NNTP News Server
Usenet
Full-feed INN server on news.tcpreset.net. Clearnet TLS and Tor onion.
Read and post without an account.
Why Usenet still matters
Usenet is a federated publishing and discussion network that predates the web. Ownership is distributed: posts propagate peer-to-peer across hundreds of independent servers, and what you read is determined by your subscriptions, not a ranking algorithm. Removing content requires the cooperation of every server simultaneously — which in practice doesn't happen.
This is architecture, not nostalgia. We run this server because the model is sound and worth keeping operational.
Connection details
Clearnet (TLS)
Server: news.tcpreset.net
Port: 563 (NNTPS — TLS from the start)
Port: 119 + STARTTLS also accepted
TLS: 1.3 only. Certificate issued for news.tcpreset.net.
Tor hidden service
Onion: peannyjkqwqfynd24p6dszvtchkq7hfkwymi5by5y332wmosy5dwfaqd.onion
Port: 119 (plain NNTP over the onion — transport encryption provided by Tor)
When connecting via Tor, the onion address is the hostname. Configure your newsreader
to use a SOCKS5 proxy pointing at your local Tor daemon (127.0.0.1:9050).
Server software
INN 2.6.4 — InterNetNews, the reference NNTP implementation. Full Usenet feed. Standard NNTP protocol (RFC 3977).
Anti-spam: Hashcash + Ed25519
We don't require registration, but we do require a small proof-of-work stamp (Hashcash) on each article posted, combined with an Ed25519 posting signature. This keeps the server usable without accounts while making bulk spam economically expensive.
The posting key is per-client, generated locally. It is never sent to the server in a way that links your posts to each other across sessions — only the public signature and the PoW stamp travel with the article.
Full details and client configuration instructions are available at news.tcpreset.net.
Newsreader setup
Any standards-compliant NNTP client works. Tested:
- slrn — terminal, fast, scriptable
- Thunderbird — GUI, works out of the box over TLS
- NeoMutt with NNTP support compiled in
- Pan — GTK2, lightweight
- tin — terminal, good threading
Configure server as news.tcpreset.net, port 563,
SSL/TLS enabled. No username or password unless you request a posting account
for groups that require it.