About the FAQ

• This page provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Agent Premium Newsgroups.
• Click the feedback link at the bottom of each FAQ entry to rate the entry and give us your comments.
• Go here for the Agent Newsreader FAQ.
• Use the What's New Page to find out when new FAQ entries are added.

Navigation Tips

• All the FAQs are on a single Web page that you can search with your browser's Find operation.
• Once you've linked to a topic, use the browser Back button to return to your previous position.

APN Agent Newsreader Configuration

Common Questions

Contacting Forte APN

Error Messages

General Questions

Getting Started

Managing Your Account

Other Newsreader Configuration

Posting Privacy

How do I set up Agent for multiple users?

As explained in this section of the Agent FAQ on the data directory, Agent stores its setting and data files in the directory specified in the Start In parameter of the shortcut, or in the command line. This means that you can share a single copy of the program files among several independent data directories.

This works well for multiple people using the program, since each directory can have a completely different set of preferences and newsgroup files.

To do this, after Agent has been installed and run once, create a separate directory for each additional user or news server. Copy the agent.ini file from the default database into each of the additional directories you just made. Create a new shortcut for each setup with the Target field pointing to the program itself (c:\program files\agent\agent.exe, for example) and the data directory (c:\program files\agent\george, perhaps) specified as the Start In field. (See the topic on the data directory for specific instructions on setting this.)

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.16.03, please give us your feedback.

How do I set up and configure Agent to access Forte APN measured or unlimited service?

Both our Measured and Unlimited accounts use the same authentication system. To configure your APN account in Agent 3.x and 4.0, choose Tools | Servers and Accounts | News Servers

Host Name: [ news20.forteinc.com ] this is the news server name

You should select:

Login method: username and password.

You will need to append "@forteinc.com" to your login name in Agent or any news client.

Enter your username and password in the Login Credentials section, or use the New option to create a new server, and check to save password between sessions. The Click OK to save settings when finished

If you already have existing newsgroups and messages in this copy of Agent, you will need to synchronize your subscribed newsgroups the first time you get new headers. Select all subscribed newsgroups, and then choose Action | Get Headers | Catch Up With Selected Groups to update without downloading any messages, and Action | Get Headers | Get All headers in Selected Groups to update and download new messages.

Unchecking the option Folder | Default Properties | What to Purge [ ] "Always get complete list of server's available messages" can speed up header retrieval as well.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 02.01.08, please give us your feedback.

What are your Terms of Service?

You can view our Terms of Service here.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.23.06, please give us your feedback.

What is a No-Risk Trial?

Forte APN offers a No-Risk trial for either our 12GB measured or unlimited service plans. Sign up for our measured service at the 12GB level and use it for 30 days or until you reach your 12GB quota, or use our unlimited service for 3 days. In either case, try the service and if for any reason you don't like it, cancel your subscription in the allotted time period and you'll get a full refund.

A No-Risk trial is different from a free trial in that if you continue service with us, there is no refund. That is, you are given a refund only if you cancel service with us in the allotted time. If you continue past the trial period, your account becomes a regular account and is charged normally for the first month. Also note that only the 12GB measured account can be considered no-risk. All other measured account (25GB and 70GB) will open as normal accounts, and are not available as no-risk trial accounts. Go to the APN Subscription page and start your no-risk trial now. Only one no-risk trial is available per customer.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 12.31.08, please give us your feedback.

What is your Refund Policy?

Forte provides a refund for the APN service through our No-Risk Trial offer only. Charges for any other account level or option are non-refundable. Because we negotiated excellent pricing by agreeing to pay our providers for each subscription even if a customer cancels on the first day, we are unable to provide refunds for any but our No-Risk Trial offering.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.23.06, please give us your feedback.

How do I contact Forte APN?

Forte APN is available for sales, support, and accounting issues by e-mail only. Forte provides free email support for all APN service plans. Questions are answered within one business day, Monday - Friday.

Our contact information can be found by going to the Contact us section of our Website.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.16.03, please give us your feedback.

I am looking for a newsgroup you do not carry. How do I get it added to your servers?

To request a newsgroup to be added to our servers, please contact us and let us know the newsgroup you would like and we will see if it can be added.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.18.03, please give us your feedback.

