AWS not renewed

[Sparky]

I am several days past my renewal date and have not been billed. I see
that most of the pages on forte give a 503 error but I can still
access my personal page and can still download - I virtually never use
close to my 25g account but this time I will. I am hoping that Forte
will restart billing.

Is this a billing page problem or the end of Forte? Been using Agent 8
"forever"

Sparky

[Puffer Belly]

This same topic has been discussed under "How long has the FORTEINC.COM
web page been dead?" I posted something yesterday that my last renewal
was May 2 and Friday I used up my download quota, but yet I still can
download messages and binaries.

Post by Sparky
I am several days past my renewal date and have not been billed. I see
that most of the pages on forte give a 503 error but I can still
access my personal page and can still download - I virtually never use
close to my 25g account but this time I will. I am hoping that Forte
will restart billing.
Is this a billing page problem or the end of Forte? Been using Agent 8
"forever"
Sparky

[Sparky]

Thank you. I am still able to download past my 25g today and I was
last charged on May 25. I would rather not lose this service. Wish I
knew what was going on.

Sparky

On Sun, 30 Jun 2024 19:50:24 -0500, Puffer Belly

Post by Puffer Belly
This same topic has been discussed under "How long has the FORTEINC.COM
web page been dead?" I posted something yesterday that my last renewal
was May 2 and Friday I used up my download quota, but yet I still can
download messages and binaries.

Post by Sparky
I am several days past my renewal date and have not been billed. I see
that most of the pages on forte give a 503 error but I can still
access my personal page and can still download - I virtually never use
close to my 25g account but this time I will. I am hoping that Forte
will restart billing.
Is this a billing page problem or the end of Forte? Been using Agent 8
"forever"
Sparky

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

Post by Sparky
I would rather not lose this service.

The point made in other threads is that there are plenty of inexpensive sources
of Usenet other than Forte. Should Forte's feed stop working, you won't lose
access to Usenet. As much as it exists today anyway.

--
Usenet: The world's first (and best) social network.

[Puffer Belly]

I've been researching other Usenet services and none are as cheap as
APU. The others are usually over 3x the price and many charge extra for
NNTP connectivity, which is what Agent requires.

Post by Arthur Conan Doyle

Post by Sparky
I would rather not lose this service.

The point made in other threads is that there are plenty of inexpensive sources
of Usenet other than Forte. Should Forte's feed stop working, you won't lose
access to Usenet. As much as it exists today anyway.
--
Usenet: The world's first (and best) social network.

[Paul S Person]

On Mon, 1 Jul 2024 09:25:07 -0500, Puffer Belly

Post by Puffer Belly
I've been researching other Usenet services and none are as cheap as
APU. The others are usually over 3x the price and many charge extra for
NNTP connectivity, which is what Agent requires.

I suspect that Eternal September costs less.

Perhaps its time to lower your sights.

Post by Puffer Belly

Post by Arthur Conan Doyle

Post by Sparky
I would rather not lose this service.

The point made in other threads is that there are plenty of inexpensive sources
of Usenet other than Forte. Should Forte's feed stop working, you won't lose
access to Usenet. As much as it exists today anyway.
--
Usenet: The world's first (and best) social network.

[Joerg Walther]

Post by Paul S Person

Post by Puffer Belly
I've been researching other Usenet services and none are as cheap as
APU. The others are usually over 3x the price and many charge extra for
NNTP connectivity, which is what Agent requires.

I suspect that Eternal September costs less.

You are missing the point, APU is about binary Usenet, for text only
there are lots of free services available, including ES.

-jw-

[Puffer Belly]

Thanks, but I have no interest in text only Usenet.

Post by Joerg Walther

Post by Paul S Person

Post by Puffer Belly
I've been researching other Usenet services and none are as cheap as
APU. The others are usually over 3x the price and many charge extra for
NNTP connectivity, which is what Agent requires.

I suspect that Eternal September costs less.

You are missing the point, APU is about binary Usenet, for text only
there are lots of free services available, including ES.
-jw-

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

Post by Puffer Belly
I've been researching other Usenet services and none are as cheap as
APU. The others are usually over 3x the price and many charge extra for
NNTP connectivity, which is what Agent requires.

I use an AstraWeb block account. No subscription required - $50/TB.

--
Usenet: The world's first (and best) social network.

[Joe Gwinn]

On Mon, 01 Jul 2024 07:29:23 -0500, Arthur Conan Doyle

Post by Arthur Conan Doyle

Post by Sparky
I would rather not lose this service.

The point made in other threads is that there are plenty of inexpensive sources
of Usenet other than Forte. Should Forte's feed stop working, you won't lose
access to Usenet. As much as it exists today anyway.

Yes.

What I've been using for years is GigaNews: <https://giganews.com/>.

It is not free, but it is very good.

