMT	There is currently a network issue causing delays in account updates after payments has been made, both for account renewals and quota payments. Our web server colocation host network groups are working on the issue and hope to have it solved soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2009-08-09 13:26:39 GMT	At the moment we are experiencing authentication issues for some users at the US servers. The technicians are working on finding a solution. Solved 2009-08-09 20:30 GMT

2009-05-06 21:30:00 GMT	Truncated paswords issue Due to an issue in our database, user passwords which were longer than 10 characters, has been truncated to the first 10 characters only. If you have used a password which were longer then 10 characters and experience login issues, please try to log in with the first 10 characters only. You can also use the "Lost login" function to retrieve the current data. You can change your password to a longer password again in the user area, if you wish. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and has taken measures to prevent this from happening again.

2009-03-20 21:00:00 GMT	* Temporary performance issue * At the moment the US server has issues that is affecting the download speeds. This will be solved shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience. == Issue now solved ==

2009-01-14 00:08:06 GMT	At the moment the EU SSL server has issues with the authentication system. We have notified the technicians. Issue solved

2009-01-06 16:26:15 GMT	We are currently experiencing performance problems in our Amsterdam news farm. The servers are actively being repaired and you can expect to see significant improvements over the next 24-48 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. During this time, authentication can take multiple attempts before succeeding. You may also experience slow download speeds. The US server farm is unaffected by this issue. Issue solved

2008-11-07 12:00:00 GMT	Planned Maintenance EU server Finished ** Between 23:00 and Midnight GMT on November 8 one of our third party vendors will be performing fiber work in Amsterdam. Customers may experience a 20-minute mild speed degradation with the unlikely possibility of a full 20-minute outage. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2008-11-05 13:29:11 GMT	AUTH Issues SOLVED ** At the moment we are experiencing authentication issues for some users at the US and US SSL server. The technicians are working on finding a solution.

2008-10-13 18:45:00 GMT	AUTH Issues SOLVED ** There are currently authentication issues for some users, both for the US and EU servers. Our engineers are troubleshooting, and we hope to have the issues solved shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

2008-09-24 19:50:00 GMT	* SYSTEM UPDATES * NOW LIVE! We are migrating the US NNTP service and its datacenter to a new location. Due to the logistics and scale of moving the existing equipment, the decision was made to build an entirely new server platform in the new location, Ashburn, Virgina, instead of moving the old. This change means all new equipment, increased retention, increased redundancy, and improved backbone connectivity. The retention will initially be approximately the same, but increase significantly progressively over the next couple of months. We won't give exact numbers as of this date, but the increase will be significant. This move will also mean the article numbers for each newsgroup will be different. Any users that has stored their headers in their newsreader will have to reload all headers in their subscribed newsgroups. If you do not reload headers you will receive 'article not found' errors as well as the appearance that no new content is being posted. The article numbers will now be synchronized between the US and EU servers, allowing customers to download headers from one of them, but the articles from the other. (Please note that for newsreaders using Message-ID for retreival, this is already the case.) There are also changes in the alternate ports. (See below.) The move will take place automatically via DNS change on September 27 at 12:00 GMT. (08:00 AM EDT) On this day you are not required to change anything on your side, but be aware that the change may take a few hours to fully propagate to all users, due to caching and propagation delays in your ISP DNS servers. Server information: NNTP: us.Usenet-News.net (US Server farm) eu.Usenet-News.net (EU Server farm) Ports: 119, 443 NNTP+SSL: (NNTPS) nntps.us.Usenet-News.net (US Server farm) nntps.eu.Usenet-News.net (EU Server farm) Ports: 563, 80, 81 Thank you for your understanding and we hope you will enjoy the upgraded service.