502 Error: Invalid username or password. What does this mean?

A "502 invalid username or password" error can be caused by one of several things:

1 - You may have entered your Username and/or Password incorrectly - Usernames and Passwords are case-sensitive. Also a leading or trailing space in the username or password will cause the value to be invalid.

2 - You may have forgotten to append "@forteinc.com" to your login name in Agent or other news client.

3 - Your account may have been disabled due to a billing problem or you may have reached your quota for the billing period. Please check the Account Manager for additional information regarding your billing status.

4 - If you are a new subscriber (you just completed the sign up process), you must wait for up to 30 minutes for your account to be activated on the system.

If you are not a new subscriber and you have verified the above information and are still receiving the error, please contact us

Please include the following information:

Billing Name:

Username:

E-mail address as listed on the account:

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

502 Error: Too Many Connections.

It could be that your newsreader is aggressively open new connections to the server. So fast that the connections are not able to timeout prior to the next attempt to open a new one. In cases like this an authentication error occurs when more than 4 connections are opened to the server. This results in the 502 error. If you receive this 'Too many connections' error, please close your newsreader for 5 minutes so the connections can timeout, and you should then be able to login normally again. Also, if you can reduce the number of connections that the newsreader opens to 4, this should prevent the problem from occurring in the future.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.31.08, please give us your feedback.

A friend of mine who also uses your service says there are 12,000 headers in a given newsgroup - I only see 11,750. Why is this?

This can be caused by a few different things:

1 - You have not retrieved a full list of headers from the servers. Select Online | Get All Headers in Selected Groups to obtain a full listing.

2 - You have personalized Usenet filters set up in your newsreader software that removes posts by certain people or parties. Select Window | Open Usenet Filters to check for any filters which may be causing the problem.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 02.01.08, please give us your feedback.

I am having trouble signing up for a Usenet account on your secure website. I get an error stating that my secure certificate has expired. What is wrong?

Some older browser versions came with secure certificates which are set to expire on 31 January, 1999. If your certificates have expired, you will get this error when you attempt to access our secure server. Our certificates should not be affected; however, we are unable to check every old version of every browser to make sure. In addition, even if our site is not affected, other secure sites on the web will be. If you get this error, you should upgrade your browser to the latest version. Current versions of Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer are not affected.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.16.03, please give us your feedback.

When I post I am getting a 441 error stating that the post is too old. What is wrong?

This is most often caused by your computer's date or clock time being set incorrectly.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.16.03, please give us your feedback.

When trying to connect to Forte APN, I am receiving WINSOCK errors. What do these errors mean?

WINSOCK errors are WINdows SOCKet errors - meaning Windows is having Internet connectivity errors. The most common errors are 10054, 10060, and 10061.

10054 is "Connection reset by peer" - this usually means that your connection was terminated - either by your machine or by another machine on the Internet route between you and our servers.

10060 is "Connection timed out" - this means that Windows did not receive a response back from our servers within a given timeframe.

10061 is "Connection refused" - this usually means one of two things - either something is blocking you from connecting to the server or we are having server difficulties.

If you're using any routers, firewalls, or virus protection software, check to make sure that Agent has permission to use the network. This is the most common reason why the above 3 errors occur. If you receiving a WINSOCK error other than the above, you are most likely having problems because of issues with your ISP or local network problems.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.16.03, please give us your feedback.

Why do I get errors when downloading or accessing Yenc binary posts?

Yenc is a form of encoding that is only accessible with news clients that support it, like Agent. You can download the latest copy of Agent here:

Agent Download Page

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.06.07, please give us your feedback.

Can I access the Forte APN measured or unlimited server on a port other than 119?

Yes. Backend NNTP systems now listen on port 443 in addition to port 119. This particular port (https) was chosen because it is unlikely that an ISP would block, filter, proxy, or otherwise interfere with this port.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 02.02.05, please give us your feedback.

Do I pay for downloading message headers?

Yes. On a measured service plan, message headers do count against your quota. The Unlimited service, however, does not have any quota, so you are not charged for headers.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 11.01.03, please give us your feedback.

Do you have a list of the newsgroups you carry?

The APN measured and unlimited servers carry the groups listed here.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 02.07.08, please give us your feedback.

Does Forte APN provide Anonymity?

It is our goal to keep your personal information as private as possible. Our news servers remove the X-TRACE header, thereby removing where you posted from. All that other users get to see is which server you posted to. We do not monitor what you download. We only monitor how much you download in accordance with your chosen account. Please understand that we only see byte data and nothing else. This ensures that you are free to download what you want.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.18.03, please give us your feedback.

