Need some help choosing a provider

[Hole69]

Well, its down to either Usenetnow or Astraweb? Astra looks like its full of glitches, so I'm leaning towards usenetnow - opinions (again)?

[Hypatia]

whatever provider you choose you HAVE to choose also a backup one.(block account)
And they must be different(obviously)

Usenetnow is good.
But they tend to have slower speed on older files and overall the speed is not consistent(where i could get 6MB utilizing 10 connections on AW i needed 30 connections to do the same on usenetnow, and it was fluctuating. But if you have less than 50mbit line than i suppose usenetnow would be more than OK
but then you would have to choose a backup provider.. and that leaves us only with astraweb block account and comparing AW's and blocknews block pricing.. well.. AW is not gonna win..though u could get 180Gb for $25

[Hole69]

My download speed is barely 2MB/s, so I'll go with usenetnow + blocknews; astraweb seems to be full of glitches. I set blocknews as backup, and usenetnow as primary in sabnzbd?

[Hypatia]

usenetnow + blocknews

you cant do that,they are the same company

PS AW is not full of glitches =)

[Hole69]

What about usenetserver + blocknews?

[Hypatia]

usenetserver= Highwinds (newshosting etc)

tbh its pretty simple..

usenetnow +astraweb block
astraweb+blocknews block

if you dont care about console games and posting to usenet then go for supernews+blocknews

if you are so put off by astraweb then just get usenetnow for a month and try it without a paid block account(just get free xsusenet it will cover up to 400 days)

[Hole69]

I'm going for Astraweb + blocknews then. Should the primary server be the eu or US one?

[Hypatia]

it depends which works faster for you. =)
as for general setup it should be something like this
if you set up the second AW server as optional not backup then you could play with the number of connections assigned to EU and US server.12/2,13/5, 15/5(EU is main) or whatever suits you best,

You should set just enough connections to get max speed. Setting up more than necessary wont do you any good

Dont order yearly plan. Pay per month. This way if you dont like it then simply go for another provider.

[shakezilla]

but its like a 40$ difference paying for the year vs monthly

[Hypatia]

$36 =)

you can always upgrade ur account to yearly plan if you like the service

Just dont create new login password when you make a payment and send them email with the order number