ThunderNews Blog
Virgin Media Begins To Throttle USENET Newsgroups
April 3rd, 2012
Virgin Media has introduced new throttling “trigger levels” for customers who make heavy use of its network.
The updated policy was brought into place yesterday and will throttle both download and upload speeds if users go beyond a usage allowance. If the cap is broken then a speed reduction will take place for five hours.
As part of an upgrade that saw some speeds doubled for some users, the company said it needed to impose restrictions on its 50Mbits/sec and 100Mbits/sec services.
The internet service provider said that its move to “moderate” the speeds of heavy users is designed to give all of its customers the best broadband service and not “just a few”. The firm justified its policy by saying that, when someone is downloading or uploading a particularly large amount of information over a long period of time, it will slow down the broadband speeds for other users in their area who might just be checking their email or browsing the web.
It added that at peak times it will also slow down the speed of filesharing traffic, including services like Limewire, Gnutella, Bittorrent and Usenet Newsgroup traffic. Customers will, of course, still be able to use these services, but downloads and uploads “will take longer during these peak periods”, it said.
According to Virgin, the policy is necessary to prevent networks being overloaded and would affect fewer than 5% of customers, but that hasn’t stopped complaints from customers.
Meanwhile, complaints about over-utilisation have begun to pile up on Virgin Media’s customer forums as well as those on ISP related newsgroups.
NewsRover 16 Available Free To ThunderNews Members
October 8th, 2010
ThunderNews is proud to announce a new version of NewsRover is 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.
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 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
ThunderNews.com Features Increase To 50 Simultaneous Connections and 570 Days Retention
March 25th, 2010
ThunderNews.com now offers 570 days of retention on binaries alongside 50 lightning fast simultaneous connections, providing better service to members without any increase in price.
With recent storage upgrades, ThunderNews.com is proud to be able to offer members the benefits of a higher binary retention on all of the 107,000+ supported newsgroups; which is still growing by the day. The added features are automatically employed to all new and existing members. ThunderNews.com has an array of memberships and plans to meet almost any budget.
The 570 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 Announces 400 Days Retention
May 19th, 2009
ThunderNews.com is excited to announce binary retention is spooling to 400 days! This doubles our previous spooling capacity! Presently, our binary article retention has increased to 275 days with about 200 days of headers. At the present size of the Usenet feed and with projections for its size in the future, our retention will be growing to between 400 and 425 days by the end of 2009.
Our text article retention now reaches back over 1250 days.
We continue to invest in technology and infrastructure to bring the best Usenet has to offer to you, our customers. These service upgrades are brought to you without any additional cost for you. As always we appreciate your business.
ThunderNews Announces New European SSL Usenet Server Launch
October 24th, 2008
ThunderNews is excited to announce that we have launched our much awaited European SSL Usenet servers. The new European SSL Usenet servers offer the same newsgroup selection and retention as our regular European news servers. ThunderNews customers who subscribe to the Premium SSL account type can access the new Usenet servers now by using the news server name secure.eu.thundernews.com and the same ports as you use to connect to the secure.us.thundernews.com server. Log in on the Member’s pages for more details on connecting to the European SSL news servers.
If you do not have a Premium SSL account and want to upgrade your existing ThunderNews account to the Premium SSL level, please enter an upgrade request at the ThunderNews Help Desk and we will be happy to assist.
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.
ThunderNews Offers 256 bit SSL NNTP Connections
September 1st, 2007
ThunderNews is please to announce we now offer 256 bit SSL encrypted NNTP connections!
SSL encrypted NNTP connections offer another level of security and privacy allowing you to safeguard your computer’s communications with our news server when browsing messages. With SSL connections, your Usenet communications are encrypted from your ISP, other network providers and any others attempting to monitor traffic.
You may open an account with secure SSL NNTP access by choosing our Premium SSL Server option on our SignUp page.
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!
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