Newsgroups and Usenet Access by NewsRazor | Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Most Popular Questions

Why Choose NewsRazor?
Do You Have A List Of All Your Newsgroups?
How Do I Access Your Service?
What is the SSL? *NEW*
What Is The Special Offer?
What Are Connections? How Many Do I Get With Your Service?
Do You Accept Paypal?
Error: I Can't Connect!
Error: 502 Authentication Denied.
Error: 400 Too Many Connections.
I Forgot My Username Or Password.
What Is Your Cancellation Policy?
What Is Your Refund Policy?

General Questions

What Is The Usenet?
Why Pay For Access To The Usenet?
Who Is NewsRazor?
Why Choose NewsRazor?
How Is My Privacy Protected?
How Do I Access Your Service?
Where Can I Learn More About The Usenet?

Service Questions

What Methods Of Browsing Do You Support?
Do You Offer A Web Based Interface?
What Are Connections? How Many Do I Get With Your Service?
What Does Bandwidth Mean? Are There Limits On Downloads? Do Headers Count?
Do You Offer Alternate Ports?
What Newsreaders Do You Support?
What Newsreaders Do You Recommend?
Do You Offer A Search Engine Or Aggregator?
Can I Use My NewsRazor Account From Multiple IPs Or Computers?
What Happens When I Reach My Download Limit? (Limited Accounts)
What Are Roll-Over Gigs?
Do You Have A List Of All Your Newsgroups?

Billing Questions

What Is The Special Offer?
Are There Any Hidden Contracts Or Fees?
Do You Offer Trials?
What Is Your Cancellation Policy?
What Is Your Refund Policy?
Do You Accept Paypal?
How Are Accounts Billed? How Can I Check My Bill Date?

Technical Support Questions

Error: I Can't Connect!
Error: 502 Authentication Denied.
Error: 400 Too Many Connections.
Error: 10061 Connection Refused.
I Forgot My Username Or Password.

What Is The Usenet?

The Usenet is an Internet discussion system that predates the modern Internet. Very similar in experience to forum style websites, the Usenet is a distributed network contained on hundreds of non-centralized servers. The Usenet consists of newsgroups, topical based categories that span countless subjects. More broad than a traditional forum, the Usenet connects millions of people simultaneously across the world.

Messages, known as articles or posts, are posted by users on a Usenet server, such as NewsRazor. Once posted, the server propagates this message to other Usenet servers in a peer-to-peer fashion until your post is spread across the world! The Usenet allows you to interact with a widely diverse group of people on virtually any subject matter!

Why Pay For Access To The Usenet?

Usenet Service Providers require a great deal of resources to provide high quality access to the Usenet. We use cutting edge technology, including vast arrays of disk storage systems, brand new server clusters and powerful networking infrastructure to provide the most enjoyable experience possible.

While several ISPs offer a Usenet service, the completion, retention and transfer speeds are usually very lacking, and may even be limited or throttled. As a Premium Usenet Service Provider, we at NewsRazor strive to perfect our service and it is with you in mind that we offer the complete Usenet at very reasonable rates and with blazing fast speeds.

Who Is NewsRazor?

We are a Premium Usenet Service Provider founded in 2007. Since our founding, we have had one goal: offer the greatest Usenet service possible. Within the past few years, we have grown from a small datacenter in San Antonio, Texas to include several other server clusters in the United States.

Our only business is providing Usenet access. We've constructed our service on brand new infrastructure consisting of cutting edge blade servers, solid-state disk storage systems and enterprise-grade networking equipment to create one of the fastest and most reliable Usenet services around.

Why Choose NewsRazor?

Usenet providers rely on three metrics of performance: Completion, Retention and Speed.

Completion measures the amount of information available on a Usenet provider comparatively to what exists on the entire Usenet. This can be expressed as "how much information is available." NewsRazor, for example, carries over 107,000+ newsgroups, containing over 99% of all articles posted worldwide!

Retention reflects the Usenet provider's ability to archive information in these newsgroups. Retention is expressed as "how long information is available for." NewsRazor currently offers 601+ days of binary retention and up to 1400+ days of text retention on all of our newsgroups!

Speed is the most self explanatory of Usenet metrics. This is expressed as "how quickly can you download information from our servers." NewsRazor does not cap, throttle or limit connections to our service -- providing the fastest possible transfer speeds!

Note: Please be advised that the speed of your download depends on several conditions, including the speed of your connection to your ISP, latency and congestion of infrastructure between you and our servers. We recommend you try out our Speed Test to see the blazing fast speeds you can receive from our service!

How Is My Privacy Protected?