Does my unused quota carry over into the next billing period?

No. All left over quota balances are reset to zero when the account renews each billing period. No quota is rolled over onto the new monthly period.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.07.09, please give us your feedback.

How Do I create an Account? (How do I sign up for the Forte APN service?)

To sign up for the Forte APN service, go to the Forte APN Main Page and click on the Online Subscription Form link.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 10.29.03, please give us your feedback.

How many connections to the news server can I have open at the same time?

Forte APN Measured and Unlimited services allow each user to access up to 4 connections concurrently.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

What do you mean by Completion?

Completion is a term which relates to multi-part messages. A complete multi-part has all pieces available for download. We peer with over 90 other news providers around the world to ensure you get the most data available. As such we can offer over a 94% completion rate in our binary groups.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.18.03, please give us your feedback.

What is header compression? Does APN support it?

Header downloads for large newsgroups can be time consuming and expensive. Many service providers, including APN, now offer header downloads in a compressed format, resulting in downloads up to ten time faster than with the older non-compressed format. APN offers header downloads in both compressed and non-compressed formats. Agent 6.0 supports both formats.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 11.19.09, please give us your feedback.

What is NNTP anyway?

NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is the predominant protocol used by computers (servers and clients) for managing the articles posted on Usenet newsgroups. NNTP replaced the original Usenet protocol, UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Protocol (UUCP) some time ago. NNTP servers manage the global network of collected Usenet newsgroups.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.18.03, please give us your feedback.

What sort of article retention do the Forte APN measured and unlimited services provide?

In most cases the Forte APN measured and unlimited services keep ~200 days of text articles, ~100 days of binary articles. In some cases the number may be a little higher if it's a less heavily posted to newsgroup, or a little lower if it's a heavily posted to newsgroup.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 09.13.08, please give us your feedback.

What types of Credit cards to you allow? (Do you take Discover?)

The Forte APN order page accepts MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. We do not accept the Discover card. We do accept Visa Check cards, but cannot process debit cards that use a PIN.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.01.04, please give us your feedback.

Where does Forte receive its APN news feeds?

Forte has entered into an agreement with Easynews for measured and unlimited APN services. As part of the agreement, Easynews is required to provide specific service levels, higher retention and completion rates, and discounted pricing. In addition, Forte has established direct access to the provider's support organization and senior management to ensure that Forte APN customers receive the best service possible.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.31.08, please give us your feedback.

Why do you have a lower total number of newsgroups available on your server than my old provider?

Some newsgroups are very old, and aren't used by anyone (like alt.alt.alt.alt.alt.foo). Forte APN removed groups which have not had any traffic for a long period of time. Other newsgroups may not be on the server because they have not been requested to be added yet.

The "big 8" newsgroups are added automatically on receipt of a proper control message. Additionally, a "checkgroups" command is periodically run, which will cause the server to add or delete groups accordingly. There should be no need to manually request or add groups in these 8 hierarchies. The "big 8" are: comp.*, humanities.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, and talk.*

For others, including the "alt" groups, you can contact us and request that the newsgroup be added.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.18.03, please give us your feedback.

Getting Started with the Forte APN Measured Service.(What's the first step, now that I've signed up with your service?)

If you are using the Forte APN Metered Service, then there are a few things you'll need to do when you first sign up to take full advantage of the service.

1. You should set your local timezone. This will cause the Stats updated section of the Metered Account Manager to be shown in your local time. To set the timezone go into the Account Manager and select the Timezone link in the Account section, choose your country, click submit, then choose your timezone, and click submit again. You should now see the timezone updated in your Account manager.

2. You should set your prefered "Renewal Type" from the Account menu. That is, you need to tell the system what you want to happen if you reach your monthly download quota before the end of the month. First login to the the Account Manager and then from the "Renewal Type" menu, you have three options to renew your account.

- "Monthly" - this will renew your account each month on the same date. If you reach your quota before this date, the account will be suspended until that date, when the download quota is reset.

- "Quota or Monthly" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota. If you do not reach your quota, your download totals will reset normally on your monthly renewal date. *NOTE* - This option will cause your account to renew each time you reach your quota, no matter how many times it happens during a calendar month. Your monthly renewal date will be changed each time to match the date you renewed early.

