Which usenet provider?

[quadomatic]

Which Usenet provider do you recommend?

It looked like Giganews is the most used, but I'm just guessing. Do they log downloads? Why would SSL be good to have?

Giganews seems kinda pricey...any other services with better pricing?

Thanks

[MultiForce]

Which Usenet provider do you recommend?

It looked like Giganews is the most used, but I'm just guessing. Do they log downloads? Why would SSL be good to have?

Giganews seems kinda pricey...any other services with better pricing?

Thanks

They don't log what you download but how much.

SSL is good if you have an ISP that is not giving you full speed at the usual ports, or if you think your grandma is watching you.

I tried Newsdemon and Newshosting last year but I didn't get good enough speed so I didn't cancel my Giganews account. I'm sure there are others here who have different stories.

They cost more than others but $30 isn't exactly a big amount for 200 (soon 240) days retention, very good support and no downtime (been a customer for 3 years).

[Gekko]

Which Usenet provider do you recommend?

It looked like Giganews is the most used, but I'm just guessing. Do they log downloads? Why would SSL be good to have?

Giganews seems kinda pricey...any other services with better pricing?

Thanks

Nice topic.

Giganews, while pricey, is the best choice. Giganews has 240 days of retention, while the next best usenet provider has only 120 days. I have had Giganews for over 6 months and have nothing but good things to say about them. When I registered, I also got NewsLeecher (which, in my opinion, is the best and only news reader for me.)

They do not log download either.

SSL is also good to have because no one can see what you are downloading (:lol:) and more importantly you can download at better speeds from certain ports.

If for some reason you decide not to get Giganews (which is perfectly understandable, it is a little on the pricey side), I recommend these providers.

PowerUseNet -- http://www.powerusenet.com/
UseNetServer -- http://www.usenetnewsserver.com/
NewsDemon -- http://www.newsdemon.com/

I've used PowerUseNet and they were good, not quite as good as Giganews though.

Hope that helped.

[limpdickkid]

I think Astraweb is worth looking into.
They have 138+days(http://www.news.astraweb.com/tools/stats.html) retention and costs $11.
$11 = http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

After Giga Astraweb is the best, imho. I've been using it for just over 2months and am very satisfied with speeds.

They offer the standard:
20 SSL connections.
Unlimited Data Transfers.
Monthly payments, can be made via Paypal.

NOTE: Astraweb have changed their payment system and use "multicard" now, which apparently has a bad reputation. So I cant vouch for Astraweb anymore.

[mbucari1]

look at http://www.powerusenet.com/

They're a giganews reseller.

[stupidcrab]

If you care about cost/type.


-Language In German-
...Many Provider Compare (Plan / Cost / Type)...
Unlimited Download Account
http://www.usenetprovider-uebersicht.de/index.php?pageid=FlatrateProvider

Block Account(Plan / Cost / Type)
http://www.usenetprovider-uebersicht.de/index.php?pageid=BlockaccProvider

[jbloggs]

I think Astraweb is worth looking into.
They have 138+days(http://www.news.astraweb.com/tools/stats.html) retention and costs $11.
$11 = http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

After Giga Astraweb is the best, imho. I've been using it for just over 2months and am very satisfied with speeds.

They offer the standard:
20 SSL connections.
Unlimited Data Transfers.
Monthly payments, can be made via Paypal.

That is a great price, very very tempting. :w00t:

[ose]

is it true at astraweb

- unlimited - $10 a month (1 Mbps rate limit)

[tnt]

is it true at astraweb

- unlimited - $10 a month (1 Mbps rate limit)
:yup:

[toothy]

giganews hands down mate!

I Tried the rest, and i stuck with the best!

Good Luck

D9vx

[222MHz]

Altopia.com

SSL
5 connections
No limits..
No throttles
$9/month

[zot]

Altopia.com

SSL
5 connections
No limits..
No throttles
$9/month

but only 12 days retention :(

Also, Altopia appears to operate without any backup. They had a massive server crash last week that permanently knocked out retention of existing articles.

Considering that retention is about 240 days (planned) on Giganews and 140 days on Astraweb, I think I'd have a hard time getting by on just 12 days retention on multipart binaries.

Altopia is said to be a favorite news provider of spammers and trolls, as they've developed a reputation of letting their users post things that most news providers don't tolerate.

Another option to save money might be to combine a low-cost short-retention unlimited account with a non-expiring long-retention block account such as Astraweb's.