We believe that your information should be as private as possible, and we have taken several steps to ensure that your information is safe from prying eyes.

Safe: We will never sell or distribute your personal information to 3rd parties. Additionally, we do not log your activities, and have no indication of account usage other than aggregated totals for tracking account usage statistics.

Sound: We at NewsRazor hate spammers as much as you do - and we employ advanced anti-spam techniques to reduce the amount of unsolicited posts that are propagated on our servers.

How Do I Access Your Service?

Thanks for signing up with NewsRazor!

Step 1: Find a newsreader: In order to use our service, you will firstly need a Newsreader. While we do not provide a newsreader, we have configured our servers to support almost all modern newsreaders out there! There are a wide variety of newsreaders available for download and purchase, many of which are free! Depending on your operating system, you have the choice of many specialized clients:

Windows:

Mac OS X:

Linux:

Note: Unfortunately, we DO NOT have a web-based interface for our service. If you need a newsreader to use our service, we highly recommend GrabIt or one of the aforementioned newsreaders.

Step 2: Installation and configuration: Once you have installed your newsreader, you will need to configure it to connect to our servers! In the preferences/configuration panel of your newsreader, please enter the following information:

Newsreader Settings:

Username: yourusername (Entirely lowercase)
Password: yourpassword (If you have forgotten your password, please use our Password Recovery Tool.)

Server: Depending on your needs, you may use the following servers:

news.newsrazor.net

ssl.news.newsrazor.net

news-europe.newsrazor.net

ssl.news-europe.newsrazor.net

Connections: Depending on your account, you may use the following connections:

Titanium/Special: 20
Gold Razor: 20
Bronze Razor: 20

Where Can I Learn More About The Usenet?

We're glad to hear that you're interested in learning more about the Usenet! There are many comprehensive sites out there, but we recommend the following:

What Methods Of Browsing Do You Support?

We support a variety of browsing methods, offering specialized servers catering to those who prefer searching by message ID (via NZB or Search Engines/Services) or headers (via newsreaders).

For additional information on configuring your newsreader to access these servers, please visit the Server Settings FAQ Entry.

Note: Please be advised that we DO NOT currently offer a web-based interface for our service.

What Newsreaders Do You Support?

We support almost all available newsreaders! Our system has been designed from the ground up for maximum interoperability with current, and future newsreaders.

Note: Please note that older newsreaders may have problems with the message-ID sizes. Please make sure you have updated to the latest version and you are connecting to the optimal server.

For additional information on configuring your newsreader to access these servers, please visit the Server Settings FAQ Entry.

What Are Connections? How Many Do I Get With Your Service?

Connections refer to the total number of concurrent sessions your newsreader can open with our server at any given time. Each connection increases the amount of posts you can fetch at the same time, improving speeds and redundancy in case a connection issue occurs. In the event a connection times out or is interrupted, your reader will not stall when using multiple connections.

Connections: Depending on your account, you may use the following connections:

Titanium/Special: 10
Gold Razor: 10
Bronze Razor: 10

What Does Bandwidth Mean? Are There Limits On Downloads? Do Headers Count?

Bandwidth refers to the total amount of data you may download per month. Please note that we DO NOT include headers in this count -- they're on us, and are not counted against your quota!

While some Usenet providers may terminate or throttle your account for hitting a secret download quota, we believe that Unlimited means Unlimited. Your downloads are only limited by the service plan that you choose to sign up for.

Do You Offer A Search Engine Or Aggregator?

Unfortunately, we do not. We have received a lot of support for this feature and are currently looking into the possibility of creating one.

In the mean time, you may try using free sites such as http://binsearch.info to search for message-IDs!

Can I Use My NewsRazor Account From Multiple IPs Or Computers?

Yes! You can use your account from as many computers or IPs as you would like provided you do not use more than your Alloted Connections.

What Happens When I Reach My Download Limit? (Limited Accounts)

Once you have reached your download limit for the month, your Usenet access will be temporarily suspended until the next billing cycle. Once the next billing cycle has taken place, your account will be re-activated.

If you would like to continue using our service without waiting for your account to re-bill, you can enable the "Auto-Refill" option. This allows your account to automatically re-bill when it runs out of bandwidth, ensuring a smooth and seamless Usenet experience.

What Are Roll-Over Gigs?

At NewsRazor, we do not have a "use it or lose it" mentality. If you do not use your alloted gigs before the end of your billing cycle, they are automatically rolled over to the next month. As long as your account is in good standing, you can keep rolling over unused gigs forward indefinitely and use them when you like.

Do You Have A List Of All Your Newsgroups?

