hi i'm new - newsgroups ROCK!

[dr_teeth]

Hi i just signed up with giganews on their free 3 day 10gb trial.
After actually first hearing about newsgroups through an article on the web about the pirate bay getting prosecuted, i decided to look further into it.
A lot of googling later and coming across sites like this, i decided to take the plunge and go for it.
I was fed up of using Aureus being stuck on 10kB/s, despite my 20kB/s upload for a 6gb file.
Well that file was still stuck on 25% - which took me like 1 week, and i found it on newzleech. Downloaded newsleecher and popped the .nzb file into the program and hey presto - i'm now maxing out my 2mbit connection. OMG this is ace!
I'm really new and just wanted to ask a few questions:

i'm currently due to start a 25gb/month package with giganews with SSL after my trial finishes. Is SSL worth it?
my current broadband provider is Talk Talk in the UK. I've read dubious things about their fair usage policy (which is currently at 40gb/month - if you go over that they send you a letter of warning. After about 3 or 4 warnings you get disconnected,) and what they call traffic shaping. From what i've read they apply traffic shaping if your p2p traffic is above a certain amount a month. If you go over it, they will slow your connection down. Do you think they would apply traffic shaping if I use non-SSL connection? this is because non-SSL is currently $5 cheaper a month with giganews (yes, i'm a cheapskate!)
Also are there any recommendations for other usenet providers that may be cheaper? I'm looking to d/l about 30-35 gb a month and also would like ones with a decent retention rate.
And is newzbin better than other sites like newzleech for NZB files? (I will only stick to downloading through NZB files for now) if so, i will ask for an invite lol
thanks for looking

[svenseven]

hey I'm in the same boat as you. I started with torrents and did some research and found newsgroups to be great after trying them. I use giganews diamond, which also has a deal with newsleacher to get that news program. The super search feature on newleacher is great, no headers to download and its fast. The only thing i use torrent sites now is to get a bit more feed back on quality before I get them via newsgroups. I got the ssl just incase. A few dollars more is worth the peace of mind to me...

[kayvanblue]

once you try it you will never go back to bittorrenting as your primary source of downloading !

[DasFox]

once you try it you will never go back to bittorrenting as your primary source of downloading !

I use to say the same thing, but then after paying over a year at $14.95 I just couldn't afford it anymore and cancelled my newshosting.com account.

Now I'm just using torrents, and if I can't find anything, my isp has Usenet access, but of course it's not as fast as paying for it.

I was an OLD Usenet die hard, and let me tell ya, if you can get into a good private torrent tracker, then it can be hard to beat also.

They both have their pros and cons, now what I want to know is where can we find some free Usenet access? LOL...

PEACE

[cubbyche]

The problem is that's had to get into those private trackers like TL and others

[zzzptg]

and maintain racios ...
someone with pour upload, may find it dificult

[Swordfish]

I never worry about keeping ratios and being put off downloading torrents as I have to weigh up if I'll be able to seed 1:1

Newsgroups are awesome, but then again, you can find some stuff on torrents which you can't on newsgroups, so it kinda evens itself out a bit.

[whattheheck]

I also tried private trackers, but I couldn't keep a decent enough ratio for them to keep me on the sites. No one wanted to download from me..

I do love Usenet though. Very fast and efficient. I use Usenet-News as you can buy 'blocks' of gigs that you can use whenever you want. I'm moving around so much that I wouldn't get good value out of a fixed plan like Giganews and others offer.

Cheers!
S.

[RoboFace]

New Files = Newsgroup = no ratio.. ^^
Old Files = Torrent = better chance finding.. ^^

So to me it is about same..