Major Price Slash for Newsbin Pro

The cost of a *lifetime* license for Newsbin Pro just went from $35 to $15. A better deal than Newsleecher - which costs $20 per year - as well as a better news client, in my opinion. (like Newsleecher, Newsbin's search function costs extra)

If anyone was sitting on the fence, maybe this price slash will be good incentive to take the plunge for what is arguably the best binary newsreader out there.

And before anyone says "just use a cracked copy" - I should add that there are as yet no Version 6 cracked releases available (AFAICT).

www.newsbin.com

well..
lets take a look at a subscription for a year.

newsbin. one time payment is $15
+ search service $60/(!!)year
And as of now their built-in search is somewhat a joke. Well, at least when talking about servers update rate which is slower than of FREE WEB INDEX SITES

newsleecher - $30/year ( very good search service included, that is when it works lol)


I confirm that as a newsreader NB is better than newsleecher which is still buggy and lacks lots of features.
BUT newsbin search suckz hairy ballz compared to newsleechers.


And also.. speaking of what i consider the most sophisticated(in a good sense) newsreader out there -Usenet Explorer(many useful features, the most stable, the best of the best)

$35/year . Very good search service included supporting boolean wildmats and great uptime. When your search subscription expires you can still use this newsreader just without a built-in search.
And it doesnt connect to an authentication server. Uses very little memory, doesnt need to be installed, very easy to move around etc etc

But this software requires some experience.
One needs some time to fully recognize its full potential. And it pays off later, of course
http://usenetexplorer.com


This comes strictly from experience. Ive used for a long time newsbin\nmewsleecher\usenet explorer and i even gave crappy ultraleecher a try

I like NB Pro 5 but beta 6 sucks IMO. They claim b6 is better, faster, ect. but I tried it out and found it more convoluted than v5 and slower. I have no issues with v5.

I do not use their paid search service. Why pay when you have ones on the net for free?

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Why pay when you have ones on the net for free?

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- free web index sites can be a subject to DMCA takedowns (like nzbindex, it has a certain icon-notice and takedown)
- free web index sites sometimes dont index stuff you have to jump between them
- update rate is slow.sometimes you need stuff right now and fast without getting headers
- since they are free you never know when they might go down
- some built-in search engines allow complex search queries
- its more convenient
imho

I don't use paid searches, unless you count VIP with NZBMatrix as paid....nominal fee for like 10 years of return :) Newsbin Pro has been a favorite of mine since '99 and it remains still to be the most powerful and feature rich newsreader on the planet IMHO. Newsleecher blows at least in terms of the fact that they are now charging for an app that is so simple it should be free and the search service is over priced IMHO. SABnzbd/Newsbin pro and nzbmatrix is all you need :) This is an awesome deal, thanks for the post.

All good points, Hypatia.

I was not really comparing the cost of search-engine service - as it's something that I think tends to be over-priced anyway.

Until the client-based search engines start including the ability to look inside rar files, I think they're probably overall less useful than free websites like Binsearch and Mysterbin that offer this must-have feature. And as pay-services go, I think that websites like Newzbin and NZB Matrix, which index human-verified files and have a comment section, are probably a better value for the money compared to raw-search engines, which can miss a lot of scene releases (like something posted as "ro-icu2" with no other title present). The integrated search engines serve an important niche function, and a lot of people seem to like them, but to me personally they're barely worth the money, and I often don't even use mine. And software appz like Newzfinders do a decent "supersearch" for free.

Another thing worth mentioning about NewsbinPro is that the developer seems to always be 100% dedicated to the project, (perhaps with practically no outside life?). He is always there on the forum to answer questions quickly, and has been consistently, for many years. Just about all the other for-pay newsclient developers appear to have other (full-time) jobs, and do support duties in their sometimes-scarce spare time. That's just my impression, noticing the time-lag between when a person asks a question, and when the developer responds -or doesn't. Also, how fast new emerging technologies, such as SSL, NZB, and compressed headers, have been adopted. Many, like Newsleecher's developer, work very hard for awhile, then seem to lose interest (or have other priorities) and drift away from time to time. Newsbin seems to be the rare exception to this 'rule' :)

quick question what does, well what are the advantages of the three
newsbinpro
newsleecher
usenet explorer
why is newsbinpro so much better what does it have that the others are missing or whatever?

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Originally Posted by jefffisher

quick question what does, well what are the advantages of the three
newsbinpro
newsleecher
usenet explorer
why is newsbinpro so much better what does it have that the others are missing or whatever?

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Perhaps Newsbin Pro's biggest advantage over Newsleecher and Usenet Explorer is that it does not have their annoyances. Although lacking their best features, Newsbin is a good compromise between UE's power and complexity and Newsleecher's simplicity and ease-of-use.
Unlike most free clients, all 3 support compressed headers, as well as fill-servers.

Newsbin:

Pro: low price client w/ lifetime upgrades, always cutting-edge, good tech support.

Con: DRM present, won't install or uninstall if internet connection is down.

