Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Technical Questions

1.1
How can I register for the service of News.Individual.NET?

Registration for our news service is only possible through our website https://news.individual.net/ ("Registration"). Please read all given information thoroughly, since you will enter a legally binding contract by signing up for our service.

1.2
I've registered and paid for your service! How long does it take until my account is ready and usable?

That depends on the payment option you have chosen:

1. Payment through PayPal

Your account will be activated as soon as we receive the acknowledgement of your payment from PayPal. Normally, this happens instantly (real-time).

2. Payment by bank transfer to bank account of Freie Universitaet Berlin

Your account will be activated as soon as your payment is booked to our bank account and recorded in our user administration system. You will receive an e-mail from us. Please note:

Processing times at the banks involved may take some days even when sending money from German bank accounts; bank transfers from foreign bank accounts may take significant more time. There is nothing we can do to speed up this process, and we cannot track your money for you. If in doubt, please ask the financial institution through which you made your payment.
The fact that the payment has left your bank account does not mean that we have already received it.
Once received, your payment can only be processed automatically if the note to payee we gave you was included properly. If the note to payee is missing, incomplete or wrong, a human needs to check and handle the payment - if the payment can be allocated at all.
Of course, we try to activate your account as soon as possible, but we ask for your understanding that the time required may vary highly due to the afore mentioned reasons. If you need instant activation, please choose payment through PayPal as your payment option instead.

1.3
The download of messages is rather slow. Is the server overloaded?

No. If you encounter such effects, it is usually due to bottlenecks between your provider and the German Research Network (Deutsches Forschungsnetz, DFN).

If you suspect your ISP of degrading your connections on purpose ("traffic shaping"), please try the configuration changes suggested in #1.13 of our FAQ.

And it would be helpful if you could e-mail us ("news@individual.net") the output of the program "traceroute" (Microsoft: "tracert") as described in #2.3 of our FAQ (#2.3 is mainly intended to track down firewall problems, but the tests are also useful for identifying other network and connection problems).

1.4
May I open several threads (connections) to the server at the same time? How many maximum?

Yes you may open several threads at the same time. We ask you to limit this to 4 simultaneous connections and set the connect interval to a value greater than 5 minutes so that there is no interference with other users.

1.5
This server has received fewer articles than another news server in the same period of time. Are there gaps?

Depending on the newsgroup in question, our supply is ensured by more than 200 peers so that it is extremely unlikely that an article does not arrive on the server. We use a program called "cleanfeed" however which functions as a filter against spam and binaries in discussion groups. Every article that arrives is examined by the program and removed from the server if necessary.

There can also be differences if the server compared with does not execute any Cancels or Supersedes at all. A Cancel messages demands the removal of an article from a server, a Supersedes message demands the overwriting of an article. If a server does not execute these messages, or has a diversified processing system, the article pools will differ. Details on how our server handles Cancels and Supersedes can be found in our FAQ at #1.12.

1.6
My news reader offers to save my password. Is that ok?

While storing your account details in your news reader configuration is convenient, it does present a certain risk of other people gaining access to these details and posting articles in your name via our server. This is why we suggest to only store your password on a computer if you are the only person using that machine. You should never leave your password on a public computer, e.g. at an Internet café.

Important note: If you suspect that your password is no longer secret and your account could be subject to misuse by other people, send us an e-mail at "news@individual.net" and we will generate you a new one.

Alternatively, you can log in to the "My Account" area on our website and generate a new password there: https://news.individual.net/selfcare.php

1.7
You haven't put up a configuration guide for my preferred news reader.
I know it very well and would like to write one myself so that you can put it up with the other ones.

That is a great offer! We might like to accept it if some conditions are met:

The guide must be in a similar style as the existing ones.
It should not contain any external links.
An author or copyright note is unfortunately not possible.

1.8
not applicable

1.9
How is the "Path:" entry of your server generated, and how come I can't put my computer's name there?

The software of the server News.Individual.NET is modified so that certain header lines are submitted to additional examination. This includes the "Path:" line.