- "Quota next time only" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota.

*NOTE* - This option will renew your account early one time only (it will not repeatedly renew each time you reach your quota as option 1 above does). Your renewal date will also be changed with this option to the date you renewed early. If you do not reach your quota, your account will still be renewed at the end of the monthly cycle. All accounts renew on a monthly cycle, we have no purely quota only accounts.

3. You should select, if you wish, to turn on Email notification on renewal. This can be set to either on or off. If it is turned on, you will receive an email notification each time your Credit Card is charged for a Monthly or Quota renewal. If it is turned off, you will not receive an email notification.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.29.08, please give us your feedback.

Getting Started with the Forte APN Unlimited Service.(What's the first step, now that I've signed up with your service?)

Once you sign up for the Forte APN Unlimited service, you should set your local timezone. This will cause the Stats updated section of the Account Manager to be shown in your local time. To set the timezone go into the Account Manager and select the Timezone link in the Account section, choose your country, click submit, then choose your timezone, and click submit again. You should now see the timezone updated in your Account manager.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

How do I cancel my account?

You can cancel your account by going to the Account Manager interface with your Forte APN Username and Password. Once you have logged in, click on "Renewal Type" and select "Cancel". Then click on "Submit". This will cancel your account at the end of your current paid billing cycle.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

How do I change my password?

You can change your password by going to theAccount Manager. Once you login to the Account Manager with your current username and password, you will see the 'NNTP Password' field. You enter the new password in the field then click on 'Submit' at the bottom of the page.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

How do I renew my Forte APN measured account when I hit my quota for the month?

You will need to login to the Account Manager. You can reinstate your account early from the "Renewal Type" menu. Please note that if you do renew your account early, your renewal date will be changed to match the date you renew early. For example, if you normally renew on the 10th of each month, and you renew early on the 25th, your renewal date will change to the 25th from that point on, provided you don't renew early again.

From the "Renewal Type" menu, you will have two options to renew your account early:

1 - "Quota or Monthly" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota. If you do not reach your quota, your download totals will reset normally on your monthly renewal date.

*NOTE* - This option will cause your account to renew each time you reach your quota, no matter how many times it happens during a calendar month. Your monthly renewal date will be changed each time to match the date you renewed early.

2 - "Quota next time only" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota.

*NOTE* - This option will renew your account early one time only (it will not repeatedly renew each time you reach your quota as option 1 above does). Your renewal date will also be changed with this option to the date you renewed early. If you do not reach your quota, your account will still be renewed at the end of the monthly cycle. All accounts renew on a monthly cycle, we have no purely quota only accounts.

Choosing a renewal type of Cancel will cancel your account as of the end of your current billing period.

You can also turn on Email notification on renewal from the main account manager page. This can be set to either on or off. If it is turned on, you will receive an email notification each time your Credit Card is charged for a Monthly or Quota renewal. If it is turned off, you will not receive an email notification.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.29.08, please give us your feedback.

How do I update my credit card information?

You will need to log into the Account Manager. Log in with your Forte APN Username and Password, enter the new credit card information and click on "Submit". If your account has been disabled because your account could not be billed on the previous credit card information, you will need to reinstate your account. To do this, click on your Account Status in the top of the Account table and select the renewal type you would like, then follow the directions in the instruction box displayed.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

How do I upgrade from my Measured Account to an Unlimited Account?

You will need to login to the Account Manager. You can change your account type from the "Renewal Type" menu. Please note that any changes you make will occur on the next renewal, and not immediately. For example, if you normally renew on the 10th of each month, and you changed your renewal to the unlimited type account, your account type will be updated on the 11th of the next month.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

How do you LOG OUT of the Account Manager?

There is no explicit 'log out' button. Closing the browser will effectively close the connection, and log out. Please note that each browser connects separately, so if you have opened more than one browser, and connected to the account manager, you will need to close all browsers separately to log out completely.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.25.06, please give us your feedback.

How (and when) do renewals take place with the APN Measured Accounts?

When you sign up for an APN Measured Account, your account is configured to renew monthly, on the date of purchase. This is an automatic batch process that occurs between 9am and 10am Pacific Time on the day of your renewal. When it renews you will be charged at your chosen quota level rate, and your account will renew at that service tier.

