What newsgroup servers do yall use?

I haven't used them in several years, but am probably going to start back with them. Comcast is my ISP, and their servers have a shitty retention and a 2GB/mo cap. Plus their servers are down about 80% of the time.

It seems like Giganews is popular, but that it's $29/mo for unlimited bandwidth + SSL (don't really need SSL, but it would keep Comcast from looking at my stuff). They also have a 200-day retention on binary (as of last month).

Usenet.com is $18 for unlimited + SSL, which is fine, but don't know if yall have any better services out there that aren't as well known.

10/29/2007 11:05:15 AM

There was an old thread about it that I posted in a while back.

Basically IMO, you can't beat usenetserver.com for price, speed, retention, and completion. I download anywhere from 200-500GB a month from them and have never had any complaints. SSL, 101 day retention, unlimited 2+ MB/sec download speeds, and only $13 a month if you go 3 months at a time. I've shopped around and I can't find anything that even comes close.



[Edited on October 29, 2007 at 11:12 AM. Reason : Also Newsleecher felates me on a daily.]

10/29/2007 11:09:19 AM

i discovered newsleecher last night... that's definitely new since I last hopped on newsgroups. It beats the hell out of downloading a million headers every day

i'll check out usenetserver. thxu

10/29/2007 11:14:40 AM

If you use my link I get a $5 referral credit.

Then I can buy milk for my childrens.

10/29/2007 11:15:44 AM

will do

I signed up for a free trial at usenet.com late last night and had forgotten how nice ng's were. im at 12 gigs since then, but will probably cancel as soon as the trial expires

10/29/2007 11:17:49 AM

my only "complaint" about usenetserver is they don't keep a record of how much you've downloaded.

It was always funny to log into the management site of my other newsgroup service and see I had downloaded half a terabyte that month.

10/29/2007 11:21:42 AM

What are you downloading from these sites? 500gb a month? Do you leave the comptar, ever?

10/29/2007 11:26:30 AM

good god, what are you downloading at 0.5TB/mo?

i got the new mac os before my copy comes in the mail (7gb), and some porn (5gb). i think that's about all i need for now



[Edited on October 29, 2007 at 11:28 AM. Reason : chance beat me by 24 sec]

10/29/2007 11:26:54 AM

Quote :

"Do you leave the comptar, ever?"

Because I have to personally oversee every single bit being transfered to my computer.

It's called a download queue. With the supersearch in newsleecher, you just type in what you want, 2 clicks and it downloads, repairs itself, extracts itself and deletes all unnecessary files. Burn and you're done. I do spend 8 hours a day sitting in front of my computer at work so that's where I do the majority of my "looking" but even that takes less than 10-15 minutes a day. The most time consuming part of the process is swapping out discs when burning stuff, but even that isn't time consuming at all.

As far what makes up 500 GB, you'd be surprised how easy it is to download that much if you get into it. This month alone, I've downloaded over 40 Xbox 360 games at 8 GB each. Also I download the HD versions of most of the TV shows I watch. Most of those are just a watch and delete type of thing, but some stuff I burn to save. Also I download Wii games, PSP games, the occational ps2 or xbox game, movies (usually in HD), Porn, Music, Misc programs and PC Games, whatever's out there. I guess it is a bit of a habit, or you could say a compulsion if you'd like. But it's not that time consuming. I'd say I spend less than an hour a day on it after all is said and done.

10/29/2007 11:45:52 AM

Give me some credit, I obviously didn't expect you to sit there watching the downloads, but rather, you must be taking some time to consume all that media you download.

10/29/2007 11:48:40 AM

By consume the media, you mean play the games or watch the shows? I mean, yeah, I guess there is a bit of that, but for the most part I consider myself a collector more than a consumer.

I just like to have everything.

10/29/2007 11:52:50 AM

newshosting.com unlimited for 14$ a month

10/29/2007 12:03:12 PM

you mean $14.95. The same as the monthly plan for usenetserver. But they offer less retention, less concurrent connections and no SSL.

usenetserver FTW.

10/29/2007 12:06:04 PM

in addition to what el nacho posted earlier, there is also another old thread about it.

10/29/2007 12:06:43 PM

any suggestions for a newsgroup reader?

10/29/2007 12:12:29 PM

newsleecher

10/29/2007 12:15:31 PM

holy SHIT this is awesome

thanks el nacho

i had never used usenet stuff before, only heard about it

now i have an account with usenetserver (yes i used your link) and got newsleecher

leopard is downloading at like 600KB/sec

holy shittttttttt this is awesome

10/29/2007 12:27:47 PM

iknowrite!

10/29/2007 12:38:09 PM

i signed up too for a month and used your link, fyi

10/29/2007 12:48:54 PM

sweet. Now I will be able to afford milk AND bread.