Basically the header is always regenerated by the server - even if the article was already supplied with a "Path:" line (and independently of what was transmitted by the client for this entry). There are two exceptions:

path contains "fu-berlin.de" or "uni-berlin.de"
These are the official path entries of our feeder and reader servers. If one of these entries is in the path, then the article is rejected by our server. This makes sense, since such an entry means that the article must already be present on our server. This is meant mainly as protection against reposting of articles.
It occurs again and again that people install scripts, which cut the Message-ID from articles and feed them to the news server again afterwards. This is very ugly, because it inevitably leads to "dupes" - i.e. the article exists twice.
In most cases however these scripts leave the path headers untouched, so that with an examination of our own path entries we can prevent at least that users download articles from us and post them again via our server afterwards.
Path preload
As stated above, our server does not normally permit a path header to be supplied by the user, instead it generates a new one every time. In a few cases however, it would make sense to use the information supplied by the user - e.g. with cancels of accepted Despammers or when the articles are gated from another network.
We have therefore got the possibility to activate delivery of articles with a path entry per user - the default is "NO". If you can justify it well (!), we can activate this feature for you - send your e-mail to "news@individual.net".

1.10
I would like to send control messages via News.Individual.NET. Is that possible?

It is normally not possible for users of News.Individual.NET to send control messages concerning the group management (*) via this server.

(*) newgroup, rmgroup or checkgroups messages

Since we do get asked by entitled persons from time to time (e.g. hierarchy moderators), we have built it into our user management to activate the sending of control messages per user - the default is "NO".

If you can justify it well (!), we can activate this feature for you

send your e-mail to "news@individual.net".

1.11
I'm the moderator of newsgroup x.y and would like to post the articles using News.Individual.NET. Is that possible?

Users of our server are normally not allowed to post directly to moderated groups because we reject postings which contain an "Approved" header. However, permission can be granted per user.

If you can justify it well, we can activate this feature for you - just send an e-mail to "news@individual.net".

If possible, include an URL or Message-ID to prove that you are indeed the moderator of x.y. Mentioning your User-ID would help us too.

1.12
Why am I seeing several instances of the same article on your server? Does your server honor Cancels and Supersedes?

In general, our server does not execute Cancels and Supersedes. An article stored on our server can neither be deleted by a Cancel nor be overwritten by a Supersedes which means that an article deleted by a Cancel elsewhere is still available on our server (article is not deleted) and an article overwritten by a Supersedes elsewhere is available on our server in more than one instance (different versions of the article are not replaced).

But our server does honor the article headers "Cancel-Lock:" and "Cancel-Key:" that create a verifiable connection between an article and a corresponding Cancel/Supersedes. As an added bonus, this system does not allow profiling like e.g. PGP signatures do. Users that add Cancel-Lock to their articles and Cancel-Key to their Cancels/Supersedes can still delete and replace articles on our server. For our own users, our server automatically creates Cancel-Lock at posting time; a Cancel-Lock already present at posting time (added by the user himself) will be extended according to the technical specifications of the system. Analogously, Cancels and Supersedes through our server will automatically get the corresponding Cancel-Key after verification and will be executed.

Furthermore, we maintain a whitelist of senders that contains well-known Despammers ("professional" Spam Cancellers) so that we can honor their desirable Spam Cancels and NoCeM Notices as well as senders of periodic Usenet postings like FAQs so that they can overwrite older versions of their texts by Supersedes.

1.13
My service provider blocks port 119! Is there an alternate port for your news server?

Yes. If your provider blocks the standard NNTP port (119), or if he degrades connections on this port, please change the port setting in your newsreading software to port "8119" (the server's name stays "News.Individual.NET"). If you need port 80 (the standard HTTP port) for reading news, please use "Port80.Individual.NET" as server name and "80" as the port number.

There is also the option to access the server through NNTPS / NNTP over SSL. The server name is "News.Individual.NET" and the port number is "563" (the standard NNTPS port).

1.14
Does your server support secure SSL encrypted NNTP connections?

Yes, SSL encryption (NNTPS / NNTP over SSL) is available (optional) and covers the entire connection, not only the authentication phase.

Please change the port setting in your newsreading software to port "563" (the standard NNTPS port), the server name remains unchanged ("News.Individual.NET"). Please refer to your software's manual if there is anything else you need to change in order to use SSL encrypted connections.

2. Error Messages and Technical Problems

2.1
I am registered, but I am having problems accessing the news server.
Who can I turn to?

Send your questions to "news@individual.net".
Please describe your problem as exactly as possible, and include all relevant information that is at your disposal on your system.