If you change your monthly quota in the Account Manager, this change will not take affect until the next renewal.

When you reach your download limit, your account will become inactive. When this occurs, you have several options available to you.

You will need to login to the Account Manager.

You can renew your account early from the "Renewal Type" menu. Please note that if you do renew your account early, your renewal date will be changed to match the date you renew early. For example, if you normally renew on the 10th of each month, and you renew early on the 25th, your renewal date will change to the 25th from that point on, provided you don't renew early again.

From the "Renewal Type" menu, you will have two options to renew your account early:

1 - "Quota or Monthly" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota. If you do not reach your quota, your download totals will reset normally on your monthly renewal date.

*NOTE* - This option will cause your account to renew each time you reach your quota, no matter how many times it happens during a calendar month. Your monthly renewal date will be changed each time to match the date you renewed early.

2 - "Quota next time only" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota.

*NOTE* - This option will renew your account early one time only (it will not repeatedly renew each time you reach your quota as option 1 above does). Your renewal date will also be changed with this option to the date you renewed early. If you do not reach your quota, your account will still be renewed at the end of the monthly cycle. All accounts renew on a monthly cycle, we have no purely quota only accounts.

You can select to turn on Email notification on renewal. If it is turned on, you will receive an email notification each time your Credit Card is charged for a Monthly or Quota renewal. If it is turned off, you will not receive an email notification.

Choosing a renewal type of Cancel will cancel your account as of the end of your current billing period.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 10.22.08, please give us your feedback.

I Declined the Forte APN Terms of Service But Now I Want to Agree to the Terms. What Do I Do?

Log into the Forte APN Account Manager. In the Account Status box you'll see an entry for "TOS agreed" which should say, "Declined." Click on "TOS agreed" and you'll be presented with the Terms of Service agreement. At the bottom, click "Agree." You'll be returned to the Account Manager and the entry "TOS agreed" will no longer appear.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

I have a promo account but I want to upgrade to unlimited now. How do I do that?

You will need to login to the Account Manager. First, change your account type to unlimited from the "Renewal Type" menu. Then, you will also need to change your renewal to 'quota or monthly' so that you will automatically renew when you reach your quota limit for the rest of the promo periods you have remaining. The account will then use up the reset of the promo, and then renew at the unlimited level with no account suspension. In addition, if your account is already 'over quota' and supended, you must select to renew early as well. Renewing early is a manual process, as just selecting the new renewal options of 'quota or monthly' and 'unlimited' will not automatically renew your account from the over quota suspension.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.30.08, please give us your feedback.

I lost my username and/or password. How can I get this information again?

You can obtain your password by going to our Password Reset Form webpage, and we will send a new password to your configured email address.

If you need your username as well, you can obtain this information by going to our Contact Us webpage, and then providing us with at least two of the following items of information:

Billing Name:

Email Address:

Username:

Password:

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.31.08, please give us your feedback.

What do I do when I've used up my quota? (My account is suspended) What are my options?

If you are using the Forte APN measured service and you have reached the download limit on your monthly account, you can renew your account early from the "Renewal Type" menu. Please note that if you do renew your account early, your renewal date will be changed to match the date you renew early. For example, if you normally renew on the 10th of each month, and you renew early on the 25th, your renewal date will change to the 25th from that point on, provided you don't renew early again.

From the "Renewal Type" menu, you will have two options to renew your account early:

1 - "Quota or Monthly" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota. If you do not reach your quota, your download totals will reset normally on your monthly renewal date.

*NOTE* - This option will cause your account to renew each time you reach your quota, no matter how many times it happens during a calendar month. Your monthly renewal date will be changed each time to match the date you renewed early.

2 - "Quota next time only" - this will renew your account automatically once you reach your monthly quota.

*NOTE* - This option will renew your account early one time only (it will not repeatedly renew each time you reach your quota as option 1 above does). Your renewal date will also be changed with this option to the date you renewed early. If you do not reach your quota, your account will still be renewed at the end of the monthly cycle. All accounts renew on a monthly cycle, we have no purely quota only accounts.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 07.29.08, please give us your feedback.

What is Email notification? (Should I turn it on?)

You should select, if you wish, to turn on Email notification on renewal. This can be set to either on or off. If it is turned on, you will receive an email notification each time your Credit Card is charged for a Monthly renewal. If it is turned off, you will not receive an email notification.

