Blocknews 100GB/$20 or Astraweb 120GB/$25?

[hdjunky]

It's still cheaper for $11 a month..

How do you figure? My cap on cell phone data is I believe 5 gigs per month...So the mot i would download safely from usenet to leave room is about 4 gigs a month. 11 bucks a month works out to $2.75 per gig and it is a fixed cost per month which I can not deal with right now. I have 200 gigs at 20 cents a gig that i can use between now and the end of my lifetime (they dont have usenet in the next life) since they do not expire.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Are you sure they don't expire, I though they were a month thing.

[hdjunky]

Are you sure they don't expire, I though they were a month thing.

True block accounts dont expire.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Ok, never deal with the block account, granted I don't download that much either, the unlimited just seemed easier to me.

[mikeHD]

I've been foolish enough to pay for Astraweb & Giganews for the last 6 months or so and have been switching back and forth between plans with my ISP as I try and figure out wtf is wrong with my cable connection because my ISP is full of noobs who know less about computers than me, as in "Would you like to try and do a speedtest sir?". Next step is to call their competition. Edit: Switching ISPs as of next Saturday. Looking forward to 50/20.

[djerholler69]

If you were to recalculate the costs to a 120gb block, Astraweb's service cost only a dollar more.

But since you mentioned that you only downloaded a 1-2gigs/week, I guess you could get the 100gb Blocknews connection and 'save' the 5 dollars.That would be like 50-100weeks usage!

[zot]

Has anyone used BOTH services before and can comment between the two?

Blocknews is a Highwinds reseller. I've used Highwinds (not through Blocknews) and Astraweb. One thing about Astraweb that makes them fairly unique in the usenet provider business is that their tech support team does not work on weekends, so it can take several days for you to get an email reply to a problem. (Don't sign up with Astraweb on a weekend and expect to start downloading right away.)

Other than the issue of support-call turnaround, there's probably not much difference between the two service-wise. Astraweb has about a 2 week retention lead (the last time I checked) and as far as "final" retention, there's really no telling how that will end up.

As Blocknews is a small reseller that's only been around a year or two, I'd say that compared to Astraweb (an established full-service operation which own's its own server farm) it's much more likely for Astraweb to still be around a year from now. I'm not trying to scare anyone, but the fact remains that I've seen quite a few resellers (like Blocknews) come and go over the years.

Blocknews' owner/support guy hangs out in the filesharing section of DSLReports.com, while the Newsbin.com forum is where you will find Astraweb's.

Unless we're talking dial-up. But the cheapest dial-up is right around $10/month

a bit off the subject, but I just thought I'd say that there are MANY dialup ISPs that cost well under $10/month - although some limit hours per month. Here are three examples:

VTISP:
$3.95 per month for 150 hours of access per month, if paying monthly
$39.95 (a $3.33/month rate) for 1 year
http://vtisp.com


All2ez.net:
$4.95 per month - (Includes free newsgroups) 200 hours/month limit
http://all2ez.net/

ABClink.net
$5.95/month - unlimited hours per month
http://abclink.net

[UsenetGuy]

(Don't sign up with Astraweb on a weekend and expect to start downloading right away.)

Why not? I did. The account signup process is automated. Also you cannot judge BlockNews's level of service if you have not used them specifically, highwinds media have many different server farms. If you tried another highwinds reseller then chances are you were on a different server farm.

[zot]

(Don't sign up with Astraweb on a weekend and expect to start downloading right away.)

Why not? I did. The account signup process is automated.

Although I had no problem myself, I've seen several complaints from people who paid for an Astraweb account on a Saturday or Sunday and were left hanging until Monday or Tuesday, such as this unfortunate customer:

https://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/f-new...t-setup-344059

Also you cannot judge BlockNews's level of service if you have not used them specifically, highwinds media have many different server farms. If you tried another highwinds reseller then chances are you were on a different server farm.

Please elaborate. In September 2008, Highwinds relocated its U.S. "reseller" server farm from Atlanta GA to Ashburn VA. The Atlanta server originally belonged to UsenetServer, prior to the company being bought by Highwinds. Highwinds previously ran 'reseller' serverfarms in Arizona and New York, and these were migrated to UNS's Atlanta farm about early 2007. As far as I know, Highwinds uses two locations currently, in Ashburn and Amsterdam, and all Highwinds resellers use the same back-end servers.

Since BlockNews, as with other Highwinds resellers, sells access to the same Highwinds usenet servers, the main 'quality component' that might differentiate them from other resellers is their level of customer service/ tech support - as that is provided by the reseller, not by Highwinds. (I don't know of any other usenet companies, other than Astraweb, that don't do customer support on weekends.)

[Beck38]

a bit off the subject, but I just thought I'd say that there are MANY dialup ISPs that cost well under $10/month - although some limit hours per month. Here are three examples:

Every one of those you pointed out are LIMITED access (either hours of use or bits transferred); they all, from what I can see, offer 'unlimited' service at, guess what, ~$9.99/month. Hmmm..

All these dial-up folks are like, as you pointed out with Blocknews, are 'resellers' of service, they actually don't 'own' either their POP (point-of-presence) or networks, but 'rent' others.

But since the OP pointed out he was using the 5GB/month 3G cell phone data service (that's included in his basic cell phone plan), then whatever decent price and service he can get, within that transfer limitation, is good to go. Personally, I'd go with Astraweb, having used them for years and years (on a block account) for fills and such, before taking the big plunge for the $11/month unlimited deal.

But that's a personal preference.

And as far as dial-up, I'm sure lots of us don't really have access to it any more, having switched to one form or another of digital line service (either Telco/DSL or cablemodems), as any phone service through either is a drop in the bucket in cost next to 'real' loop telephone service, and in my case, is LESS than 'basic' telco loop service INCLUDING unlimited phone time plus all the 'goodies' like voicemail Plus a ton of other features that are cost-extra from the telcos. A true no-brainer.