You will make it easier for us, if you tell us your User ID. See section 4 (User Data) on where to find your User ID. If you are having trouble with the connection as such, try to follow the instructions in 2.3 and tell us the results (i.e. error messages, etc.).

2.2
I cannot access the server anymore, but it worked fine yesterday.
Did you block me?

That is possible in individual cases of course - almost always however this is due to technical problems somewhere on the way from you to us that are fixed after a short time. Please wait a little before you write to us because of such an error and check again later whether the problem still occurs. If so, please describe it as detailed as possible in your e-mail.

Foreseeable and planned interruptions of the service are posted to the newsgroup alt.usenet.news-server-comparison. The subject of such postings starts with "[Individual]".

2.3
I cannot access the server at all. What is going on?

In almost all cases this is because your computer is protected from the internet by a so-called firewall. This can be a firewall run by your organization (university, company, ...) but also a program installed on your personal computer (sometimes called a "desktop" or "personal" firewall). Firewalls are often configured to let you use e-mail and WWW services transparently but to block NNTP (News). You can try to check this by yourself using the programs "traceroute" (Microsoft: "tracert") and "telnet":

a) Command "traceroute news.individual.net" Unix and Linux users can type this command directly in a shell. MS Windows users need to click on the start menu (on the bottom left hand of your screen) and select "Run". This opens a window in which you can type commands as above.

b) Command "telnet news.individual.net 119" [Note: The "119" is important!]

This command can be executed as described above. If you are using Windows, please make sure that there is a check mark at "[x] Local Echo" in the telnet window in menu "Terminal" -> "Preferences".

The "traceroute" command runs without further user interaction; with "telnet 119" you will need to supply some input. After you connect to our system, type the following commands successively:

'authinfo simple USERNAME PASSWORD'
'quit'
(everything without the quotes)
Replace "USERNAME" with your username for our service and "PASSWORD" with your password for our service.

The output will look about like this (only the last lines are shown):

[start traceroute/tracert]

 Tracing route to news.individual.net [130.133.4.11]

 over a maximum of 30 hops:
  ...
  ...
  7  106 ms   105 ms   109 ms  usa.zedat.fu-berlin.de [160.45.252.6]
  8  111 ms   110 ms   111 ms  news.individual.net [130.133.4.11]

 Trace complete.

[start telnet]

 200 The server welcomes test.fu-berlin.de (160.45.0.23).
 Authorization required for reading and posting.
 authinfo simple yourusername ########
 281 Authorization accepted. (UID=1234567)
 quit
 205 .

a) and b) do not work
This looks like a problem with your internet connection - either directly on your computer, at the gateway between your company's local network (intranet) and the internet, or with your provider. Please contact your local network administrator.

a) works, but b) doesn't
This is a pretty sure sign that news data is filtered out on the way - which suggests that your company's firewall is in action. Please contact the firewall administrator and ask him/her to configure the firewall so that it lets you use external news servers.

a) and b) work
If b) works, this means that you can principally contact the news server. If your news client fails to do so, this suggests that there is an error in the configuration of that client. Please double-check your client's configuration using our support pages at: https://news.individual.net/config.php

Note: The NNTP command "authinfo simple" that is mentioned above is not a standard command and may not work with other news servers.

2.4
not applicable

2.5
My postings are suddenly rejected with "Daily posting limit exceeded". What can I do?

We set a daily posting limit in our version of the news reader daemon "nnrpd". This means that users can only post up to n articles per day ("n" is set to 100 at the moment). If you try to post more articles, you get the following error message:

"Daily posting limit (n articles) exceeded."

This measure is meant to prevent (or at least limit the effect of) spamming via our server. It is NOT meant to restrict the amount of regular articles you may post, so if you feel you are posting a lot, or you have come up against this error message in the past, just drop us a note (news@individual.net) and we'll increase your daily posting limit.

2.6
I can't post via your server. It says something about "HTML post" - what does that mean?

There is a program called "cleanfeed" running on our server.
It checks postings for spam, binaries, etc. and rejects the posting if necessary. We have activated the option "block_html" which means that if you try to post an HTML article, it will block it and give out the error message "HTML post".

Please configure your news reader to post in text (ascii) mode and not in HTML mode. Then you will have no problems posting via our server.