Yes! You may access a comprehensive grouplist Here.

Please be advised that this is a very large file and should be downloaded before opening!

What Is The Special Offer?

The Special Offer is a way of us saying Thank You to all of our customers who have made NewsRazor the success it is today!

This Special Offer gives you access to our Premium Package, the Titanium Razor, at a 30% reduced price -- only $10.95 per month, applicable for the first 3 months of service.

After the Special Offer expires (after 3 months of service), your account will automatically be upgraded to our Premium Titanium Razor Package.

Note: The Special Offer is available to new customers or customers who have not used the Launch Special.

Are There Any Hidden Contracts Or Fees?

Not at all. We DO NOT have any contracts or hidden fees for our services. You are free to cancel your account at any point in time using the My Account section of our website.

Do You Offer Trials?

We do not officially have a trial program currently. If you would be interested in trying our services, please email our Sales Team.

Do What Is Your Cancellation Policy?

We believe you should have full control over your account -- there are no contracts, hidden fees or tricks here at NewsRazor!

You may cancel your account at any point in time without having to contact us! To do so, simply log into the My Account section of our website. You will find the option under Account Info and finally Change Service.

What Is Your Refund Policy?

While many providers have a "No Refund" policy, we try to be accommodating with our service.

We DO ALLOW REFUNDS in certain circumstances:

Refunds are only allowed for charges that have taken place within the past 31 days.
Accounts with unused service (0 GB) will be allowed a refund (subject to #1).
Accounts with minor use may be allowed a refund (subject to #1).

Note: This policy is subject to change without notice. All refunds are subject to managerial approval. Please contact our Sales Team for more information.

Do You Accept Paypal?

Unfortunately, we do not accept payments through PayPal.

Paypal has updated their Terms of Service (TOS) requiring Usenet providers to censor their services. We do not believe in censoring access to our newsgroups and will not accept payment through Paypal until this changes. If you do not have a credit or debit card we suggest considering a prepayed "Gift" Mastercard or Visa Credit/Debit card available at most grocery and convenience stores. These cards can be "preloaded" for the amount of service you wish to purchase and some can be re-loaded later.

How Are Accounts Billed? How Can I Check My Bill Date?

All of our accounts are billed exactly 30 days from the first billing date. Your account will automatically rebill until cancelled.

If you would like to see when your next billing cycle will occur, please log in to the My Account section of our website!

Error: I Can't Connect!

We apologize for the inconvenience! If you are experiencing a specific error such as a 502 Error, 400 Error or 10061 Error, please visit the respective FAQ entry!

Here are some quick tips to help diagnose your issue:

Make sure your newsreader is Properly Configured.
Are you running a Firewall or Peer Guardian? Please make sure you have allowed the proper ports and CLOSED Peer Guardian.
Try another newsreader (such as GrabIt) to see if you can replicate the issue.
Try to ping our servers. Open a command prompt or terminal session and type (without quotes) "ping news.newsrazor.net".
Try to traceroute to our servers. Open a command prompt or terminal session and type (without quotes) "tracert news.newsrazor.net" for WINDOWS or "traceroute news.newsrazor.net" for MAC OS X/LINUX.
If you were unable to ping/traceroute to our servers, or are still unable to connect, please email our Support Team.

Error: 502 Authentication Denied.

The 502 Authentication Error occurs when there is a problem with your account credentials.

Please make sure that you are Entering Your Credentials Properly.

If your username is entirely undercase and your password is correct, you may have encountered a bill failure. To check this, you may login to the My Account section of our website.

If you are still unable to connect, please email our Support Team.

Error: 400 Too Many Connections.

The 400 Too Many Connections Error occurs for one of two reasons: Your account has exceeded it's connection quota (IE: You are using more than one newsreader, or have configured it to use more than your connection limit) OR your newsreader has opened connections too quickly.

Please double check you are using the Proper Number Of Connections in your newsreader. Additionally, you may wish to pause any transfers for a few minutes to let the server close any open connections.

If you are still unable to connect, please email our Support Team.

Error: 10061 Connection Refused.

The 10061 Connection Refused Error simply means our server has reached it's maximum capacity for a moment. Please wait a few minutes and then reconnect -- our servers will automatically connect you to a new cluster.

If you are still unable to connect, please email our Support Team.

I Forgot My Username Or Password.

To retrieve your Password, please use our Password Recovery Tool.

To retrieve your Username, please email our Support Team.

What is the SSL?

We're now offering a SSL on all of our accounts!
To access our service using SSL, simply connect to ssl.news.newsrazor.net using SSL with Port 563, 80, or 81!