10/29/2007 12:55:51 PM

I prefer newsbin for PC. Have been using iGrabNewz on my mac, but has recently stopped working with Leopard. Have tried NZBDrop. Seems to work ok.

10/30/2007 10:43:34 PM

You dudes realize that you get free access to newsgroups by having Road Runner, right?

10/31/2007 12:10:55 AM

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA



......


*Breathes*


BWAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

10/31/2007 9:17:11 AM

Feel free to elaborate. I know I'm not getting 2MB/s down and probably not 101-day retention, but if there's something else I'm currently missing out on by not spending $15 a month in addition to my normal bill, I'd love to hear about it.

10/31/2007 11:46:26 AM

access to binaries?

SSL?

NOT using twc's servers and having them log everything you're doing?

10/31/2007 12:08:25 PM

roadrunner doesn't even come CLOSE to having all available newsgroups. Not to mention that their retention on binary groups (esp. the more heavily traveled ones) is very poor (less than a day in some cases). All in all, not good times.

10/31/2007 12:08:32 PM

giganews
200 day retention

10/31/2007 12:16:35 PM

Quote :

"but for the most part I consider myself a collector more than a consumer. I just like to have everything."

it's called being a digital packrat.

10/31/2007 12:19:52 PM

Quote :

"access to binaries?"

Uh... you have access to binaries.

Quote :

"SSL? NOT using twc's servers and having them log everything you're doing?"

I would rather take my chances with my ISP's history of not flipping on me than some random company, but to each their own.

Quote :

"roadrunner doesn't even come CLOSE to having all available newsgroups. Not to mention that their retention on binary groups (esp. the more heavily traveled ones) is very poor (less than a day in some cases)."

I mean, I probably don't have access to alt.vampires.flonk.flonk.flonk, but the normal hdtv, tv, games.wii/360 all come in with around 50 days retention without issue. Are there some super cool groups I don't know about?

10/31/2007 12:55:41 PM

When I used RR's servers a few years ago I ran across a ton of corruption issues and was basically using PARS on everything I downloaded, sometimes there was too much damage.


With the private server I use now I have no issues and only rarely use PAR files.


Also, you guys that use usenet, check out newzbin, great NZB site and worth the low cost especially because you can setup watchdogs to search for files you know are going to come out in the future (great for music, tv, movies, and games).

10/31/2007 1:04:25 PM

I'll freely admit that I haven't used RR's news server in a couple of years so I suppose it could have changed a lot since then. But back when I did use it it would be "fine" (and by fine, I mean 80-90% completion with 10-15 day retention) for a few months and then it would go to complete shit for about a month at a time. 10-15% completion and retention times of hours and not days. I remember reading all sorts of articles about how Time Warner would purposely sabotage their news servers for various reasons, but those could all be conspiracy theory type rants, who knows.

If Road Runner really does offer 50 day retention and a decent enough completion rate then it might be an ok alternative to a premium service. For me it's easily worth the $13 a month to get the ability to download from work, SSL, 99% completion, 101 day retention and a written guarantee that logs of what I download aren't being kept. But I'm clearly not like most people when it comes to downloading habits.

10/31/2007 1:54:29 PM

what advantage does SSL give you that normal downloading doesn't?

10/31/2007 1:56:31 PM

The same advantage it does for any other type of internet traffic - Everyone can't see your shit.

10/31/2007 2:00:15 PM

ISP won't know what you're d/ling

newsserver will have to be subpoenaed or whatever to give you up?

10/31/2007 3:14:00 PM

Quote :

"The Comcast High-Speed Internet service now includes free access to newsgroups through the Comcast Newsgroup service (powered by Giganews). Your free account includes up to two gigabytes of downloads per month (headers are not counted towards your 2 gigabytes). You'll have full access to discussion groups, sound files, images, video files, and much more. In addition, this service offers close to 50 days binary retention with a 99% completion rate. To begin using your free newsgroups account, simply follow the steps outlined in this FAQ to set up your news client."

10/31/2007 4:06:38 PM

Quote :

"The Comcast High-Speed Internet service now includes free access to newsgroups through the Comcast Newsgroup service (powered by Giganews). Your free account includes up to two gigabytes of downloads per month (headers are not counted towards your 2 gigabytes). You'll have full access to discussion groups, sound files, images, video files, and much more. In addition, this service offers close to 50 days binary retention with a 99% completion rate. To begin using your free newsgroups account, simply follow the steps outlined in this FAQ to set up your news client."