The above-mentioned check applies only to articles posted via our server. Postings that we get through peerings with other news servers are not checked. The hierarchies alt.*, microsoft.* and netscape.* are not submitted to the HTML-check at the moment.

2.7
I have problems with some postings. The error message says something about "Approved header" - what does that mean?

The exact wording of that message is:
'You are not allowed to use "Approved" header'
Users of our server are normally not allowed to post directly to moderated groups because we reject postings which contain an "Approved" header. However, permission can be granted per user.

If you can justify it well, we can activate this feature for you - just send a e-mail to "news@individual.net".

Usually we'll activate that feature only for moderators, so be sure to tell us about being a moderator in your e-mail. If possible, include an URL or Message-ID to prove that you are indeed the moderator of x.y. Mentioning your User ID would help us too.

2.8
Some of my articles are rejected by the server. What does the error message "437 EMP rejected" mean?

There is a program called "cleanfeed" running on our server.
It checks postings for spam, binaries, etc. and rejects the posting if necessary. A typical characteristic of spam is a large number of very similar articles. cleanfeed tries to identify and block such articles.

If your posting is rejected with the "EMP" (Excessive Multi-Posting) message, this happens because identical (or very similar) articles have been posted - by you or other users - within a certain time span.

This can happen if your internet provider uses dynamic IP numbers and has given you the same IP number that another customer has just used while posting via our server. It can also happen with postings that have the same content by coincidence (such as test postings). One or more of these reasons can be applicable in your specific case.

In most cases a small modification of your posting will solve the problem - you might need to change the subject.

2.9
My posting is rejected with a "line too long" message. What do I have to change?

The exact error message is "441 Line n too long" with "n" indicating the line number of your entire posting (including the header) that violates the Internet standard's length restriction. The problem will most likely be the "References" line which happens with some news readers when you reply to a posting that already refers back to numerous previous articles.

You will either have to switch to a news reader that observes the standards or edit the line that causes the problem manually.

2.10
My postings are rejected with a "too old" message. What is wrong?

This error message is supposed to be self-explanatory. The exact wording is "411 437 YOUR SYSTEM DATE IS WRONG! Too old -- DATE" with "DATE" being the date that your news reader specified as the creation date for the article. If this date lies further back than seven days, the article is rejected.

Please check the system time on your computer and adjust it.

2.11
I am getting the message "Account terminated". What has happened?

Your account has been blocked. There can be several reasons for this, but it is probably due to a policy violation (see: https://news.individual.net/rules.php). Payment problems may also lead to account suspension. You can contact us via e-mail (news@individual.net) about this. It helps if you can give us your User ID for our service and/or the e-mail address you used to register with us.

2.12
Some of my articles do not show up on the news server and I did not get an error message. What is wrong?

You have probably posted to a so-called "moderated" group.

You can identify a moderated group by its group description ending in "(Moderated)". Please see the documentation of your news reader on how to view a newsgroup's description. You can also consult the list of newsgroups via https://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/news/fu-berlin/newsgroups

Postings to moderated groups are not published on the news server directly but sent to the newsgroup's moderator by e-mail. The moderator manually checks every article and decides whether to publish it or not. Depending on the moderator this may take from a couple of minutes up to several days.

If your posting does not show up at all, but postings that were obviously sent in later do show up, this may be the result of an invalid e-mail address in your From: header.

Many moderators use scripts and programs to make life easier for themselves. This includes checking with the mail server that the article originated from to see if the From: address is valid. If not, the posting is rejected and not even forwarded for the moderator to look at.

Please use a valid e-mail address as recommended in our policy.

2.13
I am getting the message "Foreign cancel - You have no permission to cancel <1234567@example.com>" when I try to cancel an article. Why?

You may only cancel articles written by you and posted through our server. If you receive the above message, you have tried to cancel an article not written by you or not posted through our server. In the latter case, please cancel the article in question using the server through which you have posted it.

2.14
I am getting the message "Foreign cancel - Your UID 1234567 does not match article owner's UID" when I try to cancel an article. What does that mean?

You have tried to cancel an article posted under a different User ID than yours. You may only cancel articles posted under your own User ID.

2.15
I am getting the message "407 Temporary blocked: too many connections from your IP address (123.45.67.89)". What's going on?

