ThunderNews Blog
Windows 8 Offers a Developer Preview For USENET Subscribers
September 16th, 2011
If you’re curious what Windows 8 will be all about, Microsoft has announced on USENET newsgroups that it is now offering a Developer Preview of the operating system at its current stage of development. It’s a pre-beta version and while it is designed for developers, it’s available for anybody to download without registering.
It’s available in three packages. Choose from a 64-bit version with developer tools, a 64-bit version of only the OS, and a 32-bit version of the OS. They come as ISO files, and as each package is a few gigabytes, you’ll want to use a DVD if you’re looking to burn them to a disc.
As for the OS itself, it’s said to re-imagine what Windows is. “Things are a lot different than they were three years ago in computing,” said Steven Sinofsky, who heads Windows and Windows Live. “And they’re a lot, lot different than they were in, say, 1995, the last time Windows went through a pretty significant and bold overhaul.”
Windows 8 was designed as a touch-first system and Sinofsky expects that touch screen PCs will become more popular when the new OS is released and grows more popular. “I promise you,” Sinofsky said, “the minute you use a touch device with Windows 8, the moment you go back to your laptop or desktop, you’ll have fingerprints all over your screen.”
Other key features of the new Windows OS include the use of less memory than Windows 7, but the continued support of Windows 7. It also features full USB 3.0 support. The user interface will use hardware-accelerated graphics, too.
As Windows goes through another overhaul and is ‘re-imagined’ in the latest release, Usenet continues to be a useful tool for those wishing to share information, ideas and announce new innovations and projects among the tech savvy. Providers like Thundernews, who offer fast connections, high rates of retention and a large number of connections, continue to provide excellent, premium service as Usenet stays strong through waves and waves of technological advances. Usenet preceded the internet and has seen operating systems come and go, and remains a useful tool for discussing different topics in the vast array of newsgroups.
DSLReports USENET Forum Compromised?
April 29th, 2011
As a popular destination for many that are involved with USENET, DSLReports.com has long been a haven to discuss news and information in their dedicated newsgroups online forums. If you are one of them, you may want to take another visit and change your information on the site.
DSLReports.com has reported today that their e-mail addresses and passwords may have been exposed during an attack on the Web site earlier this week.
Over a period of four hours on Wednesday, an automated SQL Injection attack leeched plain text passwords and email addresses from DSLReports.com. The attack created a good deal of noise, causing connection issues and brief outages, but by the time it was discovered, nearly 8-percent of the database had been ransacked. How many of the users information that were part of the USENET related forums are still not known.
Justin Beech, founder of DSLReports.com, wrote in an e-mail to members:
“The data was taken on Wednesday afternoon, recognized and blocked at 7 p.m., and by Wednesday evening all the active accounts received e-mail notifications advising them to change their password if they share it with that e-mail address and all passwords were changed at that time,” he wrote. “My hope is that few if any members will actually lose more than time to change passwords that they share among other sites.”
There has been some flack given to Beech over his method of storing passwords. Given the age of the site, it is likely that the password system is a legacy system. Updates to it would have required large investments in hardware and development. These investments are costly, and it is possible DSLReports.com simply did not have the funds or development team in place to take on the project. They have little choice in the matter now.
“Obviously having both an SQL injection attack hole (now closed) and plain text passwords is a big black eye, and I’ll be addressing these problems as fast, but as carefully, as I can,” Beech wrote. “My apology for any stress this causes. If you are like me you’ve also got the PSN network issue hanging over your head as well.”
The news comes on the heels of a large data breach at Sony PlayStation Network that potentially affects 77 million accounts that had previously been reported on gaming newsgroups, PS3 newsgroups and PSN newsgroups. Sony says customer names, passwords, addresses, e-mail addresses, birthdays and user names were exposed, but can not say whether or not credit card information is at risk.
The error in keeping the information encrypted is an issue that is being resolved at DSLReports.com and ThunderNews.com recommends that any users of the site should login and change their passwords.
ThunderNews Offers New Version Of NewsRover
March 14th, 2011
ThunderNews is proud to announce a new version of the NewsRover newsreader, available to all current Thundernews members.
NewsRover 16 has just become available with a host of new enhancements to its already feature-rich newsreader. NewsRover is known as one of the most used newsreaders in the world.
ThunderNews has now made available a new preconfigured version of NewsRover 16 for all members with any purchase or subscription.
Features of NewsRover 16 include:
Performance
Sophisticated, multi-threading caching system that eliminates the need for temp files when downloading and decoding messages. This greatly improves download speed and the impact on system resources.
Images
Pop-up image preview screen to display thumbnail pictures as they’re downloaded. On the configuration settings, you’ll be able to set the amount of time the pictures will be displayed before being replaced by the next and also the ability to detach the preview window from NewsRover.
Output
Some file types are now put into private subsfolders to avoid file name conflicts
Download Speed Display
A new main-screen status bar allows you to easily montior your connections speed to our ThunderNews Newsgroup servers
Newsgroup Subscriptions
New options have been added to help sort and choose which Usenet newsgroups to subscribe to
Usenet search
New features to sort by date, subject and size have been added to the global Usenet search screen.
Other new features are also included with the new version of Newsrover.
All ThunderNews members are able to download there preconfigured copy of NewsRover from their members page.
The new version will automatically upgrade your version of NewsRover and keep all of the configuration settings intact.
