Usenet 4 f*r*e*e

[StreamerX]

my isp doesnt have IPv6

[anon]

Neither does mine, despite having been in business for almost 25 years. Here are some tunnelbrokers you can try.

A tunnelbroker is a service that gives you access to the IPv6 Internet by encapsulating packets inside IPv4 ones and tunneling them between two points, somewhat similar to a VPN (but providing neither authentication nor encryption). The following tunnelbrokers use 6in4: protocol 41 encapsulation and static tunnels.

• https://tunnelbroker.net/ - from Hurricane Electric. Gives you a /64 prefix out of the box and /48 upon request. Relays all over the world. Requires a pingable IPv4 address to set up the tunnel. Dynamic updates are supported.
• https://tb.ip4market.ru/ - from IP4market. Gives you a /48 prefix. Relay in Russia. Asks for a phone number upon registration, but doesn't use it for anything. Dynamic updates are supported.
• https://tb.netassist.ua/ - from NetAssist. Gives you a /48 prefix. Relay in Ukraine. Dynamic updates are supported.
• https://freetransit.net/en/tunnel-broker-ipv6 - from freetransit.net (AS212895). Gives you a /56 or /64 prefix depending on your choice. Relays in several countries. Untested by me.

You can calculate how many addresses will be available to you with the formula 2^(128-x) where 'x' is the prefix size. The usual practice is to assign one /48 per customer, and let them divide in smaller /64 subnets as they please.

Anyway, I have tested all of these and they worked fine. Setup is easy and only involves running a few commands, but additional help is available if required. The only downside was high latency as a result of not having any relays close enough to my country. If you set up the tunnel in your router, you can have everything in your LAN receive IPv6 addresses from your allocated prefix transparently. In practice, this may be the only way to achieve that for more than one computer or at all, since 6in4 and NAT don't work well together. OpenWrt in particular has built-in tunnelbroker.net support, which solves the problem of having to reconfigure the tunnel whenever your external IPv4 address changes.

I think all IPv6 "test" Usenet servers have closed, though?

[oldschool25]

Thas not good.

[johntheworried]

Yeah, I think xs4all may have been the last...they finally shut down theirs earlier this year

[anon]

XS Usenet is the only free one I know still in operation. Free-Usenet is gone, Just4Today is gone, nntp.pw is gone; free trials either are gone or require a valid credit card for verification. Almost like offering free access wasn't a good business model

[Caballero]

[...]free trials either are gone or require a valid credit card for verification. Almost like offering free access wasn't a good business model

If you have a bank that allows you to create unlimited virtual credit card numbers you can still sign up for those free trials...

[anon]

Well, I don't have a credit card, unreal or otherwise

Also, it seems I was wrong, as Usenet.farm still has a no-questions-asked 10 GB free trial (but disposable e-mail addresses are blocked).

[chuubaka]

I was able to get a free subscription on xsusenet. Thanks.

[anon]

nntp.pw is gone

And now it's back

[anon]

XS Usenet

Free Usenet retiring January 1

As of January 1, 2023 XS Usenet will be retiring its Free Usenet service.

Our Free Usenet service has always been our way of giving back to the community, something we have happily done for many years. There are however high costs associated in human resources and infrastructure with providing this service.
After over a decade of offering Free Usenet service to the community we have decided to completely shutdown our free service. Effective immediately, no new signups or support inquiries will be accepted and as of January 1 all Free Usenet subscriptions on our platform will be terminated.

The funds that we'll be freeing up will be deployed towards our capital expenditure budget for 2023 to support further product development in the VPN and Cloud Storage sector.

We appreciate your understanding and wish you a healthy and happy holiday season.

So long, and thanks for all the articles