[222MHz]

Well 12 days has been alright for me so far... I might look to something with a little longer retention in the future. The price was right after my ISP dropped usenet access.

[hitman51]

which can i pay with paypal?

[222MHz]

I'm pretty sure GigaNews accepts PayPal.

[OmaRin0]

I use NewsDemon unlimitide plus
I never had a problem with them
110 days retention is enough for me

[hitman51]

I'm pretty sure GigaNews accepts PayPal.

GigaNews is expensive

[tnt]

hitnews.eu (http://www.hitnews.eu/english/)
120+ days retention
accept paypal
normal price
acct sharing
try 3 days trial before you make a decision

[jbloggs]

is it true at astraweb

- unlimited - $10 a month (1 Mbps rate limit)

but for an extra $1 ($11/mth) you get unlimited download, unlimited speed, 20 Connections, 141 day retention.

[zot]

I would have to agree that Astraweb is about the best value available in Usenet newsgroup service right now. One of the cheapest AND longest retention (140+ days) services at the same time.

Both in Astraweb's $25(US) 110 gig 'never-expires' block, and their current special of $11/month for unlimited service.

www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

Hitnews unlimited service is also about the same price, but retention is listed as 100 days, and a few people have said in the past that some groups have a lot less than 100 days retention.

[JustDOSE]

Astraweb is the best in ive ever used! i recommend them fully man, only downside is dont sign up on a Friday or weekend , best

[Funkin']

I didn't know Astraweb has went up to 141+. Sweet, I'm definitely going with them now. Best value around. And that retention is surely enough. Plus it's only going to increase anyways. I just hope they stay at the same price when the retention hits the 200 day mark. Which I'm sure won't be long.

EDIT: Actually it's a 142+ days. :)

[saulin]

Astraweb is the best in ive ever used! i recommend them fully man, only downside is dont sign up on a Friday or weekend , best

I used to buy gigs with Astraweb. They had good speed and price. I have been with Easynews for 5.3 years now. I can't give up their web interface plus I have over 450 gigs banked. They are aiming for 200 days of retention soon. I can't wait!

[city wok]

hi everyone im brand new here and so far this forum has been really helpful
in fact I was planning on buying a usenext account until i read some of the things on here which quickly changed my mind.

I am considering getting a usenet provider and so far it looks like giganews is the way to go but I have one question.
What is this retention you guys are talking about? I dont really understand

Thanks in advance!

city wok

[Skiz]

Retention is the time a news server (Giganews, for example) holds a newsgroup posting (files) before deleting it.

ps - Congrats on seeing the light. ;)

[GXice]

EDIT: Actually it's a 142+ days. :)

Its 143+ days now. :D

[ezzzy]

hitnews.eu
ssl
8 connections
i get a stable 20meg download speed
if you are in the UK works out at £6 a month
100 days retention/ but i have a block account with astraweb aswell as back up!

[Funkin']

EDIT: Actually it's a 142+ days. :)

Its 143+ days now. :D

Nice. It's just going to keep getting longer and longer.

[tnt]

lol its really funny to count every single day retention

[BigH]

here's another recent convert to Astraweb from Giganews - pretty impressed so far and saving £ 10 per month

PS - retention now at 145+

[limpdickkid]

hopefully they'll reach 240days by the end of the year, although it doesn't seem likely at this rate. maybe 200days is a more realistic expectation and even that would be amazing at $13 per month.

[symphonyx]

I really recommend Astraweb. Not only their prices are very hard to beat, but the service itself is AWESOME.

I purchased the Kleverig special promotion which gives me 11$/month for unlimited transfer and 20 connections LIFETIME. For me, such a low price for the service is unbeatable. With this package, I reach MAX speed on everything, every hours of the day/night (1.1mb/s)

The special promotion is still up, though you need to be a member at kleverig

[EyeBaller]

I really recommend Astraweb. Not only their prices are very hard to beat, but the service itself is AWESOME.

I purchased the Kleverig special promotion which gives me 11$/month for unlimited transfer and 20 connections LIFETIME. For me, such a low price for the service is unbeatable. With this package, I reach MAX speed on everything, every hours of the day/night (1.1mb/s)

The special promotion is still up, though you need to be a member at kleverig

I don't think you need to be a member. Just click here http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

[symphonyx]

I really recommend Astraweb. Not only their prices are very hard to beat, but the service itself is AWESOME.