You may need to download headers again from certain newsgroups with this revision change. All other settings will remain the same.
If you have any questions on how to access the new version of NewsRover 16 or need assistance in setting up or using the new features, contact the ThunderNews newsgroup newsreader support team – available 24/7.
ThunderNews is dedicated in providing quality services and features to all its customers. The upgraded version of NewsRover is free to all current and new members of ThunderNews as part of any subscription plan.
ThunderNews Reaches 910 Days of Binary Retention
March 11th, 2011
ThunderNews.com now offers 910 days of retention on binaries, providing better service to members without any increase in price.
In yet another upgrade to the lightning fast, feature-rich premium Usenet access that ThunderNews provides, all customers will now receive additional access to their favorite subscribed newsgroups.
The 910 days of retention on binaries allows access to an expanded history of articles and follows another ThunderNews.com upgrade which now allows members to access Usenet with up to 50 simultaneous connections. The increase in connections gives users the tools to gain information faster than ever before. Each connection also employs 256 Bit SSL encryption which insures both privacy and security. These upgrades enhance the core features of ThunderNews.com’s 24/7 support, 99.9% completion and a free newsreader with any subscription or plan.
ThunderNews.com has long provided the Usenet community with lightning fast quality Usenet access at affordable pricing. These newly added features of both newsgroup binary retention and the increase to 50 simultaneous Usenet connections are all designed to add value to our overall customer experience.
ThunderNews.com Upgrades Retention to 810 Days
January 19th, 2011
ThunderNews.com is proud to announce another major upgrade to its Usenet newsgroup services by now offering 810 days of binary retention on all supported newsgroups.
As part of a range of upgrades to features and services, ThunderNews.com has reached another milestone in retention by reaching the 810 day mark for binary articles on newsgroups.
The new increase in binary retention is relative to how long a binary or text file is available on newsgroups. Now, 810 days of history on newsgroups can now be accessed by all ThunderNews.com members. Additionally, over 1400 days of text retention is also available. These new features are free of charge and part of any of the ThunderNews.com plans.
ThunderNews.com is proud to offer the increase in binary retention to all of its members as well as lightning fast access to over 107,000 newsgroups with 256-BIT SSL secure connections for ultimate protection.
ThunderNews Newsgroup Binary Retention Increased To 650 Days!
September 3rd, 2010
ThunderNews now provides subscribers 650 days of binary retention across all 107,000+ newsgroups.
In yet another upgrade to the lightning fast, feature-rich premium Usenet access that ThunderNews provides, all customers will now receive additional access to their favorite subscribed newsgroups.
The increase in retention is signified by the amount of time articles are available on newsgroups. With the inclusion of almost 50 additional days, ThunderNews members now will have access to posts that are 650 days old.
All existing and new members of ThunderNews automatically receive the increase to 650 days of binary retention. Some may need to reload the headers of the subscribed newsgroups in their newsreader in order to see the increase.
Thundernews is proud to be able to offer this added benefit free of charge to to existing and new members
Server Migration Information
September 30th, 2008
ThunderNews is excited to announce that on October 1, 2008, we will bring our newest Usenet server farm online for our Premium and Premium SSL customers. The new server hardware is designed with multiple levels of redundancy, better load balancing, more connection capacity and room for increased article retention.
On October 1, we will move all of our traffic on the Premium US and Premium US SSL servers to the new server farm. The server names will remain the same.
This change will be transparent for most of our customers. However, there are two important changes that you need to make to assure uninterrupted service:
1) The connection port list is changing. The port list will now be the same for the US and the European servers. You should check your newsreader client software setup to confirm your client is using one of the ports below to connect.
If you use News Rover, you can check your connection setup on the News Rover ‘Configure’ menu, ‘Server’ tab.
us.thundernews.com on NNTP Port: 119, 443 or 8080
eu.thundernews.com on NNTP Port: 119, 443 or 8080If you subscribe to Premium SSL, use this config info:
secure.us.thundernews.com on SSL Port: 563, 80 or 81
2) As part of the move, we are resynchronizing message ID’s so they are the same across all farms. This will have no impact on you if you do not store message headers. If you subscribe to newsgroups and store message headers, you will need to clear your current headers and get a fresh list beginning October 1. Otherwise, you may receive ‘Message not found’ errors after the move. Click here for more details.
As always, we appreciate your business and look forward to serving your Usenet needs. Please contact us at our Support Desk if we can be of assistance.
Pay With Your UK Debit Card
February 22nd, 2006
ThunderNews is pleased to announce that we can now accept your payment by UK debit card. Through WorldPay, we can accept your Solo, Switch/Maestro, Visa Electron, Delta and JCB card.
Join ThunderNews.com today and pay with your UK Debit card!
You Can Now Pay by WorldPay
February 21st, 2006
ThunderNews is pleased to announce that we have added WorldPay as a new payment option. You can now JOIN THUNDERNEWS and securely pay for your new account through WorldPay. The addition of WorldPay allows us to accept payments by your Solo, Switch/Maestro, Visa Electron, Delta, and JCB cards.
You are not required to have a WorldPay account to set up a payment to ThunderNews. If you choose the WorldPay option during the ThunderNews join process, you will be forwarded to WorldPay to complete the payment details. WorldPay will send you a confirmation e-mail with your ‘FuturePay’ information.
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