Today the best services are:
UsenetServer
Astraweb
Newshosting
In my opinion the best is "Newshosting".
The best search engine (for me) is Newzbin.com
It always seems that the news clients that are provided free with a subscription to a pay-provider are often sub-par software. News Rover, probably the most widespread "free with paid subscription" newsreader, has its shortcomings. Ultraleecher (which was once a common 'free' client attached to several NSPs, before the project went dormant) was never as stable as Newsleecher, which it copied. And of course Mimo. Giganews used to offer a free/reduced-price version of Newsbin, which is a top-notch client, before dumping Newsbin for Mimo - a big step down, IMO.
Usenetserver and Newshosting are both owned by the same company - Highwinds - and both brands (evidently) have identical retention and completion.
Highwinds suffers from chronic completion problems - it seems that virtually every multi-part file in the 500-800 day retention range has numerous missing segments. Just yesterday I downloaded a file (493 days) that was one par block short of being able to recover, and I had to resort to a (non-Highwinds) backup account to patch it. (and forget about trying to download MP3s and other files posted without pars)
Considering that Astraweb and Readnews resellers like Ngroups and usenetnow cost nearly the same price but currently offer much better completion (and are not decimated by routine takedowns) I don't know why anyone would recommend Highwinds over those providers. Unless perhaps it's someone with an ultra-fast connection who can't get full bandwidth on anything but Highwinds. (which I can't test for, as sadly I'm not one of them)
The day that Highwinds fixes its piss-poor completion, I will gladly put Usenetserver and Newshosting back to the top of my 'recommended' list. People who got the one-year plan from UNS or NH (and therefore can't switch) may have a hard time without a block account fill-server setup.
I'm not a Highwinds "hater" - I'm just annoyed that it takes them so long to fix anything.
Last edited by zot; 05-01-2011 at 05:00 AM.
That is really..lets just say questionable, im sorry =)the best is "Newshosting".
giganews and all highwinds resellers wage war against usenet based on dmca take down requests against certain categories.(console, pc games, HBO tv shows , mainstream movies and who knows what comes next.)
Astraweb doesnt have this problem AT THE MOMENT
as for readnews
Did the fix their extremely slow speed on old articles? I remember getting only ~1Mb out of 6MB i had on new ones
As for the best search engine.
i would use Mysterbin(a MUST HAVE!) + if i cant find something there double check it via binsearch=maybe specific sites like abhdtv or nzbmatrix
Last edited by Hypatia; 05-01-2011 at 07:46 AM.
Right I understand now, the API key is not just there, you MUST be a VIP member, which is 7.5 (forgot pounds or euros) for a 10 year VIP subscription. Therefore, not free, you do have to make some sort of payment. It seems kind of ridiculous to pay a dime (pence?) for something that can be done almost as easily for free and a little brain power.
where did u get that?for a 10 year VIP subscription
when i got myself VIP status for ~10 bucks there was nothign about time limit on VIP status
besides without VIP there is little to do on nzbmatrix anyways with or without API
Last edited by Hypatia; 05-01-2011 at 12:20 PM.
Yeah I can tell there's nothing to do... anyways information was directly from the site domainsite/subscription.php
since you can only view it while logged in, I'll quote it below
To access all the features of NZBMatrix.com you are required to have a VIP account subscription.
How Much Is A VIP Account?
A VIP Account Subscription is a minimum of £7.00 GBP (British Pounds), this is approximately $11.70 USD (US Dollars). At the current exchange rate of: 1 GBP = 1.6708 USD
The subscription lasts for 10 years, there are no monthly costs. Unfortunately we do not offer partial VIP subscriptions or subscriptions for any other time period. We also now charge all subscriptions in our local currency (GBP) this is due to fluctuations in the exchange rate, and the fact that our bills are charged in GBP. The above exchange rate is an approximation and will differ slightly.
oh i see.. i wouldnt mind paying such a small fee IF they didnt take down stuff at DMCA requests.
and IF they had more content that is different from scene stuff
i mean.. yeah sure.. i can pay but i want to get A+ service.
so when my subscription is expired im not gonna renew it
Last edited by Hypatia; 05-01-2011 at 02:05 PM.
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