To set email notification, go to Account Manager interface, check the 'receive notifications' radio button and click on 'Submit' at the bottom of the page.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

What is system abuse?

Abuse of the system includes, but is not limited to, spamming, newsgroup flooding, unauthorized posting of copyrighted material, and downloading more than your account limit during any calendar month. The level of service that you sign up for determines your account limit. Abuse of the system may result in action being taken against your account. See our Terms of Subscription FAQ entry for details.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

What is the Account Manager? How do I view/change my account information?

The Account Manager is a simple Web interface that allows you to log in and view or change your account options. Using your Forte APN username and password (which is also initially your Account Manager Username and Password), you can change the following list of account details.

NNTP Password

Email Address

Billing Name

Billing Address

Credit Card Number

Credit Card Expiration

*Note: You cannot change your Forte APN Username.

If you are using the Forte APN measured service, you can tell the system whether or not to notify you if you are at or near quota. "Notify if near limit" will send you an email warning if you’ve used up 80% of your quota for the time period. "Notify if over limit" will send you a message indicating that you have used up your quota for this time period.

You can also select to turn on Email notification on renewal. If it is turned on, you will receive an email notification each time your Credit Card is charged for a Monthly or Quota renewal. If it is turned off, you will not receive an email notification. In addition, you can change your level of service (monthly quota) or cancel your service from the Account Manager.

When in the Account Manager, simply enter the new information in the proper field and click on 'Submit' at the bottom of the page. The system will take approximately 10 minutes to process most changes but the Account Manager changes are immediate.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.31.08, please give us your feedback.

What is the Timezone option in the Account Manager? (Why should I set my Timezone?)

If you are using the Forte APN Service and have set your local timezone, the Stats updated section of the Account Manager is shown in your local time. To set the timezone, go into the Account Manager and select the Timezone link in the Account section, choose your country, click submit, then choose your timezone, and click submit again. You should now see the timezone updated in your Account manager.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 01.03.05, please give us your feedback.

How do I set up and configure my newsreader program (Not Agent) to access Forte APN service?

First, you will need to set your NNTP news server as:

news20.forteinc.com

Enter your Username and Password information in a case-sensitive format into your newsreader software's authentication section.

You will need to append "@forteinc.com" to your login name.

If the authentication information is not configured, or is configured incorrectly, you will receive the following errors:

"480 Authentication required" or "502 Authentication failed"

This FAQ Entry was updated on 02.01.08, please give us your feedback.

I sent out a post and I have not seen it in the newsgroup. What happened to it?

If it has taken more than an hour from your posting time for it to show up, please contact us.

We will need the email address you used on the post, and any other identifying information such as the Subject line and the newsgroups posted to, in order to properly investigate.

You may be posting to a moderated newsgroup. Moderated newsgroups require consent of the moderator for all posts to the group.

You may test our posting service by posting to a test group such as misc.test or alt.test.

It may be that your post has been caught in our post filters. If this is the case, please contact us and our Tech Support Dept. will give you instructions on how to proceed.

Please note that if you are attempting to post binary material to a non-binary newsgroup, your posts will not show up on our servers. Non-binary newsgroups are newsgroups that do not contain "binaries" or "binary" in the newsgroup name.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 08.18.03, please give us your feedback.

What personal information of mine is included when I post to Usenet through Forte APN?

When you post messages to Usenet through Forte APN, Forte APN does not include any of your personal identifying information.

Your posting software such as Agent, however, depending on how you have configured it, can include some of your personal information. The following information, again depending on what you have entered into your posting software, can be included in your post's headers:

- Your name (as listed in your news reader)
- Your e-mail address (as listed in your news reader)
- Your organization's name (as listed in your news reader)
- Your reply to address (as listed in your news reader)

When you set up and configure your news reader/posting application you have the ability to enter your name, your e-mail address, your organization's name, and your "reply to:" address. If you put any information in these fields, that information will be included in your posts.

Usenet headers also typically include:

- The time you posted your message (in conjunction with GMT offset)
- The newsgroup(s) that your message was posted to (if there were more than one)
- The assigned message ID
- The news reader application that posted the message (your news reader)
- The Usenet host that you posted through

The IP address that your posts are originating from is not included in your posts when you post directly through Forte APN.

This FAQ Entry was updated on 11.10.03, please give us your feedback.