10/31/2007 4:30:39 PM

Quote :

"I'll freely admit that I haven't used RR's news server in a couple of years so I suppose it could have changed a lot since then. But back when I did use it it would be "fine" (and by fine, I mean 80-90% completion with 10-15 day retention) for a few months and then it would go to complete shit for about a month at a time. 10-15% completion and retention times of hours and not days. I remember reading all sorts of articles about how Time Warner would purposely sabotage their news servers for various reasons, but those could all be conspiracy theory type rants, who knows. If Road Runner really does offer 50 day retention and a decent enough completion rate then it might be an ok alternative to a premium service. For me it's easily worth the $13 a month to get the ability to download from work, SSL, 99% completion, 101 day retention and a written guarantee that logs of what I download aren't being kept. But I'm clearly not like most people when it comes to downloading habits."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA



......


*Breathes*


BWAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!



jackass

11/1/2007 7:35:07 AM

uhh....ok.

11/1/2007 8:21:17 AM

Since signing up on Sunday, I've downloaded more than Comcast would let me download in an entire year

11/1/2007 8:39:23 AM

I know right. Comparing a premium service to a free one provided by your ISP is like going over to the house of someone with a 90 inch 1080p TV who has 100 HD channels and claiming your tv viewing experience is just as good or better because you don't have to pay to watch over the air broadcasting on your old 19 inch Black and White TV from 1960.

11/1/2007 9:54:03 AM

That's quite the stretch.

11/1/2007 10:02:03 AM

Actually, I was originally gonna make the lower comparison be watching your neighbor's 13 inch black and white tv from 1960 through her window with no sound for 15 minutes a day.

But you did say Time Warner's server had gotten a little better.

11/1/2007 10:21:29 AM

RR's newsgroups work great for being pretty much an addon to your regular internets.

11/1/2007 12:48:16 PM

Yea but if you don't want to deal with the shadiness of Bittorrent then Usenet really is superior. Things get posted at roughly the same time as well so you can oftentimes get things much faster from usenet than BT.

11/1/2007 1:17:14 PM

http://groups.google.com/

11/1/2007 5:15:43 PM

RR recently increased the "quality" of their news group servers
i think the retention rate increased
i for one have noticed that i use less par files...less articles are missing

as for SSL, why does that really matter?
are you concerned about 3rd party snooping between you and your ISP?
do you think that the other end of an SSL connection does not have the ability to tell what you are downloading?
when has legal action been brought against an ISP's customer for newsgroup DOWNLOADS... of course, uploads may be a different story

your 200 day retention rates might just take forever to update the damn headers

11/2/2007 1:19:00 AM

I've been a usenetserver.com subscriber for about 2 years now.

Absolutely worth the cost. And they keep NO logs, so subpoena or not, it doesn't matter.

Also two thumbs up for Newzbin. Been a paying user of that for almost two years as well, it's lightyears better than newsleecher or any other binary newsgroup reader.

RR and Comcast are garbage in comparison.

^No need to download headers. Usenetserver has a live web search that is AMAZING. You search, create an NZB and download. Takes 30 seconds.

And SSL matters because some ISP's do QoS, and I want the bandwidth I pay for. Doesn't have anything to do with hiding from law enforcement. And subpoena's are worthless for newsgroups.

[Edited on November 2, 2007 at 2:58 AM. Reason : .]

11/2/2007 2:55:53 AM

heh, funny thread. this is a reply i gave to a PM about a week or so ago. looks like the only thing i wasn't in agreement with you guys is that giganews > all.

Quote :

"Easynews, UsenetServer, and Giganews are popular. I've used Giganews for almost a year now, ever since i quit doing all that piracy mess after I left the dorms. Biased opinions aside, I think they're the best out these days. I can max out my 8mbit cable connection, and have never seen downtime. It used to be kind of a close race but they just upped their retention to 200 days, which is double anyone else's. You can use my referral link (month free for me after you're with them for 3) if you want to try it =) http://www.giganews.com/?c=gn341167 https://secure.giganews.com/signup/ (if you think im just being a referral whore) --- Also, I use Newsleecher for grabbing the files and while i'm all one for pirating software, I actually paid for it just to use the supersearch feature...lets you look for stuff without downloading 5 billion headers/posts. http://v3.newzbin.com is another good search tool that i keep finding myself paying to re-up with premium credit, because it's so neatly organized. FYI: TWC has their own servers, but the retention is horrible 10-30 days IIRC and you're going to be limited by a quota."

Quote :

"actually if you're considering newsleecher at all, you can use them as a referral instead of me and get the program for free. totally forgot they were still running that promotion. http://www.newsleecher.com/?id=special_gn -B"

11/2/2007 4:01:22 AM

giganews is good too, but the globalsearch feature on usenetserver trumped them.

11/2/2007 4:08:28 AM

yeah but you can do that with newzbin for next to $nothing, no?

granted, 13 bucks/mo for unlimited is decently appealing, perhaps i'll give them a shot soon.

[Edited on November 2, 2007 at 4:14 AM. Reason : .]

11/2/2007 4:14:42 AM