Best Usenet-provider

[ih8easynewsdotcom]

My favorite usenet company (and I have been using usenet for about 12 years now , is powerusenet (powerusenet.com) the 6 connections is enough to fill 50 megabits , unlimited etc etc 130 day retention on all binaries.

Three of the companies are misleading , these companies are Easynews.com , Usenetserver.com , and Newshosting.com , all 3 companies are owned by Highwinds Corporation from Florida , US .... however the datacenter for easynews.com is in Phoenix, AZ as is usenetserver.com , newshosting is out of Atlanta but still a part of the same entity. These OLD sun machines that are run in the data centers are just horrible. They in house censor a bunch of the material , and really do not care about the end user. I would know as a former employee of Easynews (Highwinds Media Group) . Did you know that if you use newshosting.com you cannot call for any support on a service that gets "broken" for weeks at a time. only e-mail , however now that you know they are the same company , call easynews support and ask for support they are the same place. A SINGLE gentleman named BRAD censors and handles all the pulling requests that the MPAA and RIAA want . The only thing that easynews has going for it , is a unique PHP interface for the web (interaction with usenet) . They claim almost 200 days retention , but that is WEB retention. if you wish to use a client , you have to suffer with 15 days on their default server , and 88 day average on their "beta" servers. This is VERY misleading to the public.

believe it or not they are 3 out of "the big 8" , astraweb and usenext are subproviders that ultimately get their news from easynews.com. so the end user still suffers . Unless your NOT ON highwinds network , you will have issues. the Tornado software itself is Buggy at best. Tornado was origionally written in Tempe, AZ . and development of this has been shifted to Florida

When i say they are a BIG company I am not fibbing , from TNT.com streaming video to PPV for UFC these guys are everywhere , alot of the issues that folks have is solely because the news was peered from a highwinds network or worse off...... they use a highwinds subsidary such as those listed earlier in this post. JUST SAY NO TO HIGHWINDS!!!!!!!!!!!

smile. and have a great day.

[chainmail]

ih8easynewsdotcom, very interesting post. It's got my head spinning. I'm too dizzy to quote anything

I'll just say that if I'm trying to impress people with my knowledge (and job experience) I would at least try to do some research first and get the facts straight. And try not to throw in too many things that have no relationship to the subject. (Though in this case, I'm not quite sure what the subject really is. )

But thank you for the education.

[bolete]

So, tell us again why Highwinds fired you?

[ih8easynewsdotcom]

sorry wasn't fired . complete wrong idea , moved away . Thankfully. That place is a cespool.

[venussuz]

So you're saying powerusenet is the only good usenet provider? Interesting that you link Astraweb in as a Highwinds sub provider, cause I haven't heard anything of the sort and my experience with the company has been utterly trouble free. I routinely pull down files that are 150 to 160 days old now, I suspect their retention is closer to 200 than 160, but they won't state it until the vast majority of groups are up to speed. Just my thoughts as someone who has tried UNS, powerusenet, giganews and now Astraweb for the last 8 months or so.

And what's this about web retention and tornado software? WTF do either of those have to do with Usenet? Just curious.

[chainmail]

venussuz, (and anyone else) I think it's *pointless* to try to debate ih8easynewsdotcom point-by-point

but if you really must insist, I suggest to start - and end - the debate on this one single issue:

I am not fibbing

I already had made up my mind on that question halfway through reading post #1. Post #2 further confirmed it. And no, for the sake of civility, I'm keeping my opinion to myself.

[ih8easynewsdotcom]

[quote="chainmail"]venussuz, (and anyone else) I think it's *pointless* to try to debate ih8easynewsdotcom point-by-point

No , actually its not pointless" to debate on any subject at any time , in fact i encourage it debating is FUN!!!!!!!!

