Free binaries at cheapernews.com this week

[zot]

This was posted on alt.free.newsservers yesterday:



Subject: Free binaries at cheapernews.com this week

We just turned on a new bank of servers and are hoping to push 10-20 gigabits of test traffic this week. These servers have 200 days of articles, both binaries and text.

Please give us a hand by testing things out -

The server is:

stresstest.cheapernews.com

No username/password is required.

SSL is enabled and you should be able to make at least 20 connections per host.

Sorry, we don't support posting.

We may have a few few-minute outages during the course of the week as we try different server and/or load balancer configurations, but our plan is to keep the service up until and through July 4th.


Running a tracert suggests that they are a reseller connecting to Highwinds DC serverfarm - but with only 200day retention, not 300.

This is a new service (Domain registered May30) that has apparently just opened -- and is already being spammed. So I'd definitely stay away from their yearly prepaid accounts (It's an even bet that they'll still be around in a year) but I'm happy to leech from their server to help load-test it.

[rac123]

This was posted on alt.free.newsservers yesterday:

[quote]
... but I'm happy to leech from their server to help load-test it.

Yeah, me too :D

[dutchmaster420]

ssl is not working for me on port 563, havnt tried 443...non ssl port 119 is working fine for me and seems to give me a bit faster and more consistent speed than astraweb does

[ericab]

ssl doesnt work for me either.
they have good speeds (still; slower then astra), but will not be replacing astraweb any time soon.

long live the king, astraweb!

[dutchmaster420]

ssl doesnt work for me either.
they have good speeds (still; slower then astra), but will not be replacing astraweb any time soon.

long live the king, astraweb!

no yea...until someone comes out with same reliable service/rentention/ssl/speed/connections...extc for under $10, astraweb cant be touched

but honestly ive been downloading with cheapernews at a steady 3400-3500 KB/s while on astraweb its always around 2800-3000 KB/s...i always thought it was on my end but it seems astraweb might be to blame

this is good for people who dont have usenet who want to leech the shit out of it for a week

[zot]

Minor speed differences between different usenet providers are usually due to the routing across the net.

Like many other providers, Astraweb can *on request* change the routing to speed up a slow connection. That's what everyone who can't max their connections should try doing.

[dutchmaster420]

so is should email them and tell them my findings? i figured it was useless to email them cuz theres nothing they can do

[zot]

Yes, definitely contact Astraweb. Like most other major usenet providers, Astraweb is connected to several different backbones, and Astraweb can reroute the path between you and their server to get the best speed.

[dutchmaster420]

yea i just emailed them after some more testing...i keep getting close to 3600 KB/s with cheapernews while only 2750 KB/s with astraweb

[ericab]

astraweb's data-store and peering is located in san jose california, whereas just about every datastore/peering point for highwinds starts on the east coast.
it is 100% likley that somewhere along the lines from east to west you are being QoS'ed. so yes, as zot has said, ask for a re-route... personially i did this with giganews (located in plano texas i believe) and within an hour they had my speeds maxed out. i hope astraweb complies with you, let us know.

[freeinvites]

delete

[ericab]

im sure many will;
why do you ask ?

[zot]

Is anyone going to sign up for their service? It's $8 per month, unlimited, on a monthly plan.
Best price I've seen so far.
Since this a very new company I would rather just watch them for a few months and see how they do. A lot of new companies jump in with fantastic prices, immediately get a lot of customers aboard, and then are forced to either raise prices or cut service (or both) because they're operating at a loss.

Maybe these low prices are just "teaser" rates, and they're alreasy planning to increase prices gradually starting next month.

As for the prepaid yearly price, I think it would be very foolish to pay for a full year to a company that has been in operation for less than a month.

Another point: Someone has been going around the internet registering at forums and claiming to be a customer of Cheapernews. These "one-hit-wonders" are usually shills - especially when newly-registered members immediately start plugging a company no one has ever heard of before. It has me worried -- whether or not this company Cheapernews can be trusted if they are resorting to gutter tactics like this.

The last usenet provider I've seen do this kind of fake-customer shilling was UseneXt -- and we all know how crooked they turned out to be. :angry:

[UsenetGuy]

Remember that the accounts might have unlimited bandwidth but it the speed you can reach is limited, as it shows on the signup page. Theoretically if it has a speed cap then it is not an unlimited account, if you were to leave it downloading constantly for a month at the full speed the plan allows then that would be the bandwidth limit (probably a couple TB but it is still not unlimited since you'd never be able to download more than that). :)

[dutchmaster420]

Astraweb replied back telling me to send results of a traceroute to them and cheapenews which i just did...will let you guys know when i hear back

[dfsadsadsa]

This is awesome $8 monthly, I am sold

[zot]

This is awesome $8 monthly, I am sold

I am NOT!

I've seen a lot of usenet providers (resellers) over the last few years come online with prices that beat everyone else. As it turned out - none were a bargain.

Light users might not have a problem, but cut-rate providers often resort to throttling the heavy downloaders or kicking them off. That's what users reported about 100 Proof News, which was once the cheapest of the cheap providers (but it's no longer in operation today).

Megabitz was another reseller that came out with the lowest prices to be found. Users who bought their long-term plans were sorry they ever did - the service soon stopped working and didn't even answer emails.

Keep in mind that many of these new companies have zero experience in the usenet business -- or any other business.

Personally, I steer clear of new companies because I've seen too many people get burned by them, again and again.

But if you like to gamble, then go ahead and throw your money in this slot machine and pull the lever -- maybe you'll get lucky ... or not.

[JustDOSE]

ssl doesn't work. but it maxes me out, thanks for this

[brish]

Is this working for anyone else? It's been couple of days that I can't connect.

[ericab]

naw, it was a week only test

[freealta]

I was maxing out my 6M TW connection and if I am not using the free ipv6 servers, this would be my provider, which may happen soon the way things are going. You have 8 free days to try them out and $8/month is better than committing to paying $96/year on Astraweb.

[josipm]

I tried them out and speeds were ok. Did anyone sign up? Just wondering what your experiences are if you signed up.
Is anyone having connection problems right now?

[SonsOfLiberty]

I didn't, been with Astraweb for almost a year now, super happy me :)

[saroofio]

how lame, i jumped on this a few months back when they were doing the same thing and bought the 1 year service. now i can connect to their servers but cannot download a thing. It's been like this for a week now...buyers remorse is setting in pretty deep...moving to AstraWeb if this persists.

[cardboardbox]

I tried signing up with them yesterday but I kept getting:


Sorry... There was a problem with this submission:

A credit card processing error occurred.
MBT-99000: Some obscure payment gateway processing bug...
If problems persist, please contact support.

Please correct and resubmit the form.it looks like its complaining about my credit card type but I verified multiple times. Emailed them also but got no response. Looks like I got lucky if saroofio's experience is widespread.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Cheapernews, isnt' this the "new" Giganews off spring? I've heard rumors that another "wholesale" usenet provider is out there, and is actually Giganews, branded with a different name to compete with Astraweb.

Personal experience, stick with what you know....Giganews, Newsdemon, and Astraweb are the best at what they do for a reason, top notch customer support and great pricing plans....so stay with what you know, can't stress that enough, hell this "whole week thing" could have been a sting operation for all you know.