Other newsreaders

An Unseenet node speaks ONNTP, which is ordinary NNTP (RFC 3977) over a Tor onion service (UN-RFC 0005). That means a classic newsreader can connect to a node and read groups, just as it would read Usenet.

This page shows two examples: tin, a classic text newsreader, and Thunderbird, Mozilla's mail and news client.

What works and what does not

	Unseenet client	Other newsreaders
Read open, moderated and channel groups	yes	yes
Read closed groups and private messages	yes	no - the posts are encrypted
Post and reply	yes	no - the node answers 441
Check that a post really is from its author	yes	no - you trust the node
Keys, vault, contacts, chat	yes	no

Posting needs a signature and proof-of-work postage (UN-RFC 0003, 0006), which a normal newsreader cannot produce. Use another newsreader to follow groups; use the Unseenet client to write.

Some things look a little different from Usenet:

• Group names end in the owner's fingerprint, for example dk.test@fm7i6vut5wjx7vup. Two groups can have the same name with different owners - check the fingerprint before you trust a group.
• The author is shown as the display name the poster chose, not as an e-mail address. Anyone can choose any name; only the Unseenet client can tell you which key signed a post.
• Headers are UTF-8 without MIME encoding. Tell your reader so, or æ, ø and å come out as æ, ø and Ã¥ (see the examples below).
• The node supports OVER/XOVER and HDR/XHDR (RFC 3977), so a reader lists a whole group in one request. Posts a reader cannot show get a fixed subject: (group settings) for a group's manifest, (encrypted) in closed groups and (private message) in inboxes.

Connecting through Tor

Nodes are only reachable as onion services, on port 119. Your newsreader needs a Tor SOCKS port, and it must let Tor resolve the .onion name - never your own DNS.

The Unseenet client starts its own private Tor, which other programs cannot use. Use one of these instead:

• The system's Tor service - SOCKS port 127.0.0.1:9050.

  sudo apt install tor torsocks      # Debian, Ubuntu
  sudo dnf install tor torsocks      # Fedora
  sudo systemctl enable --now tor
  

• Tor Browser, while it is running - SOCKS port 127.0.0.1:9150.

In Tails, Tor is always running on 127.0.0.1:9050. See Tor and Tails for how Tor and onion services work.

You also need a node's address. The project's nodes are:

f6vnchi5p7ll4yn6yot6cz4ohzuxy3uhc3kztafuwn3zlyoup6tn64qd.onion
ze4aqpjfyteij4tqaaztyujoj7wsjgbv4cliexljckdfp5eomkshfead.onion

Running your own node?

On the node's own machine you can skip Tor: the node listens on 127.0.0.1:1119. Use host 127.0.0.1, port 1119 in the examples below.

tin (classic, text)

tin is a full-screen threaded newsreader for the terminal. It is packaged by most Linux distributions and in Homebrew.

sudo apt install tin torsocks        # Debian, Ubuntu
sudo dnf install tin torsocks        # Fedora

Start it through torsocks, in remote and no-posting mode:

torsocks tin -r -x -g f6vnchi5p7ll4yn6yot6cz4ohzuxy3uhc3kztafuwn3zlyoup6tn64qd.onion -p 119

Option	Meaning
-r	read news from an NNTP server
-x	no-posting mode - posting would be rejected anyway
-g	the server: the node's onion address
-p 119	the port

The first time, tin shows no groups. Press Y to list all groups on the node, move to a group and press S to subscribe, then Enter to read it. Q goes back, H shows help.

To show æ, ø and å correctly, add this to the end of ~/.tin/attributes (tin creates the file on its first start):

scope=*
undeclared_charset=UTF-8

Note

torsocks makes tin's connection go through Tor and resolves the .onion name inside Tor. For Tor Browser's port, use TORSOCKS_TOR_PORT=9150 torsocks tin ....

Thunderbird (graphical)

Thunderbird from Mozilla is a mail client with a built-in newsreader, for Linux, Windows and macOS.

Thunderbird's proxy setting applies to everything it does, including your mail. Use a separate profile for Unseenet:

thunderbird -P        # Profile Manager: create a profile "unseenet"

In the new profile:

1. Proxy. Settings → General → Network & Disk Space → Settings...
   • Manual proxy configuration
   • SOCKS Host: 127.0.0.1, Port: 9050 (or 9150 for Tor Browser)
   • SOCKS v5
   • Tick Proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5. Without it, Thunderbird tries to look up the .onion name itself and fails.
2. Account. ☰ → New Account → Newsgroups.
   • Your name and e-mail: anything; they are not used.
   • Newsgroup Server: the node's onion address.
3. Server settings. Open Account Settings for the new account → Server Settings:
   • Port: 119
   • Connection security: None (Tor already encrypts the connection and authenticates the node by its address).
4. Charset. In Account Settings → Server Settings, set the default text encoding to Unicode (UTF-8), if your version offers it.
5. Subscribe. Right-click the account → Subscribe..., tick the groups you want, and click OK.

Tell us how it goes

Thunderbird lists a group's posts with XOVER, which nodes support from version 0.3.0. It has been tested against a node's NNTP commands, not yet with Thunderbird itself over Tor; if something does not work, please open an issue.

Other readers

Any newsreader that can use a SOCKS5 proxy with remote name resolution, or that runs under torsocks, should work the same way - for example slrn, Pan, Gnus in Emacs or Claws Mail. Point it at the node's onion address on port 119, turn off TLS, and do not post from it.