Newsleecher:

Pro: Easiest and most intuitive (of the 3) to use, good search function.

Con: Most invasive DRM, client won't work at all whenever license-verification server goes down. Can lock up or crash a PC if connection goes down. Developer often goes AWOL for long periods, service sometimes unreliable and in disrepair.

Usenet Explorer: Full-function Newsreader/NZB grabber/binary poster all-in-one

Pro: very advanced/extreme configurability, efficient coding, low resource use. No DRM, no installation needed/ can work as "portable" and free trial can be re-used over and over without requiring registry-scrubbing. If a downloaded file is too incomplete for pars to repair, a fill server can be added later, and it will only download the missing parts skipped in the first cycle. (most other clients force you to 'start over')

Con: Not intuitive, highly complicated and confusing for many people; simple tasks like starting/pausing/resuming an NZB can take a long time to figure out.


Some observations:

When Astraweb's compresssed header standard first came out, Newsbin and UE quickly jumped on it. Newsleecher users were still begging for compressed header support a year later.

I find it most ironic that although UE's lack of DRM would make it very easy to crack, no cracked copies ever seem to get released, going back years.

I can't remember if it is Newsleecher or Newsbin (or maybe both?) that injects a tagline ad on every post it makes. To me, that's ridiculous for a paid newsreader to force upon a user - free newsreaders don't even stoop that low - but then as pure binary clients they originally did not even support reading/posting text messages at all.

what he said!! :w00t:

i totally agree with zot's minireview. :cool:

@zot

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Con: DRM present, won't install or uninstall if internet connection is down.

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They do have a standalone install. If you go to their download page and to the Help section, it is the last bulleted item. Had to do that one time because for some reason my PC couldn't communicate with their server to install NB v5.

@hypatia

Never had any problems finding content on the free search sites like Binsearch, NZBIndex, or Mysterbin. I have used NB Pro's Internet Search before, when they do a free weekend every now and again, and it isn't any better than the free ones I use all the time.

thanks zot that fill server thing you mentioned in usenet explorer would actually come in handy to me i'll check it out.
i havent used newsbin in years, never even tried usenet explorer before.

been on newsleecher for years, it's worth mentioning that their supersearch is instant if i upload a file to usenet and search for it on supersearch ten seconds later it will find it. i've seen indexing sites take anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour. the searching is also much better when it comes to seeing what is actually there, and far easier to search if you know what you're looking for.

i have noticed spiral disappearing and leaving things unfinished for long periods of time as you said. but newsleecher as a whole has never locked me out even when their site was down worst thats ever happened was supersearch goes down the program will still work. and it has been over a year since even that happened.

also as you mentioned in your second post zot newsleecher supports that now too, though i haven't tried it myself yet their beta's can be a little scary
+: --[ Larger Feature Addition - RAR-in-RAR File Detection ] ----- NewsLeecher can now detect RAR-in-RAR archive sets, and pause such sets in the transfer queue if wanted. RAR-in-RAR archives are, as the name implies, RAR archives containing other, often passworded, RAR archives. Most RAR-in-RAR archives are either fake or spam. NewsLeecher can be setup to pause ANY detected RAR-in-RAR archives, or only the RAR-in-RAR archives that are password protected. The feature can be accessed from: Settings -> Download -> Leech Tweaks
also hyptia newsleechers $20 a year is for a year of upgrades not just a year of use, if you purchased it one year ago from now, you would be able to keep and use upto version 5 beta 5 or version 4 final indefinitely, paying $20 again would only be necessary if you wanted a new version. granted still not a good deal i believe upgrades should be free for life but there's a difference, same for usenet explorer i believe.

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Newsbin:

Pro: low price client w/ lifetime upgrades, always cutting-edge, good tech support.

Con: DRM present, won't install or uninstall if internet connection is down.

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Just to clarify. There is no phone home in Newsbin. When you install with the regular installer, it looks at your system and downloads the right version and lets you select a language. 32/64 bits and whatever language you pick. There's no validation when you run the trial. You do have to let it talk to the server to verify the key when you register. Typically, we have the full version on our site somewhere but, to save on bandwidth costs, we prefer the "download version".

If you install Newsbin, then zip up the install folder, you NEVER have to install it again. You can just unzip the folder and tell Newsbin where your configuration file is. Newsbin doesn't really depend on anything on the PC so, it can be copied around. For example, you could install Newsbin to a common folder on your NAS and any machine on the network could use it (or a flash drive). Each machine would have to register one time though.


Once you register, it never talks to the Newsbin server again. The only contact it has with the Newsbin website is the Message of the Day window and you can disable that in the options. Newsbin has not and never will have "phone home". It's easy enough to test. Install, register and lock it down to only talking to your news server with your firewall. It'll continue to work no problem. If you re-install and re-register, you'll have to let it talk to the Newsbin website to validate the key but, then you can lock it down again. if you uninstall and let the installer talk to our server, it'll decrement your use count back to 3 or whatever.

There's no lifetime install limit but, the license says 3 simultaneous machines. We figure, main machine, laptop and work machine. We don't care if you run them at the same time either. Some Newsbin users have been using the same key for 10 years now.

