Highwinds' retention improves, completion gets worse

[nntpjunkie]

Nothing major has changed in the last 2.5 years. Highwinds has not bought any more companies with usenet server farms, or relocated farms or migrated customers. Events have been comparatively stagnant during this time. (Easynews went through a major disaster 2 years ago, but that's another story). Highwinds has now had plenty of time to concentrate on fixing the glitches and honing the quality of its service -- as well as backfill its ever-eroding completion. So what's Highwind's problem?

@zot - I understand your complaints to a point about what everyone calls the Highwinds farms - which I personally think is stupid because the providers you mentioned are not running on the same farms they are different farms (Easily seen with different cross post discrepancies..resellers do run on same farm as the tier1 counter part) entirely especially Easynews - Everything about Easynews is custom, but to say that nothing major has changed for these brands is not correct, less than 2 years ago all the providers you mentioned had < 450 days bin retention...Usenetserver, newshosting both have a bin retention of 978 days - that is more than doubling article retention in that small time frame, that is a huge feat. That said, let me be perfectly before some flamer starts yammering on, I happen to love newshosting and have used them as well as the other brand mentioned over the years and yes I have banners for them on our blog, but I am not saying that what everyone calls the "Highwinds brands" are the best NSPs around - I am just saying they should get a fair shake. There are alot of nsp haters here that talk alot of smack about things that are in the past. They are all a very long way from where they were 2 years ago I think anyone who has used them recently would have to agree. Astraweb does get props on full completion most of the time, but that is well because they simply don't take anything down....they are supposed to but if you compare NZBs you will find completes where everyone else seems to be missing articles. Anyway I will close by saying that one thing is for sure, we as usenet users are very lucky because we now live in a time where NSPs are plenty and plenty cheap

[MarionM]

Hi nntpJunkie,

I agree and think you make a good point that "Highwinds should get a fair shake" it seems to be popular to bash them

If you want the absolute best quality then I guess its Giganews -- which you can get at a discount here for the Diamond and Platinum plan -- > http://bit.ly/giganews

[Hypatia]

best quality at DMCA takdowns? =))

[zot]

Hi nntpJunkie,

I agree and think you make a good point that "Highwinds should get a fair shake" it seems to be popular to bash them

Truth be told, a lot of people tend to get suspicious whenever a new user pops up just to take sides in an argument. Look around, and I don't think it's hard to find as much "bashing" about Giganews and Astraweb as there is about Highwinds. I used to be a big fan of Highwinds back in the mid-2000s, when Highwinds offered a much better service than any of the companies they bought out. Maybe I've turned into a critic because I can still remember the industry-leading retention and near-perfect completion that Highwinds once had, at least for awhile.


If you want the absolute best quality then I guess its Giganews -- which you can get at a discount here for the Diamond and Platinum plan -- > http://bit.ly/giganews [/QUOTE]
... also new users who post links using link-shorteners. Referral?

[MarionM]

All the US companies have to respect US Laws - so that puts Highwinds and Giganews together. Maybe thats a good reason to be headquartered in Singapore like Astraweb. Yes, im a new user but I spend a lot of time testing and reviewing Usenet Providers.