Connecting to our news server in an undue high frequency (many connections in a short period of time) activates automatic blocking mechanisms for the corresponding IP address. Please configure your news software in accordance with the values we've laid down in #1.4 of our FAQ.

If your software is configured in accordance with our FAQ, but you're still getting this error message, please contact us by e-mail at "news@individual.net". Please mention your account name, date and time of the error message, the IP address displayed in the error message, and your news software.

2.16
I am getting the message "506 Too many bad NNTP commands, good bye". What is wrong?

This message indicates that you (or your software) sent too many invalid NNTP commands to our server. This includes syntax and typing errors, non-NNTP commands and commands that require special authorization.

Please note: Until you are authenticated successfully, all NNTP commands (with the exception of "help" and "list") are considered invalid . This includes syntactically correct commands and commands for which you would be authorized after authenticating.

So if you receive the above message, make sure that you are authenticated successfully first. If the problem persists even after successful authentification, please contact us by e-mail at "news@individual.net". Please mention your account name, date and time of the error message, and the news software you're using.

2.17
Help! When trying to connect to the news server, I'm rejected with an error message saying "502 Using wrong server hostname? Try news.individual.net / news.individual.de."! What happened?

This error message is generated by the server News.CIS.DFN.DE if you are no member of the DFNNetNews project (DNN). Since February 16th, 2004, access to News.CIS.DFN.DE is for DNN members only.

Please check your configuration and enter "News.Individual.NET" (or "News.Individual.DE") as server name.

But please note that since April 1st, 2005, use of News.Individual.NET (and News.Individual.DE) is not free of charge anymore. You need a paid account to access the server. The fee is 10 EUR per year. Please visit our website https://news.individual.net/ for registration.

2.18
I am getting the message "Foreign supersedes - You have no permission to supersede <1234567@example.com>" when I try to supersede an article. Why?

You may only supersede articles written by you and posted through our server. If you receive the above message, you have tried to supersede an article not written by you or not posted through our server. In the latter case, please supersede the article in question using the server through which you have posted it.

2.19
I am getting the message "Foreign supersedes - Your UID 1234567 does not match article owner's UID" when I try to supersede an article. What does that mean?

You have tried to supersede an article posted under a different User ID than yours. You may only supersede articles posted under your own User ID.

2.20
When trying to connect to the news server, I'm rejected with an error message saying "Subscription expired"! What does that mean?

As announced via e-mail, news(*) and WWW(**) on February 15th, 2005, use of News.Individual.NET is not free of charge anymore effective from April 1st, 2005. The news service continues as a fee-based service. The fee is 10 EUR per year.

(*) Message-ID: <2005-02-15.Commercial-EN@fu-berlin.de>
(**) https://news.individual.net/commercial.php

The error message "Subscription expired" means that your account is not paid at present. This could be the case if you have never paid for your account, but could also be the case if you paid for your account, but the period you paid for is over. To pay for your existing account for News.Individual.NET or to sign up for a new account, please go to: https://news.individual.net/register.php

If you receive the error message "Subscription expired" although your account should be paid at present, please contact us by e-mail at "news@individual.net". But please make sure to check #1.2 of our FAQ before doing so.

3. Supply and Selection of Newsgroups

3.1
Which groups does the news server offer?

The news server offers discussion groups that were created in accordance with the conventions in the corresponding hierarchy. The news server does not offer binary groups and some alt.* sub-hierarchies.

You can check https://news.individual.net/hierarchies.php to see which hierarchies we offer.

Advanced users interested in active or newsgroups files can download these from https://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/news/fu-berlin/active and https://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/news/fu-berlin/newsgroups - the ftp server is updated once a day.

3.2
How long do you keep articles?

More than 1,000 days: https://news.individual.net/hierarchies.php

Retention time is set per hierarchy, not individual groups.

3.3
I've heard that there are over 80,000 newsgroups. How come your server has got only about 25,000?

Servers that reach 60,000 to 80,000 newsgroups are normally not very well maintained. These are servers that offer every newsgroup that has ever had an article posted to it - even if this "new" group was only the result of a typo. These servers usually do not delete defunct newsgroups so that you have old groups existing next to the new ones after renaming or splitting up of newsgroups.

