Who is number 2 at the minute?

We all know who the king of Usenet providers is... Giganews.

But, I am finding myself downloading less and less every month. In fact, some months I hardly download anything. I love Giganews, but not the price tag. I am considering just staying with them and going to a block plan... but F that. I think it's time to try someone new.

So,
who I #2 right now. I haven't gone shopping for a provider in awhile. Last I remeber it was Usenetserver, but I think they have gone all to hell. I am considering giving astraweb a shot, if I can get some positive reviews.

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astraweb, i wish astraweb was a real person, i would get her and ... umhmmmm lets not get into details here

Not so fast. What about Newsdemon... with 175 days retention and $18/mth? :P

Astraweb ftw.

I'm locked in for $11 for life with this fast growing and already solid provider.

Astraweb deal is great, but also check out xennews (aka hitnews) yearly plan works out to be just over $15 for unlimited and 200 day retention.


http://www.xennews.com/index.php?id=2&group=1

hm, actually, i'm not sure about the retention on astraweb. i dl two xvid movies close to ~155 days old, and both were incomplete.

Usenet-news.net for block accounts. I got a 300 gig block had it for 2 years and still have 150 gig left. I used to opearte it with some of the free usenet accounts. Cannot be arsed nowadays with free so operates in tandem with silver giganews account.. ohh see recent topic silver increased from 25-35 gig per month. This combination usenet-news and giganews does me fine. I may one day throw gianews as I rarelly download more than 30 gig a month on usenet. My ISP provider limits me to 50 gig a month anyways.. I am small time:01:

Wait...Giganews has block plans? I could have swore I never saw that on their home page. I currently use Astrawebs 120gb block plan, but I would rather use a Giganews block plan for 240 day retention. Oh wait, are you talking about the Silver plan where you get to download 35gb a month for $12.99? I guess that's ok if you don't download each month. But $12.99 for that small amount of gb's is ridiculous. Now if it were something like $5 then it may be worth considering...

But anyways, I've been using Atraweb for a few months now, and haven't had any troubles with them. Their customer is great too. If you're a heavy downloader you can't be the $11 a month. But...going from a 240 day retention to a 160 day retention may be a huge adjustment for you Broken.

I would probably say astraweb, I'm locked in at that $11/month special and very pleased.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Funkin'

If you're a heavy downloader you can't be the $11 a month.

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What do you mean? I thought it was unlimited? I downloaded quite a bit from it for a few days and it seemed like it was then capped a bit. Not much, but then again, I think my own internet was slightly slower (2MB rather than 3) After a few days off it seems back to top speeds.

The $11 a month deal is unlimited. Unlimited speeds and downloads. I meant that if you download a lot, or a lot of big files, then the $11 deal is the way to go.

Me, I'm not a really heavy downloader anymore(usually only music daily, games a couple times a week, and tv and movies only when I see something good), and I also use RS forums a lot. So for me, getting the Astraweb 120GB block account was cheaper in the long run than the $11 dollar a month deal.

Since it will probably take me three or four months to download 120GB from Usenet(since I also download from RS). Which I would be paying $33 or $44 for that if I were still using the $11 a month deal, instead of a just straight $25 for the block account(a little confusing, I know).

I actually switched from Giganews diamond plan to Astraweb and the price difference was the major factor. 30 to 11 is a huge improvement for me and I can always max my connection with Astra and have never been capped. I also download very frequently so I can attest to this. Although the retention for Astra is less, I rarely find anything that is over 160 days that I really want to download. And if I do, I'll just request it uploaded.

Oh it said you can't be, but you meant you can't beat...

That block deal would probably do me alright, but being a dvdr kinda guy, that might go quickly. Well actually 60 regular dvd5 releases or so...that's not a bad move actually. Hmm I might just go to a block setup idk.

any comments on astraweb's retention? it seems closer to 150 days given some of the incompletes i got.

yea ive been using astraweb for a while and anything past about 145d will never be complete enough to fix with quickpar with so many missing rars and parts

I use Easynews, mostly for convenience reasons. They have a great global search and web interface.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Funkin'

Wait...Giganews has block plans? I could have swore I never saw that on their home page. .

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Nor me :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by basilhaydens

Oh it said you can't be, but you meant you can't beat...

That block deal would probably do me alright, but being a dvdr kinda guy, that might go quickly. Well actually 60 regular dvd5 releases or so...that's not a bad move actually. Hmm I might just go to a block setup idk.

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My bad. I didn't even notice that spelling mistake.

And yeah, dvdr's are big, but it just depends on how often you're going to be downloading them. All you can do is start with one plan(either the $11 a month or a block account), then if one isn't enough, or too much, than just switch to the one that suits you.