:: Xennews ::

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Xennews: How does it work?

What is Usenet?
Newsgroups have existed for some time now. They were originally intended for exchanging messages in plain text. At present, over 150.000 different news groups exist, each with its own area of interest.
Access to newsgroups is obtained by signing up with a Usenet provider. These providers are spread all across the world and nearly every internet provider in the Netherlands also offers Usenet. Furthermore, all Usenet providers have a number of other providers with whom they exchange messages. This creates a kind of spider web in which all providers are directly or indirectly interlinked. The completeness of a provider’s services therefore strongly depends on the number of other providers with whom it exchanges traffic.
Everyone who has access to a Usenet provider can write a message into the available news groups. This is called “posting”. Posted messages are then distributed to all Usenet providers. Since each provider must store the incoming messages, the oldest messages are deleted to make room for new messages. The number of messages that can be retrieved depends on the disc space that a provider offers for this purpose. This is also known as “retention”.

Binaries
Besides exchanging text messages, it is also possible to post files on a newsgroup. Due to the way in which the Usenet is constructed, a file cannot be posted in its entirety all at once. It needs to be split up into a number of small parts. Groups in which files can be posted are designated by the word “binaries” in the name. For example alt.binaries.boneless.

Downloading
To retrieve or post files, you will need to have a newsreader. There are several newsreaders available. The most commonly used are:

• Grabit (example...)
• Newsleecher (example...) (example with ssl)
• Alt.Binz (example...) (example with ssl)

Is xennews something similar to Kazaa, eMule and Soulseek?
Since the exchange of files is involved, you might say that it is. But there are a number of crucial differences. When you download using Kazaa, you are dependent on the people who are online at that particular moment. If the person from whom you are downloading goes offline, the transfer is interrupted. With Xennews, this does not happen. Files are posted on our server by users. They then remain there for 200 days and are circulated throughout a vast worldwide network of news servers. As a result, the range of items on offer is enormous and the speed extremely high, up to 30 Mbit/s. xennews is certainly something more extensive to use. You therefore need to take the time to discover how everything works. Once you have it all under your belt, the possibilities become abundant.

How does it work?
When you sign up to xennews, you will receive a login name and a password. These are needed to gain access to the newsserver. The address of the xennews.com newsserver is news.xennews.com on port 119 or port 80. You can use this application to contact other news groups and open up a world of information.

Help Me Forum
If you have any questions visit our supportwebsite there you can find all the information you need. And if you have any questions then you can mail us. Our support team is ready to serve you everyday from 09:00 to 23:00 CET.

Download newsreaders:

Free newsreaders:
Support ssl connections: Alt.Binz
No support ssl connections: Grabit

Pay newsreaders:
Support ssl connections: Newsleecher, Altbinpro
For Apple: Unison