What Usenet Provider

[ZeroC00l]

Are you guys using? I have been with Giganews for a very very long time. It's been great for the most part. But as some of you may well know, it's also expensive. Is there another provider you recommended that's just as good if not better then Giganews? I get VyprVPN with them which is quite nice, but I bought a lifetime membership with VPN Unlimited.

Thanks.....

ZeroC00l

[RiverRapids]

I currently like Frugal News. Very cheap, very fast, IPv6, servers in US and Europe, only has 1000 days retention, but that's good for most things. Maybe a Blocknews block account for anything older.

[nQQ]

It depends on what you want I used Astraweb for years but the last couple they suffered quite a lot of takedowns. I mainly use block accounts in the last couple of years and so often see who has mega deals. Will look at blocknews

[carto0]

I uses sunnyusenet; about 36€ per year for a 20Mb subscription with 2000 days of retention.

[RiverRapids]

It depends on what you want I used Astraweb for years but the last couple they suffered quite a lot of takedowns. I mainly use block accounts in the last couple of years and so often see who has mega deals. Will look at blocknews

I used to like AstraWeb, but their completion can be very flaky. I think they have some peering issues, and it's not something they've been willing to fix for the last couple of years. Given there are other providers with cheaper block accounts or cheaper subscriptions and no completion problems, then Astraweb looks less attractive than it used to be.

[nQQ]

It depends on what you want I used Astraweb for years but the last couple they suffered quite a lot of takedowns. I mainly use block accounts in the last couple of years and so often see who has mega deals. Will look at blocknews

I used to like AstraWeb, but their completion can be very flaky. I think they have some peering issues, and it's not something they've been willing to fix for the last couple of years. Given there are other providers with cheaper block accounts or cheaper subscriptions and no completion problems, then Astraweb looks less attractive than it used to be.

True but they did a block deal for silly money a few years ago, something like 1TB for $10 that I'm still working through them as I bought a few. I do have a couple of back up servers because they went through a period of aggressive takedown, though that does now seemed to have lessened. Who has cheap blocks now with decent completion.

[RiverRapids]

I used to like AstraWeb, but their completion can be very flaky. I think they have some peering issues, and it's not something they've been willing to fix for the last couple of years. Given there are other providers with cheaper block accounts or cheaper subscriptions and no completion problems, then Astraweb looks less attractive than it used to be.

True but they did a block deal for silly money a few years ago, something like 1TB for $10 that I'm still working through them as I bought a few. I do have a couple of back up servers because they went through a period of aggressive takedown, though that does now seemed to have lessened. Who has cheap blocks now with decent completion.

$10 must have been quite a while back! You have to look for deals I guess (Blocknews did 500GB for $20 at the beginning of the year), but then some people can get through a terabyte in a month, so it would work out cheaper to go to someone like FrugalNews and have unlimited download for a year. Especially if you run into Astraweb's completion issues and then need another Usenet provider to fill the gaps anyway.

I was a long time Astraweb user, and despite their good prices, the annoying completion issues meant I moved to somewhere cheaper that doesn't have those problems.

[nQQ]

Yes, almost a decade ago, moved from monthly to block since my requirements changed and I no longer needed the volume.

[Beck38]

For many years I mainly used astra, since their US plant was on the west coast and pulling (or pushing) things across the country was more problematic than the vagarities of astras continual problems; I kept a smallish giga account as a first fills, along with blocknews (both of whose server plants are in eastern Virginia in the Tysons Corner area or thereabouts.

Anyway, finally got my fill of astra screwups about three years ago and decided spending $10 more or so a month was worth it if the cross-country lines were solid. Now, there are some that arn't, but as I use a vpn service (independent) I'll can 'wiggle' things around to get different transcontinental data transmission lines, and if one starts getting flacky, I can switch to another. In fact, I had been using Comcasts backbone to go west to east up until about 3 weeks ago, and then they started messing up snd it wasn't improving, so I switched to cogentco, and it's running just fine. Will continue to monitor and stay with them as long as they provide solid speeds and few if any dropouts.

[nQQ]

For many years I mainly used astra, since their US plant was on the west coast and pulling (or pushing) things across the country was more problematic than the vagarities of astras continual problems; I kept a smallish giga account as a first fills, along with blocknews (both of whose server plants are in eastern Virginia in the Tysons Corner area or thereabouts.

