Longest retention

[EyeBaller]

There have been a few threads about both, however some of them seem to be also due to user error or some problem on the users end.

Also, I would guess at this point, there are people browsing this forum who are using astraweb than there are using giganews (due to price difference and strong recommendations from most of the active posters), so there's bound to be more posts concerning astraweb.

[SonsOfLiberty]

I've been getting 400-450 day old stuff from Astraweb of lately, within the week.

[zot]

And? I didn't say there were no instances; merely that they were fewer than Astraweb threads.

I've used GN for 2.5 years and in a bad year, I might find two articles that are incomplete. Maybe.

Compared to Astraweb, problematic threads related to GN are few and far between. That is, at least since their $11 deal started and more folks started using them. I'm not saying it isn't a viable option for folks looking to save money, but don't expect top notch, equivalent results for almost a third of the price.

I would agree that 2.5 years ago Giganews was far above the rest in both retention, completion, and uptime. Giganews was probably worth the extra money back then. 2.5 years ago was also about that same time that Astraweb had some major server crashes, both EU and US, a lot of articles went missing, and download speed was slow because their lines and equipment were tied up trying to move articles between server farms to replace the damaged/missing ones. Those were bad times for Astraweb, but they were not alone. Usenetserver was also having regular problems those days also. Newshosting, while not without it's share of problems, seemed to be one of the few half-decent low-cost providers back then.

I think one problem is that many loyal Giganews *fanboys* are remembering how bad other usenet companies were 2, 3, 4, 5, or more years ago and switched to Giganews to avoid all the hassle and frustration of those other providers. But it's not the same situation today. Astraweb UNS, and Highwinds have definitely improved. In fact, just about the entire usenet provider industry has greatly improved in the last few years -- Easynews being the only notable exception.

People can have long memories, so it might become a matter of whether they're willing to go back to a company that let them down once before, years ago. It seems though that of all the many people who switched from Giganews to Astraweb over the last year or so, a lot more are glad they switched than are sorry.

Just one last thing -- anyone who thinks Giganews never has any problems should read this bitchfest on DSL Reports: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r214...ion-going-down

[Wwwildthing]

When your ISP carried newsgroups, they were provided by Giganews.

[c0ld]

When your ISP carried newsgroups, they were provided by Giganews.

not really.

[Wwwildthing]

When your ISP carried newsgroups, they were provided by Giganews.

not really.

Yes, really... http://www.giganews.com/outsourcing.html

[c0ld]

When your ISP carried newsgroups, they were provided by Giganews.

not really.

Yes, really... http://www.giganews.com/outsourcing.html

So, you're saying; because giganews is a wholesaler, therefore every ISP uses giganews?

[ericab]

take it out back guys,

this is way off topic.

[SonsOfLiberty]

not really.

Yes, really... http://www.giganews.com/outsourcing.html

So, you're saying; because giganews is a wholesaler, therefore every ISP uses giganews?

If memory serves, I believe the "major" Internet providers in the US did....I remember a few years back Giganews was offering discount to AT&T/Comcast subscribers since there NG access was being disabled for good....I could've signed up, but the price was still way way higher than compared to Astraweb.

[Wwwildthing]

I know for a fact that Comcast and Earthlink used Giganews. The point being that if your going to outsource Usenet access, you'd want to go with the provider that has the longest retention and the best completion rates.

So no, it's not off topic... stop being an ass.