ThunderNews throttling?

[nntpjunkie]

In my opinion, anyone who wants to get an unlimited account that feeds from Highwinds backend (not that I'm actually recommending this!) would probably be better off to buy it directly from Highwinds itself, as with (Highwinds' owned) UNS and Newshosting's $10 unlimited account 'specials' (and even put a few dollars in nntpjunkie's pocket in the process)

** @zot I totally agree, that is a rather shady practice and people ought to steer clear. Again it really depends on what your goals are when looking for a new provider - if your looking for speed and reliability with good support I would suggest a proven tier one provider like UsenetServer or Newshosting, but I would not stop there - I would also supplement with a block account from another provider like Astraweb who can bridge the gap to fill in any missing incompletes from your primary account.

Newshosting + Astraweb has been a great fit for me - I typically get nearly 100Mbit from my Newshosting account and still have bokus left on my astraweb filler account.

[Hole69]

First off, avoid Highwinds completely if you can. Second I recommend what has worked for me with zero problems - annual $96 per year/$8 per month subscription from Astraweb and a 200GB block account from Blocknews as a backup/fill. Astraweb is a Tier One provider and it owns its own servers. There is also Usenetnow (same company from Blocknews) which uses Readnews so it should be good too. I wouldn't touch newshosting or anything highwinds, no matter what anyone says.

[zot]

First off, avoid Highwinds completely if you can. .... I wouldn't touch newshosting or anything highwinds, no matter what anyone says.

I always like to see people give precise reasons why ... so I just thought I'd add a few myself.

1. Highwinds (along with Giganews) gets the most DMCA takedowns
2. Highwinds has a lot of random missing articles that remain unfixed for months if not years.
3. Highwinds has awful header retention and completion.

I am definitely not trying to plug our site

words worth remembering

[nntpjunkie]

I always like to see people give precise reasons why ... so I just thought I'd add a few myself.

1. Highwinds (along with Giganews) gets the most DMCA takedowns
2. Highwinds has a lot of random missing articles that remain unfixed for months if not years.
3. Highwinds has awful header retention and completion.

Couple of counter points to be completely fair and unbiased;
1. DMCA takedowns are just a given since laws in the United States must be obeyed to keep the doors open and the server plants going - unfortunately the larger providers get the blunt of these takedowns - That's why almost everyone on this board with any experience or knowledge at all recommends getting a fill server account with a provider with less takedowns to fill in missing parts - many of us use Astraweb block accounts.
2. Given that both @zot and I appear to be Usenet dinosaurs, I could see where this statement would come from because a few years ago random missing articles where a huge problem, but today is a totally different story. Newshosting for example is excellent in retention at the top and bottom end and speeds are incredible when compared to the competition.
3. It is true header retention is only around 400 days, but these days that doesn't matter to most anyone because most everyone on the planet uses NZB files to download - for anyone who doesn't know, headers are needed when manually browsing through all the articles in a particular group (These days almost nobody does this anymore) - who wants to comb through millions of headers when you can just use an NZB file to grab all the parts you need. Only Usenet Dinosaurs use headers - article retention, not header retention is what really matters today.

P.S. - just to make @zot happy no one has to visit my blog after reading this post

[mjmacky]

Couple of counter points to be completely fair and unbiased

If you really wanted to do a sincere post, you should have led with the following:
"I am ad-sponsored by Newshosting, a Highwinds group provider, so take my comments with a grain of salt".
In fact, you should start every post that way.

[nntpjunkie]

Couple of counter points to be completely fair and unbiased

If you really wanted to do a sincere post, you should have led with the following:
"I am ad-sponsored by Newshosting, a Highwinds group provider, so take my comments with a grain of salt".
In fact, you should start every post that way.

Laughing as I slap you in the face and challenge you to a dual!

[mjmacky]

If you really wanted to do a sincere post, you should have led with the following:
"I am ad-sponsored by Newshosting, a Highwinds group provider, so take my comments with a grain of salt".
In fact, you should start every post that way.

Laughing as I slap you in the face and challenge you to a dual!

A dual? Well, at least you don't want to fight, but I was kind of hoping for a menage a trois.

[hdjunky]

I always like to see people give precise reasons why ... so I just thought I'd add a few myself.

1. Highwinds (along with Giganews) gets the most DMCA takedowns
2. Highwinds has a lot of random missing articles that remain unfixed for months if not years.
3. Highwinds has awful header retention and completion.

Couple of counter points to be completely fair and unbiased;
1. DMCA takedowns are just a given since laws in the United States must be obeyed to keep the doors open and the server plants going - unfortunately the larger providers get the blunt of these takedowns - That's why almost everyone on this board with any experience or knowledge at all recommends getting a fill server account with a provider with less takedowns to fill in missing parts - many of us use Astraweb block accounts.
2. Given that both @zot and I appear to be Usenet dinosaurs, I could see where this statement would come from because a few years ago random missing articles where a huge problem, but today is a totally different story. Newshosting for example is excellent in retention at the top and bottom end and speeds are incredible when compared to the competition.

Newshosting and other highwinds crap does not have excellent completion. Their dmca problems cause there completion to look like swiss cheese. This should be reflected in their completion claims at least until dmca affects all providers. If I can get articles that highwinds has missing, from other providers then it reflects poorly on highwinds.

[mjmacky]

Notice how if you have any other newsgroup provider, Astraweb should be your fill server, but if Astraweb is your provider, the fill server could be just about anyone (even Highwinds), or even done away with altogether? Just saying.

[Malcontent]

Notice how if you have any other newsgroup provider, Astraweb should be your fill server, but if Astraweb is your provider, the fill server could be just about anyone (even Highwinds), or even done away with altogether? Just saying.

In my experience from reading various forums, if Astraweb is your primary provider then Blocknews.net is the best choice for a backup server. Blocknews has better completion then Highwinds.

Even Astraweb on occasion needs a backup server. No single usenet provider is 100% perfect. I've haven't found a perfect one yet.