I purchased the Kleverig special promotion which gives me 11$/month for unlimited transfer and 20 connections LIFETIME. For me, such a low price for the service is unbeatable. With this package, I reach MAX speed on everything, every hours of the day/night (1.1mb/s)

The special promotion is still up, though you need to be a member at kleverig

I don't think you need to be a member. Just click here http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

Absolutely, but you need to be a member at kleverig in order to see that link I think :)

[BigH]

no need to be a member - I signed up earlier this week using that link, and I don't even know what a 'kleverig' is

[not2fast]

That Astraweb deal looks good, but I have been using Easynews for over 7 years now and I would have a hard decision to make if I wanted to change.

They were the first to add a web interface that makes it possible to download files directly rather than using a newsreader that combines messages. They also offer the ability to run parity checks on the server and can even unrar large files before downloading. Easynews has saved me a lot of time and work over the past 7 years.

It isn't even necessary to use NZB files there. I just search for PAR files and select the AutoPAR function. Easynews automatically checks to see if the files exist on the server and run a parity check on them. Then I click a button and all of the files are stored in a queue where I can download them with the Firefox DownThemAll extension or as a zip archive.

Easynews is not an unlimited service, but for $15 you get 30GB and retention is growing every day where it should reach 200 days by September 16. It is up to 162 days now. You can earn additional gigs every month by participating on the site.

Those gigs roll over if you do not use them, and they add an additional 2GB/mo for every year you have been subscribed. For me, that means I currently get 44GB/mo. And you can bank up to 750GB. Since I have been using BitTorrent a lot more the past 3 years, I have over 500GB banked already. That was mostly from the $10/mo classic service.

[symphonyx]

I will have to agree with you not2fast, Easynews is indeed awesome. I have used them in the past (friend's account) and their web interface is just awesome, and so is the speed.

However, its very hard to beat Astraweb's special promo, that is the reason why I signed up with them in the first place. And god knows how much of a good decision that is!

[not2fast]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that EasyNews has no limit on number of connections. Using a multi-threaded download, I have have never had any problem saturating my home 4MB connection.

When I download at work, I have to throttle the connection so it doesn't show a huge spike in bandwidth usage. The only real limit I have found is the write speed of the hard drive. The slow drive I have at work can't handle much over 2MB/sec.

[dutchmaster420]

I just signed up for the $11 unlimited deal from Astraweb coming over from Newdemon...Astraweb always maxes out my 20MB connection(soon to be 30!)....20 free SSL connections and rentention is great!...for the price, rentention, and free SSl Astraweb cannot be beat for the price

[saulin]

Yeah the Astraweb deal sounds awesome but is too hard of a decision to make the switch form Easynews. Especially when I have 415 gigs banked right now and all the features easynews offers. I have been with Easynews for over 5 years.

[symphonyx]

If you are a Easynews member Saulin, don't switch to astraweb. They have less to offer even if their prices are unbeatable.

I joined astraweb because it is an awesome service, and that promotion was really worth it.

Easynews is just too expensive for me

[chrisbanks00]

I love my easynews account. Been using them for almost 5 years now...

[JAM1257]

Any specific reason not to open an account with Astraweb on a Friday night?

[niks1101]

Giganews is the obvious choice really

[Salvia]

^ I agree, giganews is the best

[Salvia]

^ I agree, giganews is the best

[Imhotep]

Giganews and AstraWeb.

[JustDOSE]

Any specific reason not to open an account with Astraweb on a Friday night?
they are closed on weekends and it takes up to 3 business days to activate your acc.:fst:

[DylanDog]

M8 just GigaNews and only GigaNews

Always beautiful speeds with 200 days retention

[Overlord]

Yeah I love GigaNews. I can't believe it, but I've been a member there for 9 years now. Over half a year's worth of retention is amazing. And they're upgrading to 240 days retention now, too.

[DylanDog]

Yea heard about that, they will probably reach full year sooner or later, then theres no file loss at all, ha ha ha

[JustDOSE]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1118/543722047_87430840ef_o.jpg

[JAM1257]

Any specific reason not to open an account with Astraweb on a Friday night?
they are closed on weekends and it takes up to 3 business days to activate your acc.:fst:

Thanks, Dose.

[Valoo]

For me the best provider for most users is Astraweb :
=> 155d min retention on all groups - US / Europe nodes with good speed - SSL - Upload allowed : for only 11$ (~7,5€) with the special http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

For "rich" people Giganews is good with their 240d but very expensive for me.

