What if no exit server exists on Tor with port 563 (or 119) enabled?
Since choosing to use SSL via port 563, I have not experienced any bother whatsoever in connecting to Usenet. If you would prefer to subscribe to a Secure Shell host, then you need to use Putty as the SSH client. Putty is here: http://www.tucows.com/preview/195286.html You will still need Stunnel to allow the NNTPS (encrypted) connection into your news provider and FreeCap to act as a bridge between Stunnel and Tor. Tor is the socks proxy that hides your true IP from the Secure Shell host server. Putty will channel everything through port 22, which should not be a problem. See the above example stunnel.conf file. The sequence is: Agent > Stunnel > Freecap > Tor > SSH server > news server (or wherever). This is the route to go for the strongest anonymity. It is especially recommended for hard anonymous posting to Usenet. For lurking, the requirements are not as critical and it is sufficient to just go Agent > Stunnel > Freecap > Tor > news server.
Unfortunately this might very well happen occasionally. Because of abuse or over-use (what is the difference?), admins are reluctant to open ports to Usenet. There are options. One is to find a premium news provider that allows a secure connection on a different, non-standard port. Octanews claims they will allow a connection on any valid TCP port. But my experiense suggests otherwise, try it for yourself. Meganetnews will allow a port connection on port 23, but it is not secured. Another alternative is to subscribe to a Secure Shell (SSH) host, such as Cotse, Find.Not or Privacy.Li. There are others. I have only had experience with Privacy.Li. Rarely had a problem. Their servers seem very reliable. But using any of these services will add overhead and therefore slow things up considerably. Of course if all you want is to access the privacy groups you can configure your stunnel.conf file to include: [BANANA_NNTPS_563] accept = 119 connect = tyrndfbdb2×6g3vg.onion:563 delay = no This is