Anyway, finally got my fill of astra screwups about three years ago and decided spending $10 more or so a month was worth it if the cross-country lines were solid. Now, there are some that arn't, but as I use a vpn service (independent) I'll can 'wiggle' things around to get different transcontinental data transmission lines, and if one starts getting flacky, I can switch to another. In fact, I had been using Comcasts backbone to go west to east up until about 3 weeks ago, and then they started messing up snd it wasn't improving, so I switched to cogentco, and it's running just fine. Will continue to monitor and stay with them as long as they provide solid speeds and few if any dropouts.

Do you use a VPN mainly for NNTP or for other reasons? I can understand VPN for P2P but not sure there is much need for NNTP, unless uploading.

[RiverRapids]

Do you use a VPN mainly for NNTP or for other reasons? I can understand VPN for P2P but not sure there is much need for NNTP, unless uploading.


It depends on how seriously you take your security. Security isn't just one thing, it's layers of protection on top of each other. Who's to say that at some point in the future the NSA won't start selling access to all that private data they are stockpiling? Or maybe you just don't trust what your ISP may or may not be logging? In the end, you decide how much cost/inconvenience you are willing to put up with in order to have more, rather than less layers of security on your data, depending on how important that data is to you.

[Beck38]

Firstly, it completely obscures from my isp where my data is heading or to what site I'm connecting to (although I think every site should be encrypted, period, but they arn't; and nntp should be ssl but many are not as well.)

With all the (russian and otherwise) hacking going on out there, decent firewall/vpn routers are a must.

[Caballero]

With all the (russian and otherwise) hacking going on out there, decent firewall/vpn routers are a must.

Got a suggestion? If you had to do a set-up from scratch, what would you do/use?

[nQQ]

Firstly, it completely obscures from my isp where my data is heading or to what site I'm connecting to (although I think every site should be encrypted, period, but they arn't; and nntp should be ssl but many are not as well.)

With all the (russian and otherwise) hacking going on out there, decent firewall/vpn routers are a must. I can see the need especially if uploading or getting around throttling, just not sure for NNTP. I guess on a general principle, so long as you can trust the VPN, just had wondered if there was new concerns for news users. Then again I did install Signal an encrypted mobile messenger app just could never get anyone else to install it. :rolleyes:

[Philthy181]

I have found Newshosting to be great for completion as well as retention (back to posts from 2008 at present). The biggest issue I've had is the lack of an indexer going back far enough.
Fortunately I discovered NZBKing and this has helped greatly since NZBClub disappeared and NZBIndex lost their old archives and had to reindex. I always use an SSL port these days.
I think a VPN is essential for uploads and any torrenting but only slows down Usenet downloads with little benefit I can see.

[Yupitsme]

I have been using Newsleecher as BOTH a reader and a host provider - they have been rock solid for me for many years after using several of the other 'well-known' providers.
I like the one payment for all - I think it is a good service if you are looking.

[Gregg987]

If you're on a budget, have modest needs, or consider available payment methods inadequate or insecure, there are some free options, but they require discipline. Many providers have free trials, but eventually the trial ends.
free-usenet offers a free account with the current offer being that it lasts 24 hours, indefinitely renewable, you may have to enter a captcha before renewing, password changes with each renew, SSL, 1 thread, no browsing, bandwidth ~100 KB/s.
xsusenet offers a free account with the current offer being up to 25 GB per calendar month, does not need to be renewed, no SSL, multiple threads OK, bandwidth >100 KB/s.
At least that's how it is for "grandfathers", not sure if they're offering new accounts. Try!? HTH.

[anon]

free-usenet offers a free account with the current offer being that it lasts 24 hours, indefinitely renewable, you may have to enter a captcha before renewing, password changes with each renew, SSL, 1 thread, no browsing, bandwidth ~100 KB/s.

They also have "3100+ days binary retention" (which was proven true at least for some very old NZBs I tried to grab), actually give you those 100 KB/s, and don't log anything according their privacy policy.

I miss the trick of using Binload in a regular client, that was awesome while it lasted. just4today.net is also still around!