We try to offer a well maintained server. We only add groups that were created according to the usual conventions in the hierarchy and properly announced. Obsolete groups are deleted when we get the according administrative notice. This means that the group lists within the hierarchies are consistent, and there are no no "illegal" or defunct groups.

This procedure gives us more work than just to offer "everything" and doesn't let us reach the above-mentioned numbers, but a well maintained server is of much greater value to our users.

3.4
Who can I contact for the addition of new groups?

Please contact "news@individual.net" by e-mail.

The hierarchies offered (except for alt.* and free.*) are complete with the exception of binary groups. Please make sure that your news reader has the latest list of newsgroups before contacting us (i.e. synchronize your group list with our server first).

Since alt.* and free.* have a lot of groups that are not read anymore, most alt.* and free.* groups are only added on user request. Among others, we do not add groups from the following sub-hierarchies:
alt.binaries, alt.mag, alt.sex, free.*binar*, and any other groups with binary content.

3.5
Do you add complete hierarchies?

That is possible but depends on the hierarchy in question. Since the addition of a new hierarchy gives us a lot more work than the addition of groups in an existing hierarchy, it can take some time until such a new hierarchy is steadily available. It speeds up the process if you can give us the following information together with your request:

Is the hierarchy freely distributable or are there restrictions? If so, where can one read up on these and who can one ask?
Are there any special rules (netiquette)?
If so, where can one read up on it? Who can one ask?
Are there regular control messages?
If so, who is the sender and are they signed with PGP?
Are there rules for the creation of new groups?
If so, where can one read up on these?
Is there a master server?
If so, what is it called?
Which server can we get a stable feed from?

3.6
I would like to have a newsgroup that deals with "XYZ". Could you create de.xyz for me?

No, it is not that easy. There are certain rules in de.* (as in many other hierarchies) that regulate the creation of new groups. Check the following newsgroups for regular posts on the subject:

[de.admin.infos] Einrichtung von Usenet-Gruppen in "de.*"
[de.admin.infos] Erlaeuterungen zur Einrichtung neuer Gruppen in de.*
[de.answers] FAQ: Einrichtung von de.alt-Newsgruppen

These are examples for the rules in de.*. You should always make sure to follow the guidelines of the hierarchy in question. For general guidelines on newsgroup creation see:
[news.groups] Guidelines for Big Eight Newsgroup Creation

3.7
Why can't I set a "Followup-To:" to de.alt.0d or alt.dev.null?

The newsgroup de.alt.0d is offered with flag "n" (i.e. read-only) on our server. Since all postings to de.alt.0d are canceled automatically anyway, this does not really make a difference. We configured this group in such a way to dodge queries from inexperienced users asking why their posting has disappeared or why someone else has canceled it.

Since this group is marked as "read-only", our software doesn't allow you to set a Followup-To to it. In the case of de.alt.0d this is a positive side-effect since followups to this group can only be meant to play a joke on inexperienced users. According to our netiquette this is not necessarily decent behavior, especially since there are more suitable groups for actual or apparent nonsense (such as de.alt.dummschwatz oder de.alt.gruppenkasper).

The same goes for alt.dev.null. In this group, postings are not auto-canceled, but they are sent to the moderator address "/dev/null" - that's the trash can of Unix systems. Inexperienced users are usually not aware of the implications.

3.8
The newsgroup alt.binaries.something doesn't really have any binaries but is a discussion group.
Why isn't it offered on your server?

Distribution of news between major servers is done through the exchange of complete (sub-) hierarchies. The configuration possibilities in question do not reach down to single newsgroups. All our peers have the following entry in their subscription list for us: alt.*,!alt.binaries.* (meaning: send all articles that were posted in alt.* but none that were posted in alt.binaries.*). To offer a single group alt.binaries.something we would have to e-mail to all administrators of all our peers (we have between 200 and 300!) and ask them to change the subscription list.

That is an effort we cannot make, especially since the newsgroup in question is obviously classified at the wrong place - which undermines the idea of the alt.binaries.* sub-hierarchy.

3.9
Why isn't there alt.flame.something?

Flame-groups are meant to direct flame wars away from other groups so that people can vent their anger at an appropriate place. One flame-group per hierarchy (normally "hierarchy.flame") is enough for that purpose, so we don't offer any sub-groups.