Joe Gwinn

[Ralph Fox]

Subject: AWS not renewed

AWS ?

I am several days past my renewal date and have not been billed. I see
that most of the pages on forte give a 503 error but I can still
access my personal page and can still download - I virtually never use
close to my 25g account but this time I will.

The main Forté website <http://www.forteinc.com/> is on a server on the
Amazon Web Services network. This server is returning a 503 error.

Your personal page at <https://newsaccount.forteinc.com/> is on a
completely different server on a completely different network.


FWIW The Forté email server is also on the Amazon Web Services network,
but that server is still working AFAICT. That is the email server which:
* receives emails sent to @forteinc.com addresses; and
* also sends the "APN Renewal Success" emails to us.

I am hoping that Forte will restart billing.
Is this a billing page problem or the end of Forte? Been using Agent 8
"forever"

Forté has now missed billing me two months in a row. I emailed APN Support
at Forté about three weeks ago, but I have not yet heard back.

Something is going on, but Forté seem to be keeping mum/shtum. We in this
group don't know what it is; everything you hear in here is speculation.
My guess is that:
a) Either Forté are still paying Easynews for us, or Forté have a
temporary payment deferral from Easynews while some problem is
fixed.
b) If this were definitely the end then I think we would have seen
this by now.

[jerryab]

Post by Ralph Fox

Subject: AWS not renewed

Forté has now missed billing me two months in a row. I emailed APN Support
at Forté about three weeks ago, but I have not yet heard back.
Something is going on, but Forté seem to be keeping mum/shtum. We in this
group don't know what it is; everything you hear in here is speculation.
a) Either Forté are still paying Easynews for us, or Forté have a
temporary payment deferral from Easynews while some problem is
fixed.
b) If this were definitely the end then I think we would have seen
this by now.

This is what WHOIS shows:

WHOIS search results
Domain Name: FORTEINC.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2504199_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.tucows.com
Registrar URL: http://www.tucows.com
Updated Date: 2023-09-28T09:41:10Z
Creation Date: 1993-09-30T04:00:00Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2024-09-29T04:00:00Z
Registrar: Tucows Domains Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 69
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: ***@tucows.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: [phone]
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Name Server: NS-1243.AWSDNS-27.ORG
Name Server: NS-1816.AWSDNS-35.CO.UK
Name Server: NS-476.AWSDNS-59.COM
Name Server: NS-582.AWSDNS-08.NET
DNSSEC: unsigned
========================================

The domain is only being renewed one year at a time. The expiration is
29 Sept 2024. We will all learn more after that date.

[Sparky]

I wasn't sure whether to say AWS or APN or .... My last renewal date
was 5/25. On 6/25 it didn't renew and I couldn't find any way to
contact Forte. The earlier thread was asking about how to download
Agent 8 and updated credit cards and I didn't look much further to see
that it also encompassed the renewal/access issue. I left giganews in
2012 and was much happier with the agent newsgroup service. Most of
the time I am a very light usenet user. With access back to 2008 I
have been very satisfied with the Agent service.

Sparky

Post by Ralph Fox

Subject: AWS not renewed

AWS ?

I am several days past my renewal date and have not been billed. I see
that most of the pages on forte give a 503 error but I can still
access my personal page and can still download - I virtually never use
close to my 25g account but this time I will.

The main Forté website <http://www.forteinc.com/> is on a server on the
Amazon Web Services network. This server is returning a 503 error.
Your personal page at <https://newsaccount.forteinc.com/> is on a
completely different server on a completely different network.
FWIW The Forté email server is also on the Amazon Web Services network,
* also sends the "APN Renewal Success" emails to us.

I am hoping that Forte will restart billing.
Is this a billing page problem or the end of Forte? Been using Agent 8
"forever"

Forté has now missed billing me two months in a row. I emailed APN Support
at Forté about three weeks ago, but I have not yet heard back.
Something is going on, but Forté seem to be keeping mum/shtum. We in this
group don't know what it is; everything you hear in here is speculation.
a) Either Forté are still paying Easynews for us, or Forté have a
temporary payment deferral from Easynews while some problem is
fixed.
b) If this were definitely the end then I think we would have seen
this by now.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Sparky
I wasn't sure whether to say AWS or APN or ....

I have heard it called "APU" ("Agent Premium Usenet"), "Agent Usenet",
or "Agent Usenet Service". And I have heard it called "APN" ("Agent
Premium Newsgroups"). But I have not heard it called "AWS". I could
not guess what that "W" would be in Forté's Agent Usenet.

Post by Sparky
My last renewal date
was 5/25. On 6/25 it didn't renew and I couldn't find any way to
contact Forte.

If you have ever sent a support request for the Agent Usenet Service
(even via the web form) you would normally have received an email reply.
You could *try* contacting them using the email "From:" address in that
reply.

