Over the past few weeks, some of you noticed that certain older articles were incomplete or wouldn’t download. We tracked down the cause, stopped the problem, and are now starting the restoration process. Here’s what happened.

12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. EDT (16:00 – 22:00 UTC)

We will be performing network maintenance during this window to apply firmware updates to our switches and routers. These updates include security and stability improvements.

You may experience a few brief interruptions as equipment is updated and restarted. Each interruption should last only a few minutes. Article retrieval in progress may be interrupted and will need to be retried, and your newsreader should reconnect automatically once service is restored. No action is required on your part.

If you continue to have trouble connecting after 6:00 p.m. EDT, please contact support at [email protected] or check our status page.

Thank you for your patience while we keep our network up to date.

We’re aware of the current service issues and are working to resolve them. We will update here once we have more information.

We’ve upgraded the encryption on all of our NNTP servers to include post-quantum key exchange. It’s a new layer of protection designed to keep your connection secure not just today, but well into the future.

You may have heard that quantum computers, once mature, could potentially break the encryption methods that secure most internet traffic today. Post-quantum cryptography is the industry’s answer to that. It’s a new mathematical approach that remains secure even against quantum attacks. We’re now using a hybrid method called X25519MLKEM768, which combines the proven encryption you’re already relying on with this new quantum-resistant layer. You get both: the trust of battle-tested security and the protection of what comes next.

What does this mean for you?

Nothing changes on your end. Your NNTP client will continue to work exactly as it always has. If your system is running OpenSSL 3.5.0 or newer, you’ll automatically benefit from the enhanced security without any configuration changes.

We’re committed to staying ahead of emerging threats so you don’t have to think about it. Your privacy is protected today, and it’ll stay that way tomorrow.

We’re excited to announce that NNTP pipelining support is currently in testing at Usenet Express.

For those unfamiliar, traditional NNTP connections operate in a strict request-response pattern. Your client sends a command, waits for the server to respond, then sends the next. That round-trip wait adds up fast, especially over higher-latency connections. Pipelining changes this by allowing clients to send multiple commands without waiting for each individual response, keeping the connection busy and the data flowing.

Early Results

In our internal testing, we’ve seen significant speed increases on connections with notable latency. The further you are from our servers, the more you stand to gain. Users on high bandwidth connections that previously couldn’t saturate their link due to latency should see a real difference.

Want to Try It?

We’re currently looking for customers interested in helping us test pipelining support. If you’d like early access or have questions, reach out to us at [email protected].

We’ll share more details as testing progresses. Stay tuned.