SpiritOne News FAQ

Questions:

Answers:

Do you have your own news server?

Like many ISPs, SpiritOne does not have the resources, disk space, manpower, or bandwidth required to maintain a news server with all the groups and capabilities desired by our customers. For this reason, we rely on news service supplied by NewsGuy. After comprehensive testing, we came to the conclusion that, based upon the criteria used to make our selection, NewsGuy provided the best "bang for our buck." We specifically wanted a news service we could supply to our customers without needing to increase our subscription prices, a good selection of newsgroups, an uncensored news service, and a stable connection. After years of testing various news services, we have determined that NewsGuy is the service that can best provide what we desire.

Is there anything special I need to know to configure my news reader?

To connect to our news server, you will need to configure your news reader to authenticate with the server using your entire SpiritOne email address, in all lower-case, as the username (i.e. username@spiritone.com). If you would like assistance configuring your news reader, contact our technical support department.

What is the address of the news server?

Either news.spiritone.com or news.aracnet.com will work. It really does not matter which you use, they both go to the same place.

I want a news group added. How do I request that?

Do not write to our staff.We have no control over the news groups available on the server. Post your request to newsguy.addgroup.propose and NewsGuys helpful staff will add it for you.

I received an error saying, "data transfer limit exceeded for this connection." What do I do?

Wait a day and try again. You can only transfer 500MB of data per day to or from the news server. This limit is not flexible. If you exceed the limit, you will need to wait until a day before reconnecting to the news server. If you require more than 300MB of data per day from Usenet, we recommend you get an account with any Premium News Service.

I keep getting a 502 error (too many connections) when I try to connect to the news server. What is this and how do I get rid of it?

Our news provider only allows two simultaneous connections to the news server. Some news readers (especially Outlook Express) will open up as many connections as they can, eventually causing this error message to appear. If you can limit the number of simultaneous connections in your news reader, limiting the number of connections to two will resolve this problem. If, however, you are using Outlook Express, the only real resolution is to switch to a different news reader.

I post but the articles never show up!

News articles sometimes take a little while to show up. An article can often take 48 hours or more to propagate. If you keep posting and your articles do not show up, send a test post to a group such as Aracnet.test and pdx.test. Make sure you are posting with a real email address. Try using a different news reader. Once you have tried that, there is not much we can do.

I am having problems with the news server, what do I do?

First, write an email to Support@SpiritOne.com. Our support staff can usually diagnose and fix news reader problems. If the problem is not local to your news reader, and there is no system-wide problem concerning access to the news server, there is not much we can do.

Can I use the news server if I am not connected to the Internet through Aracnet or SpiritOne?

Yes. You just need to authenticate with the news reader. The location of this setting depends on the news reader you use. You will need to use your full SpiritOne.com or Aracnet.com email address as your username.

What news reader can I use?

You can use any news reader available on the Internet. We do not, however, recommend using Outlook Express given its problems with simultaneous connections.

What news readers do you recommend?

If you are using a Windows PC, our staff recommends either Free Agent or Gravity.

What news readers do you support?

We support Netscape, Gravity, and Free Agent. Due to problems with simultaneous connections, we do not recommend Outlook Express as a news reader. If you call or write to our Support department for help with any other news reader (including those on the shell server), whether or not to provide support is at the discretion of the individual technician. If you are using an unsupported news reader, you may only be given a gentle suggestion to switch news readers.

Is there anything I should know about Usenet etiquette?

Sure, plenty. The most important thing is "Do not post in HTML." Always post in Plain Text. For more information than we can succinctly provide, see What is Usenet?

Where can I download a news reader?

Our news feed provider has an excellent collection of links to news readers on their web page.

What are People Saying about SpiritOne?

"I like that SpiritOne is a local company, with a local phone number, and that technical support is free."