Free binaries at cheapernews.com this week

This was posted on alt.free.newsservers yesterday:

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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.

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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.

[QUOTE=zot;3246077]This was posted on alt.free.newsservers yesterday:

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

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Yeah, me too :D

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

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!

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Originally Posted by 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!

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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

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.

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

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.

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

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.