Ngroups & Usenet-News Ditch Highwinds, go Read News

[zot]

I just noticed that the retention posted on the website increased from 650 days last weekend to 783 days today. Other Highwinds-(re)selling sites are still listing 650, so obviously they're no longer Highwinds resellers.

Downloaded a 783-day ZNB as a trial. Works.

Did a tracert on both server farms, and it's almost identical to Blocknews, so that answered my question of whether they switched to Astraweb as a provider (which also has about the same retention)

So the good news is that they have increased retention by 180+ days, have better completion/fewer deletions, and are now totally uncensored (OK, that's debatable whether it's really good news or not)

But it also means that we can no longer use a Usenet-News block as a fill-in server for Blocknews/UsenetNow since they now both use the same backend.

Also, I might point out that Ngroups current "Oktoberfest" special of $10/month (lifetime) for unlimited +SSL is currently the best price that I know of (for a service with 780+ days retention and two server farms, that is)

[hdjunky]

I just noticed that the retention posted on the website increased from 650 days last weekend to 783 days today. Other Highwinds-(re)selling sites are still listing 650, so obviously they're no longer Highwinds resellers.

Downloaded a 783-day ZNB as a trial. Works.

Did a tracert on both server farms, and it's almost identical to Blocknews, so that answered my question of whether they switched to Astraweb as a provider (which also has about the same retention)

So the good news is that they have increased retention by 180+ days, have better completion/fewer deletions, and are now totally uncensored (OK, that's debatable whether it's really good news or not)

But it also means that we can no longer use a Usenet-News block as a fill-in server for Blocknews/UsenetNow since they now both use the same backend.

Also, I might point out that Ngroups current "Oktoberfest" special of $10/month (lifetime) for unlimited +SSL is currently the best price that I know of (for a service with 780+ days retention and two server farms, that is)

they probably had to do something since blocknews was prolly kicking there ass on block accounts and stuff and they were highwinds. lol. kind of dumb to sell the same but oh well. Kind of sucks though since the more people that see it the more chance of blocknews getting takedowns and censored now too. i think the dmca prolly follows popularity. :(

[ericab]

tracert news.us.ngroups.net

1 <censored>
2 <censored>
3 <censored>
4 <censored>
5 <censored>
6 16 ms 16 ms 18 ms po4-20G.ar1.SNV2.gblx.net [67.17.105.2]
7 17 ms 20 ms 27 ms HIGHWINDS-NETWORK-GROUP.TenGigabitEthernet9-2.ar1.snv2.gblx.net [67.17.168.10]
8 106 ms 97 ms 97 ms 1-1.r2.dc.hwng.net [209.197.1.150]
9 96 ms 96 ms 95 ms ve923.ar3.dc.hwng.net [209.197.1.42]
10 95 ms 95 ms 95 ms newsfarm.iad.highwinds-media.com [69.16.185.250]

Trace complete.

looks like highwinds to me.

[unoriginal]

Where did you find the server address? According to the FAQ (which might lend more credence to the fact they switched): What are the server addresses? A: We have two server systems; one in US, one in Europe. Each can be accessed via standard connection (nntp), or SSL (nntps)
Due to current system changes, please use the "Lost Login (http://ngroups.net/us/services/accounts/lost-login.php)" function to retreive the server addresses to use.

[zot]

tracert
looks like highwinds to me.
That's trace-routing to their old, superseded address. Assuming that it's even the correct, current address, that may be due to DNS issues that it is still tracing to Highwinds -- their old address. (That can be a problem whenever a server location changes, and unless you flush/restore DNS (and change to a more current domain server), it can take a day or two for the URL to resolve correctly.)

Try this Tracert tool instead:

http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=trace&host=news.us.Usenet-News.net+

It gives an entirely different routing than before, as now Usenet-News matches Blocknews (not Highwinds).

Also, it should be obvious at a glance that they're no longer with Highwinds, since ALL Highwinds providers (Usenetserver, Newsdemon, Newshosting, Easynews, etc) list 650 days retention (and let's assume that if Highwinds retention actually jumped to 780, such a big retention increase would not have gone unnoticed by everyone).

And then isn't it quite a 'coincidence' that Usenet-news server info now lists many of the same alternate ports as Blocknews?

[Hypatia]

Thats very good news. Way to go=)

btw does anybody know how many connections are sufficient for nggroups? I always max out my 50mbit line with 10( astraweb and giganews) so i was wondering if it was the same with updated nggroups

[unoriginal]

Thats very good news. Way to go=)

btw does anybody know how many connections are sufficient for nggroups? I always max out my 50mbit line with 10( astraweb and giganews) so i was wondering if it was the same with updated nggroups

I can't answer the connection question but here is something to possibly ask ngroups since your internet connection is so fast. Usenetnow, which resells readnews as well, limits the overall download speed for their accounts to 40megs/sec: http://faq.usenetnow.net/index.php?action=artikel&cat=2&id=5&artlang=en

I don't know if ngroups is doing the same thing but it might be worth raising a ticket with them to find out.

[hdjunky]

Thats very good news. Way to go=)

btw does anybody know how many connections are sufficient for nggroups? I always max out my 50mbit line with 10( astraweb and giganews) so i was wondering if it was the same with updated nggroups

I can't answer the connection question but here is something to possibly ask ngroups since your internet connection is so fast. Usenetnow, which resells readnews as well, limits the overall download speed for their accounts to 40megs/sec: http://faq.usenetnow.net/index.php?action=artikel&cat=2&id=5&artlang=en

I don't know if ngroups is doing the same thing but it might be worth raising a ticket with them to find out.

weird. when i have direct access to the univ connection i use usenetnow for a quick download binge and can usually get like 80 mbits or a bit more depending on time of day so maybe they changed it.

[zot]

I've noticed that Blocknews/UsenetNow tends to be very conservative in its claims. The retention has always been more than what was advertised, for instance.

I suspect that the 40megabit limit was probably an inherent server limitation (now corrected), or possibly was just not being enforced, though that situation could possibly change if a lot of people with superfast connections start leeching them to death.

[Monaco]

Is NGroups now in an East Coast farm? I think BlockNews was last time I posted something. My Astraweb yearly is almost up, so I might try them out.

[zot]

I believe that Ngroups' new serverfarm is in the Washington DC metro area (northern Virginia) - not far from their old one.