Usenet and DSL - Download Speeds not fast with DSL

[muchspace]

My download speeds are not very fast with supernews, is their another usenet provider that has faster download speed. I have 1.5 fast DSL service and downloading a 3.5 GB file takes forever! : (

I have also bought a usenet-news block but get the same download speeds. I'm using unison and am on a mac os 10.6.

Please help me with any tips or tricks that might help me. Would giganews be a good option for me?

Thanks everybody for their help.

[jefffisher]

if i understand correctly your dsl is 1.5mbps ?
if so than it should take freaking forever about six and a half hours.

[JustDOSE]

1.5mbs down is very slow, and is the standard package for most internet providers. It would take an hour to DL a 700mb file on that connection so I doubt its the news provider fault your getting slow speeds. You should look into getting a faster internet package from your provider.

[Beck38]

1.5mb/s may be the fastest available in the OP's location; I lived with 1.5/768 for some 4 years, it was the fastest available from the local telco, and the cableco at the time was running Docsis1.0, about the same speed at twice the price.

I keep telling folks that 'speed' isn't the same as 'throughput'. Do some basic figuring:

1.5mb/s = 90Mb/minute = 5400Mb/hour = 675MBytes/hour (note I switched from bits to bytes at the hour level)

AND

675MBytes/hour = 8100MBytes/12hours ~ one DVD9 = 16200MBytes/24hours ~ 2/DVD9's = 24.2GBytes/36 hours ~ BD25

So, time is the element. Figure that a lot of that is during what is known as 'sleep', and the transfer amount really adds up.

One can get a LOT done with such a slow connection, if one simply puts their mind to it. Of course, also, as long as ones 'circuit' hasn't any 'caps' or such nonsense.

Then it becomes a storage problem, which at today's drive pricing, or blank DVD/BD pricing...