:)

[EyeBaller]

For me the best provider for most users is Astraweb :
=> 155d min retention on all groups - US / Europe nodes with good speed - SSL - Upload allowed : for only 11$ (~7,5€) with the special http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

For "rich" people Giganews is good with their 240d but very expensive for me.

:)

I have to agree. I find astraweb to be very reliable and fast. I'm on the $11 a month special too and at that price it's very hard to beat. People go on about the 240 days giganews retention, but realistically how often will you need to go back that far to get anything? Personally, most of the stuff I download is fairly recent..and well with 5 months. For about a third of the price it's a much better deal, and with retention increasing all the time it'll only get better. I wouldn't mind spending $5 or maybe even $10 more for longer retention but at $20 it's just not worth it.

I guess it really depends on your needs, but if you stay on top of what you're downloading save yourself $20 a month on usenet and have a few extra beers so you can go from :cheers: to .... :drunk:

[Overlord]

People go on about the 240 days giganews retention, but realistically how often will you need to go back that far to get anything?
I can't control what I may or may not want to download. I run searches all the time because my app/game/movie preferences are always changing and I can't keep monitoring all the groups on a daily basis, so the current 200-day retention makes a huge difference for me and it will be even better when it reaches 240 days.

[EyeBaller]

I can't control what I may or may not want to download. I run searches all the time because my app/game/movie preferences are always changing and I can't keep monitoring all the groups on a daily basis, so the current 200-day retention makes a huge difference for me and it will be even better when it reaches 240 days.

That's why I went on to say it depends on your needs. And, like I said I wouldn't mind spending more for longer retention it's just the cost vs. benefit at this price point just isn't worth it.

I'm not arguing that giganews isn't the "gold standard" provider, just simply Astraweb is better value for most people, and the whole topic started with the OP asking for a better deal.

[Valoo]

I agree with you both. I use newsgroups not only to find the last movie indexed on my nzb community. I make searches for many contents, and sometimes it's a recent post, sometimes a very old. So I understand Overlord.

But for me put 30$ "in the same basket" is too much. Indeed I've also a Rapidshare account, and I think with Usenet + RS I have more choice than an usenet access only, even with 240d of retention :) Some can add a seedbox etc.

[x2c667]

i am a big fan of giganews, i swear by it giganews.com :)

[Pudenry]

I just signed up with astraweb today, seems very good so far.

[louderplease]

I've used newshosting, usenetserver and usenetvault. I'm having some problems now with usenetvault, i might try astranews next, these providers offer unlimited for 15$/mo with little differences number or connections and retention. I find giganews too expensive, can get almost the same for half.

[sinbad420]

Ive refrained from trying Giganews for the price reason as well. So far I've tried Hitnews and ZenNews, and both were very good. Right now I'm in the middle of my first month with NewsDemon and service hasnt been too bad. Next month Im thinking, I'm either goin back to ZenNews, or I'm gonna foot the extra dollar and give Giganews a shot, the extra retention time sure would be nice. Eventually I'll find the one that suits my needs and fits into my price range ;)

[delimare]

I was religious with Usenetserver for the longest time but their constant issues had me going insane. I tried Giganews and my 50Mbps connection would average at 20Mbps with 20 connections and SSL.

I decided to give this Astraweb a try. I am sitting at a steady 30Mbps right now with their 20 connections and SSL server. I also signed up through the offer they have with Kleverig. $11 a month for as long as you keep the subscription? You cannot beat that value…

[mcorleone]

just dumped megabitz. whatever you do, steer clear of these guys as their service has gone to crap. cannon't download a single new HD release without getting about 20% corrupted blocks, and of course there are not enough pars to cover this.

switched to astraweb, and it's a treat. no corrupted blocks, very fast speed - one connection alone maxes out my measly 7Mbps link (US broadband sucks). i can't imagine if i there were decent internet connectivity in my area as 30Mbps via all twenty connections would be sweet. also, retention is better on astraweb - i can actually download files over 100 days old without MASSIVE missing blocks.

$11/month is a great deal. let's hope astraweb withstands the test of time and does not meet megabitz in the abyss.

on a sidenote, if you are going to be downloading HD movies, usenet has been behind lately. a.b.hdtv.x264 is not what it was even 2 months ago. so many new releases are not available there anymore....instead, they are showing up on rapidshare. i'll keep my astraweb account for now as i hope that a.b.hdtv.x264 makes a comeback.