3.10
not applicable

3.11
Other news servers offer fido.ger groups that News.Individual.NET doesn't have. Why don't you offer these?

We put together a list of groups that really do still have a gateway between Usenet and FIDO Net in cooperation with the German FIDO Net. The groups you are missing are probably not on that list.

For more information see: https://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/news/fido.ger/

There are network administrators that do not care much about what the FIDO Net wants and that offer groups on their servers that don't even have a gateway anymore. Obviously you will only find articles from Usenet in these groups and none from FIDO Net.

3.12
Why don't you offer the clari.* hierarchy?

clari.* is a commercial service of ClariNet that is to be distributed only to paying customers.

3.13
I cannot find the group "control.cancel" in your server's group list. Does the server not carry this group?

The newsgroup "control.cancel" is a pseudo-newsgroup in which the news system stores Cancel messages. The group is automatically removed from view when displaying the list of groups and group descriptions, but it can be entered and retrieved like any other group.

It is possible to change the server's behavior on a per-user basis and include "control.cancel" when listing groups and group descriptions. If you would like to have this feature enabled for your account, please send an e-mail to "news@individual.net".

4. User Data

4.1
Are the addresses used for advertising purposes and/or passed on to anyone?

Our users' data is not passed on to anyone - neither as a whole nor in individual cases. The only exception to this is if data should need to be given to law enforcement authorities because of a court order.
We do not use user data for advertising purposes, surveys or the like. We do not compile any statistics at the moment. Should we ever do, we will use anonymized data.

4.2
I forgot my password. What should I do?

Please do not re-register.

Go to https://news.individual.net/selfcare/remail.php (also reachable by choosing "My Account" from the menu on our website) where you will find an interface for automatic retrieval of your account details.

If you cannot retrieve your account details through this interface, please write an e-mail to "news@individual.net" instead, and ask us to resend your account data. The information will be e-mailed to you either at the address you registered with, or - where applicable - at the latest address you told us as your current (see #4.7 of our FAQ).

We ask for your understanding that we will - in your own interest - not send account data to differing e-mail addresses if we cannot verify that they are related to the account in question.

4.3
How can I find out what my User ID is?

There are two options:

You received your User ID together with the rest of your account data for our server (marked as "generally not required" or "please include in any support request").
Open a NNTP connection directly to our server ('telnet news.individual.net 119')
Type 'authinfo simple USERNAME PASSWORD' (replacing USERNAME with your username with us and PASSWORD with your password for our service). The server will answer with "281 Authorization accepted. (UID=xxx)" where xxx is your User ID.
NOTICE:
Type all commands without the quotes - the quotes are only used for clarification here.

4.4
I operate a small pseudo news server such as Hamster or leafnode and would like to generate the Message-IDs by myself. Can I get a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) from your name space?

Sure. The FQDN is a combination of the string "ID-", your User ID, and the subdomain "user.individual.net":

ID-MYUSERID.user.individual.net

"MYUSERID" is your personal User ID with us. For example: If your User ID is "1234567", your FQDN is "ID-1234567.user.individual.net".

Please note: All subdomains stated in earlier versions of this FAQ (e.g. "user.uni-berlin.de") will stay valid and may still be used for FQDNs.

4.5
May I use the FQDN when I'm posting via other servers?

Yes, but only to generate the Message-ID.

4.6
Can I change my username or password?

If you want to change your password, please log in to the "My Account" area on our website:

https://news.individual.net/selfcare.php

Please note that you cannot choose the new password, it is generated automatically. Your username cannot be changed in that interface.

4.7
My e-mail address has changed since I registered. Do I need to inform you about it?

Please make sure that we always have an up-to-date and valid e-mail address under which we can contact you.

You don't need to use that e-mail address for posting. The address is primarily needed for sending account data (please see #4.2 of our FAQ for more information) or payment information, and for contacting you in case of requests or problems.

So if your e-mail address changes, please log in to the "My Account" area on our website and adjust the address: https://news.individual.net/selfcare.php

4.8
I would like to renew my subscription. How do I do this?

Please make a payment by logging in to the "My Account" area on our website and clicking on the respective payment button: https://news.individual.net/selfcare.php

You will receive e-mail reminders from us early enough before expiration of your account. This reminder is another reason why we should always have an up-to-date and valid e-mail under which we can contact you.