Isn't that half of what the text groups are for ???? debating ????? I remember easynews.general is all about that. Retarded topics with typically no point. but heck the folks at easynews job depends on posting to that newsgroup believe it or not , if they dont get 30 posts in 30 days , they can get written up. I know first hand :-S

Anyways , Yes there are some harsh feelings toward the company in general they are very misleading. I am fortunate enough that giganews and powerusenet can fulfill my usenet needs without any issues. The latter not giving me a single issue with anything provided it is 130 days or less. 100 percent completion thus far at least *crosses my fingers* . I love giganews as well Although the cost is a little high for my liking. But hey, the retention is awesome!!!!!!!!!!


----- but what do I know , I'm a Total N00b -------

[Xizer]

His name should be a tip-off that he's either:

1) disgruntled highwinds/easynews employee
2) employed by powerusenet

Don't even bother reading his shit. Astraweb is a separate company with their own server farms. 160 days of retention for $11 a month. Why don't you tell your higher-ups at powerusenet to try competing with that instead of assigning you to come troll Slyck's usenet forums, ih8easynews.

[bolete]

sorry wasn't fired . complete wrong idea , moved away . Thankfully. That place is a cespool.

Did you work in Easynews' Atlanta farm?

I am sure your current employer would be happy to know you are going to throw them under the bus whenever you leave/get fired.

I have used Easynews before and was completely satisfied. Same with Giganews. I just do not need to pay twice as much for Giganews as I can somewhere else. Giganews themselves were misleading as hell when they would never admit (until recently) that they owned Powerusenet, Rhinonewsgroups, usenet.net, etc. I know they have also had a hard time keeping some of their contracts with the ISPs (the ones who still provide Usenet). Giganews used to always say they were the world's largest provider, which was completely misleading. They counted ALL the POSSIBLE users for the ISPs they provided for. Easynews and Usenext both dwarf Giganews in ACTUAL paid members. If you want to avoid companies who deceptively market, pick your poison.

Now stop being a paid schill and enjoy your Powerusenet account. Leave the rest of us alone.

[kacinaed]

Interesting thread I found via Google. I searched for "Easynews censors" cause for some weeks I'm losing groups there (about one group per week). First I thought it's because of the technical difficulties they had lately. But the problems are solved now and other people started asking questions in their internal forum regarding wether they now censor groups or not (since they started missing groups too). As you can imagine the threads were not answered by anyone from easynews.

Since I found other threads via Google, which all tell the same story, it's time for me to leave them. To be honest, the fact that they didn't tell us customers that they are going to censor groups and don't answer us at all annoys me more than the actual censorship. I will miss them, especially the great web interface.

[SleepyOne]

Giganews used to always say they were the world's largest provider, which was completely misleading.

Not that it matters, but let me clear that up for you.

www.top1000.org
The Official TOP1000 Usenet Servers page

1 giganews.com 24.640
2 news-service.com 16.799
3 astraweb.com 14.628
4 glorb.com 13.342
5 xsnews.nl 13.113
6 eweka.nl 11.962
7 highwinds-media.com 11.295
8 google.com 10.558
9 erje.net 10.237
10 newshosting.com 9.500

But I'm sure you will come back to argue that the official numbers somehow doesn't count for your comment, but I just wanted to inform the others of the actual situation

There are many different ways to define "largest".
Top1000.org is the one the providers themselves count as the official toplist and its based on the providers own numbers.

[kalone]

The problem with this comparison is number 6,7, and 10 are owned by Highwinds.

Giganews used to always say they were the world's largest provider, which was completely misleading.

Not that it matters, but let me clear that up for you.

http://www.top1000.org
The Official TOP1000 Usenet Servers page

1 giganews.com 24.640
2 news-service.com 16.799
3 astraweb.com 14.628
4 glorb.com 13.342
5 xsnews.nl 13.113
6 eweka.nl 11.962
7 highwinds-media.com 11.295
8 google.com 10.558
9 erje.net 10.237
10 newshosting.com 9.500

But I'm sure you will come back to argue that the official numbers somehow doesn't count for your comment, but I just wanted to inform the others of the actual situation

There are many different ways to define "largest".
Top1000.org is the one the providers themselves count as the official toplist and its based on the providers own numbers.

[SleepyOne]

Which only means that HWM related numbers are mostly duplicates of the same feed.

If you check out the details and count like you do, you will find that with duplicates counted, GN would be over twice the size of HWM.

