Older than the web –
and still going strong.
Usenet is a worldwide network of servers that sync articles with each other. No provider owns it, no platform controls it – and anyone with access downloads at the full speed of their line.
What Usenet is
Picture thousands of noticeboards spread across servers all over the world. When someone posts an article on one of those boards – called a newsgroup in Usenet – the servers pass it on to each other until it is available everywhere.
That makes Usenet fundamentally different from the web: there is no central platform, no operator curating content and no algorithm deciding what you see. There are only servers mirroring data.
For you that means: you connect to a server run by your provider – not to other users. That is why the speed is steady and depends on your own line alone.
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1
Somebody posts
an article to a newsgroup
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2
The servers pass it on
until it sits on thousands of servers
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3
You download
from a server run by your provider
Running since 1979
Usenet is older than the World Wide Web – and it never went out of fashion, it just got quieter. What began in 1979 as a news exchange between two universities is today an archive more than a decade deep.
The reason for its longevity is the design: because no single operator owns the network, nobody can switch it off. If one server fails, the others take over.
We have been part of it since 2007 – a small part of that story, but an unbroken one.
More about us →-
1979
The idea
Two students at Duke University design a network for universities to exchange news – long before the World Wide Web.
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1980
The first exchange
Duke and the University of North Carolina connect. A handful of articles a day soon becomes a great deal more.
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1987
Order out of chaos
The Great Renaming splits the newsgroups into the familiar top-level groups such as comp, sci, rec and misc. Shortly afterwards the alt hierarchy appears.
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1990s
From text to data
New encoding methods make it possible to pack arbitrary files into text articles. Usenet becomes a data archive.
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2001
The NZB file
A lean file format that only describes where the parts are. It lets newsreaders download, verify and unpack automatically.
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Today
Bigger than ever
Commercial providers keep articles for over 4,000 days. Usenet is not a nostalgia project – it is faster and more reliable than it used to be.
Encrypted and private
With Usenet you download from a server – not from other users. So there is no public subscriber list in which your address appears, and nobody but your provider sees that you are connected.
The connection itself runs over TLS/SSL on port 563 – the same technology that protects online banking. That means not even your internet provider can see which data is transferred.
On top of that, we are an EU company under European law. Encryption is included in every plan and costs nothing extra.
Usenet & security in detail →- TLS/SSLPort 563, the same technology as online banking
- No logswe do not record when you were connected or what you downloaded
- European UnionCompany based in the EU, no access for US authorities
- No extra costsEncryption is included in every plan
Three reasons why it endures
Not nostalgia, but engineering. And why we are the best provider for it is set out here.
Full speed
You download straight from servers, not from other users. There is no queue and no dependence on anyone else's uploads – only your own line sets the limit.
A deep archive
Articles stay available for over 4,000 days – more than eleven years. What is once on Usenet does not disappear because a platform shuts down.
Calm in the system
No algorithm, no recommendations, no advertising. You search for what you are after and get exactly that – with nobody else having a say.
Curious now?
Unlimited Usenet from €3.98 a month – full performance in every plan.
Questions about Usenet
The most common questions, answered briefly.