If you did not receive any reminders from us, please contact us by e-mail: news@individual.net

4.9
I would like to cancel my subscription. How do I proceed?

Cancellation is not necessary: At the end of your current subscription period, simply do not pay for the subsequent period. It is also not necessary to notify us about it.

4.10
I would like to change my method of payment. How do I do this?

You can switch freely between all methods of payment we offer without needing to send us a notification. Simply make your next payment with the method of payment you like.

5. Policy and Abuse

5.1
not applicable

5.2
What happens if I don't stick to the rules?

We would regret to see such behavior because it naturally endangers the service.
If we notice policy violation or get complaints about it, we block the account concerned - in most cases without further inquiry or information of the user.

5.3
May I mangle my "From:" header address so that I do not get spam?

We recommend creating a special e-mail address for use with Usenet articles only and protecting it with suitable filtering rules. This way your regular mailbox will stay untroubled, but you can still receive e-mail responses to your Usenet articles.

Another option is using the Top Level Domain ".invalid" (see RFC 2606). The Top Level Domain ".invalid" is intended for construction of obviously invalid addresses like "invalid@invalid.invalid". Such addresses do not disturb and pollute regular name space and can easily be identified as invalid by both humans and machines.

5.4
not applicable

5.5
Someone posted articles that do not adhere to your rules. What do I do?

That depends on the type of offense:

Violation of a newsgroup's charter
Please inform the author about the group's conventions via e-mail first - especially if they differ from common practice. If this does not work, simply add the author to the killfile / the filter of your news reader.
Problems with the content of postings
Please clarify your differences with the author directly or use the killfile / filter of your news reader. In serious cases you can consider legal action against the user, of course.
Substantial abuse (spam, rogue cancel)
Please turn to abuse@individual.net in such cases, attaching at least one complete article header if possible.
What should an abuse report look like so that it can be dealt with most efficiently?
Choose or adjust the subject of your e-mail with care
Put something like "Complaint" or "spam" at the _beginning_ of your subject line if you keep the original subject of the posting. Otherwise we might mistake your e-mail for spam and delete it unread.
Send your abuse report to "abuse@individual.net"
Do NOT e-mail it to "postmaster" or "webmaster". These services (e-mail and WWW) are taken care of by other people so that your abuse report will need to be forwarded to us.
Tell us the reason for your complaint
It may be obvious to you, but sometimes it is hard for us to quickly identify the reason for your complaint if you only send us the article in question. It helps us a lot if you state briefly what you are complaining about.
Include the Message-ID
To be able to react quickly we need the Message-ID or (even better) the entire header of the posting in question. You normally do not need to quote the body of the article.
One e-mail is enough
We take care of every abuse report. This usually happens within 24 hours, but may take a bit longer in some cases. If you send us several e-mails about the same "case", you will not speed things up but just give us more work.

5.6
May I redistribute the news articles I've downloaded?

Messages downloaded from this server may not be redistributed to third parties (i.e. you may not set up things like a news server, proxy or gateway using your account). Both the distribution to family members and passing on single articles are excluded from this restriction. Any other exceptions need explicit and prior approval by us.

PLEASE NOTE:
If the account is abused by anyone who uses it, we will shut down the account in question entirely because it is technically impossible for us to distinguish clearly between the different users.

5.7
I am operating my own (pseudo-) news server. What do I have to keep in mind?

Please make sure that your server is not open world-wide or for an indefinite number of people. There have been several cases already in which substantial abuse (rogue cancel, spam) was committed via the account of a notionless user despite dynamic IP-address and relatively short on-line times.

5.8
I want to build a web-gateway for news. Can I use my account with you?

No. If you want to offer such a service and realize it using a local news server, you can contact us for a peering.

6. General Information

6.1
Why is there an annual fee of 10 EUR? I remember the news service being free of charge.

Our service is fee-based since April 1st, 2005. It is unfortunately no longer possible to offer it for free.

Details - especially on reasons and background - can be found in our public announcements from early 2005: https://news.individual.net/commercial.php

6.2
Who operates the service?

The server is operated by the computer center of Freie Universität Berlin.

6.3
Where can I find some technical information on your server?

You can find details on our news server's hard- and software at https://news.individual.net/server.php.