# Eternal September

> eternal-september.org | Storage; 2 records: free tier, limits, identity cost and evidence.

HTML https://fshy.ajam.dev/p/eternal-september/ | JSON https://fshy.ajam.dev/api/v1/entity/eternal-september.json | how to read a record: https://fshy.ajam.dev/llms-full.txt

## Eternal September (news.eternal-september.org) — free NNTP read/write

- `storage/eternal-september-free-nntp-read-write` | fails-quota | evidence reported | binding per-object-cap | category messaging
- identity a placeholder: card and phone unknown | verified 2026-10-21 (inherited) | stale on 2026-11-05
- url https://www.eternal-september.org/
- free tier: No byte quota. Free read AND write access to all text newsgroups after online registration. 281 hierarchies, alt.* alone is 8,728 groups, free.* is 1,284. Retention: '3 years for de.*, 160 days for the Big 8, 130 days for alt.*, 90 days for other hierarchies'. | unit: mixed | metered on: unstated | read on: 2026-10-21 | source: [1]
- per-object cap: per-object-cap: 'No articles larger than 1000 KB | bytes: 1000000 | source: [1] | note: not stated
- retention: Retention: '3 years for de.*, 160 days for the Big 8, 130 days for alt.*, 90 days for other hierarchies' | days: 160 | source: [1] | note: not stated
- egress: Free; server has a 1 Gbit connection to several backbones and peers with 40+ sites. Articles are world-readable and propagate to every peer, so egress is effectively subsidised by the whole Usenet mesh. | metered: no
- identity: country-phone
- interface: rest
- limits:
  - retention-clamped: Retention: '3 years [1]
  - retention-clamped: Retention: 90-160 days [1]
  - per-object-cap (binding): per-object-cap: 'No articles larger than 1000 KB [1]
- limits note: per-object-cap: 'No articles larger than 1000 KB' — hard 1 MB per article, and 'no binaries in text-only groups': binaries are only allowed in alt.binaries.* / de.alt.dateien.*, which this server does NOT carry ('no binaries'). Request-rate: anti-spam gates — no more than 3 distinct From: addresses per 24 h, 5 per 7 days, 8 per 30 days ('Excessive nymshifting'), with cancellation at 12 nyms/60 days. Retention: 90-160 days for most hierarchies, 3 years only for de.*.
- interface detail: rest
- tooling: Standard NNTP (RFC 3977) on port 119/563. Every Usenet client works: tin, slrn, Gnus, Thunderbird, Pan; programmatically via nntplib (Python) or any NNTP library. No bespoke wrapper needed. The docs give exact per-client auth config for ~10 clients.
- composes with: Per-record unlimited is the theoretical shape: a text article can carry base64, and there are 8,728 alt.* groups x 1,284 free.* groups x unlimited articles each. The multiplier would be 'groups x posts', which is effectively unbounded. BUT the per-record cap (1000 KB) and text-only rule kill it as a bulk store — see limits.
- reliability: Two technical blockers found by probing: (1) NNTP ports are unreachable from this network — TCP to news.eternal-september.org:563 timed out and:119 also timed out, so the transport may be firewalled depending on where you run; (2) accounts are auto-closed after 18 months of inactivity. Also note the server deliberately does NOT honour Cancels/Supersedes from other servers ('an article stored on our server can neither be deleted by a Cancel nor be overwritten by a Supersedes'), which is a rare retention plus.
- notes: the same as the free tier
- extras:
  - dead_end.failure_class: retention
  - dead_end.why: No byte quota. Free read AND write access to all text newsgroups after online registration. 281 hierarchies, alt.* alone is 8,728 groups, free.* is 1,284. Retention: '3 years for de.*, 160 days for the Big 8, 130 days for alt.*, 90 days for other hierarchies'.
  - dead_end.first_recorded: 2026-10-21
- evidence:
  - [1] 2026-10-21: 'free read and write access to all text newsgroups'; 'no binaries'; retention '3 years for de.*, 160 days for the Big 8, 130 days for alt.*, 90 days for other hierarchies'
  - [2] 2026-10-21: 'No articles larger than 1000 KB'; 'no binaries in text-only groups'
  - [3] 2026-10-21: nymshifting limits (3/24h, 5/7d, 8/30d); 'Accounts with Eternal-September will be automatically closed after 18 months of inactivity'; Cancels/Supersedes deliberately not honoured
  - [4] 2026-10-21: 281 hierarchies; alt.* 8,728 groups; free.* 1,284 groups
  - withheld 2026-10-21: probe: TCP news.eternal-september.org:119 and :563 -> both timeout (blocked from this network)
- sources:
  - [1] https://www.eternal-september.org/
  - [2] https://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=terms
  - [3] https://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=faq
  - [4] https://www.eternal-september.org/hierarchies.php

## usenet / nntp free providers

- `storage/usenet-nntp-free-providers` | fails-quota | evidence reported | binding none | category rejected-provider
- identity a placeholder: card and phone unknown | verified 2026-10-21 (inherited) | stale on 2026-11-05
- url https://www.eternal-september.org/
- free tier: No free binary provider with usable retention exists. The only genuinely free, posting-allowed server found (Eternal September) is text-only, explicitly 'no binaries', with 130-day… | unit: none | metered on: none | read on: 2026-10-21 | source: [1]
- per-object cap: not recorded | source: [1] | note: not recorded
- retention: not recorded | source: [1]
- egress: not recorded | metered: no
- identity: email
- interface: unknown
- tooling: not recorded
- composes with: the same as tooling
- reliability: the same as the free tier
- notes: the same as the free tier
- extras:
  - dead_end.failure_class: retention
  - dead_end.why: No free binary provider with usable retention exists. The only genuinely free, posting-allowed server found (Eternal September) is text-only, explicitly 'no binaries', with 130-day…
  - dead_end.first_recorded: 2026-10-21
- evidence:
  - [1] 2026-10-21: No free binary provider with usable retention exists. The only genuinely free, posting-allowed server found (Eternal September) is text-only, explicitly 'no binaries', with 130-day…
  - [2] 2026-10-21: cited as the basis of the rejection: No free binary provider with usable retention exists. The only genuinely free, posting-allowed server found (Eternal September) is text-only, explicitly 'no binaries', with 130-day retention
- sources:
  - [1] https://www.eternal-september.org/
  - [2] https://4usenet.com/articles/best-free-usenet