Another thing that greatly affect numbers is the fact that HWM is now behind UNS.

Which means that prior to this change, GN was THE largest without a doubt... now HWM is just a bit closer.

[kalone]

Sorry I do not like Highwinds either, but these are all different feeds. Ping for yourself. They are not duplicates. Big does not mean that Highwinds is best, at this point and time I rate them very low on performance. Giganews is excellent but overpriced. They really need to stop charging extra for SSL.

Which only means that HWM related numbers are mostly duplicates of the same feed.

If you check out the details and count like you do, you will find that with duplicates counted, GN would be over twice the size of HWM.

[kacinaed]

So, as you know because of my posting above I'm currently looking for a new provider. After doing some research here and by looking at www.newsgroupservers.net the provider I like most is Astraweb. Their offer (pricing, upgraded retention, list of newsgroups, etc.) looks very promising. I also liked the fact that they are independent, according to www.newsgroupservers.net.

The problem is, I don't know who to believe now:

believe it or not they are 3 out of "the big 8" , astraweb and usenext are subproviders that ultimately get their news from easynews.com.

I asked the guys at Astraweb and they answered by email:

Hi

Where did you read this? This is totally untrue as Astraweb is not affiliated with Easynews in any way.

Thank you for using Astraweb!

[csn21]

believe it or not they are 3 out of "the big 8" , astraweb and usenext are subproviders that ultimately get their news from easynews.com. so the end user still suffers . Unless your NOT ON highwinds network , you will have issues. the Tornado software itself is Buggy at best. Tornado was origionally written in Tempe, AZ . and development of this has been shifted to Florida

Where did you get the idea that Astraweb gets their news from easynews? They don't. Infact, they have 3x10Gbit NextFeed ports, peering them with many other servers. They run their own equipment too, they are not associated with highwinds or easynews. Now, usenext, they also do not get their news from easynews.com, they get it from news-service.com

[bolete]

Giganews used to always say they were the world's largest provider, which was completely misleading.

Not that it matters, but let me clear that up for you.

http://www.top1000.org
The Official TOP1000 Usenet Servers page

1 giganews.com 24.640
2 news-service.com 16.799
3 astraweb.com 14.628
4 glorb.com 13.342
5 xsnews.nl 13.113
6 eweka.nl 11.962
7 highwinds-media.com 11.295
8 google.com 10.558
9 erje.net 10.237
10 newshosting.com 9.500

But I'm sure you will come back to argue that the official numbers somehow doesn't count for your comment, but I just wanted to inform the others of the actual situation

There are many different ways to define "largest".
Top1000.org is the one the providers themselves count as the official toplist and its based on the providers own numbers.

Actually, what I mean is based on number of subscribers. Who cares how much data you suck through, all that might mean is that one provider has the greediest users...

[NewsgroupReviews]

Astraweb is a tier 1 provider meaning they are independent and not a reseller like some others mentioned above. They are a solid Usenet service with growing retention.

Highwinds is also tier 1 but hasn't been the most reliable as of late and is stirring the pot with poor support.

Giganews is tier 1 and in my opinion provides the best service but at a higher cost than most.

- NGR

[bolete]

Astraweb is a tier 1 provider meaning they are independent and not a reseller like some others mentioned above. They are a solid Usenet service with growing retention.

Highwinds is also tier 1 but hasn't been the most reliable as of late and is stirring the pot with poor support.

Giganews is tier 1 and in my opinion provides the best service but at a higher cost than most.

- NGR

What difference does it make if someone is a reseller? Do you only buy your Big Mac sandwiches from the original store in Arcadia, California, or are you willing to buy a Big Mac from one of their franchised units?

I use Newsdemon (highwinds reseller) and have had fantastic support the two times I needed it (once to change my plan and another time to change from Payal to credit card). Their actual nntp service has never been an issue for me and I am a heavy user daily. So if you are downing Highwinds and downing resellers, it makes me think you are downing Newsdemon. If that is the case, why do you have them rated so highly on your website?