Thanks for the info B18C5. That's good to know.

People complain about the excessive DRM in paid versions of AltBinz. It not only 'phones home' each time, but it's tied in to each person's forum account - whether they like it or not. Big Brother to the extreme, it would seem. Enough to scare me away. :(

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Originally Posted by zot

Thanks for the info B18C5. That's good to know.

People complain about the excessive DRM in paid versions of AltBinz. It not only 'phones home' each time, but it's tied in to each person's forum account - whether they like it or not. Big Brother to the extreme, it would seem. Enough to scare me away. :(

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I had no idea Alt.binz had a paid version. I may like it more than Sabnzbd+ but I could never imagine paying for it.

Yeah, that's news to me too.

Well, Altbinz does not "technically" offer a paid version, but if you give them a (mandatory-minimum) $15 donation, you get the DRM-encrusted latest version - as a gift for your kind generosity, I suppose. :lol:

So why not just call a spade a spade and sell it outright? Maybe tax advantages, Paypal policies ... or mabe the fact that the client is freeloading off public (ad-supported) search engines.

And since it's a "donation" don't even think about asking for your money back if it doesn't work. :lol:

I don't think v.5 uses fill servers properly.

It uses them properly...for V5 which is, any error turns the fill server on for that file. Version 6 though is more selective and turns fill servers on and off "per chunk".

Sorry, I forgot all about that. It's an issue that deserves mentioning.

In my opinion, a fill-server should only be activated to pick up the articles that are missing from the primary server, and nothing else. A strictly defined server priority applied to every article. I believe that Newsbin v4 and v6 work this way but v5 does not - with version 5 sharing bandwidth 50/50 between primary and secondary servers (for all files that have at least one missing article).

I suspect that Newsbin's (v.5) fill-server implementation may have been perhaps the most un-appreciated new "feature" ever introduced. I think it's fair to say that block account users don't want to tap into them unless absolutely needed, since they're paying a higher per-gigabyte rate on blocks, as well as not wanting to run out of bandwidth all the time due to wasting it unnecessarily. It's good to see that v6 has "proper" fill-server support, so that issue can be retired. :)

UPDATE:

There are reports that Newsbin Pro v6.0 is going to be released any day now, and when this happens, the price will be going up to $20.

So for anyone wanting to "go legit" and who is still sitting on the fence, this may be the last chance to get your (lifetime) registration for $15 before the price increase.

www.newsbin.com

I've been using the betas for a month or two and I like what I see. I haven't had any problems with them either.

Used so many small (good ones too) clients that I nearly forgot about Newsbin. I think I'm going to stick with it until I finally (when I'm 80) install linux on my 2 "servers".

Btw version 6 seems more complicated than 5 . I prefer the user interface of version 5

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Originally Posted by B18C5

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Newsbin:

Pro: low price client w/ lifetime upgrades, always cutting-edge, good tech support.

Con: DRM present, won't install or uninstall if internet connection is down.

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Just to clarify. There is no phone home in Newsbin. When you install with the regular installer, it looks at your system and downloads the right version and lets you select a language. 32/64 bits and whatever language you pick. There's no validation when you run the trial. You do have to let it talk to the server to verify the key when you register. Typically, we have the full version on our site somewhere but, to save on bandwidth costs, we prefer the "download version".

If you install Newsbin, then zip up the install folder, you NEVER have to install it again. You can just unzip the folder and tell Newsbin where your configuration file is. Newsbin doesn't really depend on anything on the PC so, it can be copied around. For example, you could install Newsbin to a common folder on your NAS and any machine on the network could use it (or a flash drive). Each machine would have to register one time though.


Once you register, it never talks to the Newsbin server again. The only contact it has with the Newsbin website is the Message of the Day window and you can disable that in the options. Newsbin has not and never will have "phone home". It's easy enough to test. Install, register and lock it down to only talking to your news server with your firewall. It'll continue to work no problem. If you re-install and re-register, you'll have to let it talk to the Newsbin website to validate the key but, then you can lock it down again. if you uninstall and let the installer talk to our server, it'll decrement your use count back to 3 or whatever.

There's no lifetime install limit but, the license says 3 simultaneous machines. We figure, main machine, laptop and work machine. We don't care if you run them at the same time either. Some Newsbin users have been using the same key for 10 years now.

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I'm not sure how you would consider that as not phoning home. It may only do so once but it's still "phoning home" and is the sole reason I have not yet purchased a license after all these years.

I don't mind paying $15-20 if NBP is as good as people say but I shudder at the thought of depending on an external server that may perhaps one day fall off the radar if the developer goes bankrupt. I know it's not likely but I'm the kind of person who doesn't give the scenario a chance to arise.

Newsbin is ok, I've had it for years. They really need to add more features to it because SABNZBd is kicking its ass in that department. If you have been using SABNZBd and like it, I would say just stick with it. Newsbin just isn't worth the money it may have garnered when I first bought it several years back.

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