That is what I tried anyway, 3 weeks ago. But this time I have not
received a reply. Either the apparently-working Forté email server
did not actually deliver my email to the correct inbox, or Forté is
keeping mum/schtum about whatever is happening.

[Geoff]

Post by Ralph Fox

Post by Sparky
I wasn't sure whether to say AWS or APN or ....

I have heard it called "APU" ("Agent Premium Usenet"), "Agent Usenet",
or "Agent Usenet Service". And I have heard it called "APN" ("Agent
Premium Newsgroups"). But I have not heard it called "AWS". I could
not guess what that "W" would be in Forté's Agent Usenet.

Post by Sparky
My last renewal date
was 5/25. On 6/25 it didn't renew and I couldn't find any way to
contact Forte.

If you have ever sent a support request for the Agent Usenet Service
(even via the web form) you would normally have received an email reply.
You could *try* contacting them using the email "From:" address in that
reply.
That is what I tried anyway, 3 weeks ago. But this time I have not
received a reply. Either the apparently-working Forté email server
did not actually deliver my email to the correct inbox, or Forté is
keeping mum/schtum about whatever is happening.

AWS is Amazon Web Services. There was apparently a transplantation of
the forteinc.com domain from where ever it was previously hosted to
its new hosting at AWS. AWS is like Microsoft's Azure cloud services.

Reading the documentation on 503 error troubleshooting, it appears to
be due to a misconfiguration of the hosting parameters. It remains for
Forté management to figure it out and I suspect they don't know it's
broken.

It's also important for everyone to know that APN is hosted by
Easynews and the news server and billing are hosted completely
separately. If you're not seeing fees posted it may be due to the fact
that the web server was the source of APN billing cycles and with the
host malfunctioning that process is now broken. This will perhaps
eventually get Forté's attention.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Geoff
AWS is Amazon Web Services. There was apparently a transplantation of
the forteinc.com domain from where ever it was previously hosted to
its new hosting at AWS. AWS is like Microsoft's Azure cloud services.

Some, but not all, of the servers under the forteinc.com domain were
'transplanted to Amazon Web Services in or around November 2014. Which
is almost ten years ago.

Post by Geoff
Reading the documentation on 503 error troubleshooting, it appears to
be due to a misconfiguration of the hosting parameters. It remains for
Forté management to figure it out and I suspect they don't know it's
broken.

I think they are working on other jobs/projects/challenges, and the
Forté company is no longer a full-time job for them.


The Agent FAQ page was down for a whole year and then came back.

* October 2020 - Agent FAQ page down
<https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/fGCmlB0P/moving-agent-7-10-to-new-computer#post2>
<https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/-U4w3ydIt-A/m/C_-9kkWtAgAJ>
<https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent&mid=PGNtNnBvZjUxbnNiNW45OGtiZ3NoOTM3OGRydjgyZ3Q1MWlANGF4LmNvbT4#t%***@4ax.com%3E>

* November 2021 - Agent FAQ page back up
<https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/nAWYUltS/agent-newsreader-faq-misssing-on-forte-website#post6>
<https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=2970&group=alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent#2970>
<https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/AmjW3h3N0JI/m/SN20VVpaAgAJ>

Post by Geoff
It's also important for everyone to know that APN is hosted by
Easynews and the news server and billing are hosted completely
separately.

Indeed. The Agent Usenet server has _not_ been 'transplanted' to
Amazon Web Services.

[shawn]

Post by Sparky
I wasn't sure whether to say AWS or APN or .... My last renewal date
was 5/25. On 6/25 it didn't renew and I couldn't find any way to
contact Forte. The earlier thread was asking about how to download
Agent 8 and updated credit cards and I didn't look much further to see
that it also encompassed the renewal/access issue. I left giganews in
2012 and was much happier with the agent newsgroup service. Most of
the time I am a very light usenet user. With access back to 2008 I
have been very satisfied with the Agent service.

If it should go away anyone using it could just move over to Easynews.
As far as I know Forte's servers were just the Easynews servers so you
would get the same level of service from Easynews plus you could get
access to the web servers which provide an easy source of binary file
access.

[Sam]

Post by Sparky
I am several days past my renewal date and have not been billed. I see
that most of the pages on forte give a 503 error but I can still
access my personal page and can still download - I virtually never use
close to my 25g account but this time I will. I am hoping that Forte
will restart billing.
Is this a billing page problem or the end of Forte? Been using Agent 8
"forever"
Sparky

Forte has been down several weeks. I would say that this is the end of
Forte & it's usenet contract with Giganews.

All things come to an end.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Sam
Forte has been down several weeks. I would say that this is the end of
Forte & it's usenet contract with Giganews.

The Forté news server is still up and providing service (I am posting
through it). Forté has no Usenet contract with Giganews.

I see a lazy weak effort at trolling.