Hi, I'm new to usenet and need a little bit of help.

[Romeo6]

Hi I recently signed up with usenet giganews for a trial and really liked it for HD movies, all the files were there just fine and I was downloading everything using my torrentflux b4rt server so I can just fetch stuff off the network that I want, so when my trial was done with them I searched for something a little cheaper cause 30 was a little high when I've seen offers of 15-20 floating around and found usenetserver but the problem here is when I try downloading with torrentflux b4rt alot of the files are not there, when I download from newsbin only two of my five movies worked, I contacted support and was told it was most likely all DMCA'd so I asked giganews if the files in question were there on there servers and was told they were... So basically is there a cheaper company with the quality of giganews or? I also heard about repairing files with the .par2 files, how do I go about that? Thanks!

I just ended up buying a giganews account again over usenetserver and now I can download 90% of the files I couldn't before

[MultiForce]

You can get Astraweb for $11/month and I think they have good retention/completion but I have not used them myself.
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html
A lot (if not most) clients can repair files with PAR2 files. You can also download quickpar and repair the files yourself:
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

[Romeo6]

You can get Astraweb for $11/month and I think they have good retention/completion but I have not used them myself.
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html
A lot (if not most) clients can repair files with PAR2 files. You can also download quickpar and repair the files yourself:
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

So if there missing files the par2 files can repair that? Also who do you personally use?

[sandman_1]

I have beem using Astraweb for almost a full year and have no issues with them. They are just as good as Giganews. You can get unlimited account for $11-13/month with SSL and 20 connections.

PAR2 files are meant to cover up to a certain extent of missing parts of files, usually 10% worth or around that. So if you have something like

MOVIE.vol000+01.par2

The after the "+" part is how many parts that particular PAR2 file will cover. So you can repair up to that amount of missing parts of a file.


MOVIE.vol000+01.par2

MOVIE.vol001+02.par2

MOVIE.vol003+04.par2

MOVIE.vol007+08.par2

Here you could repair up to 15 missing parts of a file.

[MultiForce]

You can get Astraweb for $11/month and I think they have good retention/completion but I have not used them myself.
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html
A lot (if not most) clients can repair files with PAR2 files. You can also download quickpar and repair the files yourself:
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

So if there missing files the par2 files can repair that? Also who do you personally use?

I'm using GN but that's just because of the VPN.

[zot]

Hi Romeo6. It's interesting that you were looking for a low-price service, but ended up going to Giganews, one of the most expensive. I think that once you learn about Par2 files (and ideally backup servers) you will find that most any of the major usenet service providers will deliver the files you want.

If you're looking for a cheap monthly price, these are several reputable providers offering account specials, unlimited SSL service at $10 to $11 per month:

http://www.supernews.com/superspecial.html (con: capped at 500 days retention)
http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html (con: no weekend tech support)
http://usenetnow.net/woot.html (con: tech support is not 24/7)
https://accounts.usenetserver.com/re...ex.php?rate=50 (con: only one (US) server farm, 100 days less retention than others)


The above links are not "teaser" rates that increase later but prices are good for as long as you stay subscribed. Supernews is run by the same company as Giganews but with one-third the price and two-thirds the retention as Giganews service.

Personally, I use block accounts (pay once/use forever) at Usenet-news.net, Blocknews.com, and Astraweb.com. If you average less than about 50-60 GB per month or download sporadically, a block account can save you money over a pay-by-month account. Block accounts can also be stacked (in many newsreaders) to act as backup servers - and never get another missing or incomplete file.

Romeo6, what newsreader software do you use?

I'm using GN but that's just because of the VPN.

There are many VPNs that cost $5 to $10 per month. Is Giganews' VPN superior in some way that makes it worth the high price?

[MultiForce]

There are many VPNs that cost $5 to $10 per month. Is Giganews' VPN superior in some way that makes it worth the high price?

They give me EU, US and HK IP's and I get good ping, no limitations and I have no problem maxing out the connections whatever I use it for (as long as the other end are good enough of course). Tried 3-4 others a year ago or something and I wasn't satisfied with them so this is a good solution for me.
I'm sure I can get something else if I want to but I don't really have time and patience to test it out anyways.

[hdjunky]

Also who do you personally use?

a vote for blocknews / usenetnow here! ive never been steered wrong.