[ih8easynewsdotcom]

Astraweb is a tier 1 provider meaning they are independent and not a reseller like some others mentioned above. They are a solid Usenet service with growing retention.

Highwinds is also tier 1 but hasn't been the most reliable as of late and is stirring the pot with poor support.

Giganews is tier 1 and in my opinion provides the best service but at a higher cost than most.

- NGR

What difference does it make if someone is a reseller? Do you only buy your Big Mac sandwiches from the original store in Arcadia, California, or are you willing to buy a Big Mac from one of their franchised units?

I use Newsdemon (highwinds reseller) and have had fantastic support the two times I needed it (once to change my plan and another time to change from Payal to credit card). Their actual nntp service has never been an issue for me and I am a heavy user daily. So if you are downing Highwinds and downing resellers, it makes me think you are downing Newsdemon. If that is the case, why do you have them rated so highly on your website?

so , here is the thing yes you are correct newsdemon gets their feed from highwinds (easynews and usenetserver and newshosting.com are all part of the core of highwinds that i worked at.... now newsdemon, my instance of them , apparently unlimited , doesn't mean that at all , its unlimited to 200 - 250 gb / month , because out of the blue half way into my monthly cycle ........ they capped my downloads at about 128kpbs , and after dealing with this annoying 800 number answering machine to no prevail i wrote email to their tech support to get a suprising reply , that basically said.... i had used what they called "unlimited" and that if i wanted to i could open up another account incur more charges and get my "unlimited feed again". Forget that mess, not to mention because it is a highwinds .......... ive had issues with completion (having to use par recovery to complete ) . Never once on giganews , nor on powerusenet (who gets their feeds ultimately from newzdemon. Those were my ONLY 2 problems with newzdemon ....... completion (having to recover) and them cutting my acct off..... you know in the past month ive consumed more than 1.1 terrabyte of data according to newsleecher , that would be a total of about 5 accounts on "unlimited" newzdemon......... but hey , to each their own.

[NewsgroupReviews]

Astraweb is a tier 1 provider meaning they are independent and not a reseller like some others mentioned above. They are a solid Usenet service with growing retention.

Highwinds is also tier 1 but hasn't been the most reliable as of late and is stirring the pot with poor support.

Giganews is tier 1 and in my opinion provides the best service but at a higher cost than most.

- NGR

What difference does it make if someone is a reseller? Do you only buy your Big Mac sandwiches from the original store in Arcadia, California, or are you willing to buy a Big Mac from one of their franchised units?

I use Newsdemon (highwinds reseller) and have had fantastic support the two times I needed it (once to change my plan and another time to change from Payal to credit card). Their actual nntp service has never been an issue for me and I am a heavy user daily. So if you are downing Highwinds and downing resellers, it makes me think you are downing Newsdemon. If that is the case, why do you have them rated so highly on your website?

The intention of the post was to provide a short list of tier 1 providers as ih8 stated Astraweb was a reseller. Newsgroup Reviews recommends a number of resellers. We have considered listing the tier-1 service connected to each provider on their profile pages but hesitate due to the perception that resellers are less reliable.

In the end it comes down to what works best for each individual. If 2% of a provider's customers have unresolved issues and you happen to be one of the 2% then the service lacks value for you. The other 98% may be perfectly happy with the service.

As you mention just because Newsdemon is a reseller doesn't make them less worthy than others. In fact we highly recommend Newsdemon based on price, reliability and support. Newsdemon is a good example of a reseller providing better support than some tier 1 providers.

- NGR

[tolarosa]

Can anyone tell which providers are possible to share at same time with a second IP?

THX

[chainmail]

Can anyone tell which providers are possible to share at same time with a second IP?
THX

Most of the Dutch providers allow account sharing, though practically none of the American ones do.

Here's three Dutch providers that allow account sharing:

http://www.xsnews.com
http://www.eweka.nl
http://www.hitnews.eu / xennews.com

Connections must be split between users; if the service allows 4 connections, then that means only 2 connections per person if 2 people are simultaneously connected.

[MrFredPFL]

do american providers allow it with block accounts?

[gorlov]

do american providers allow it with block accounts?

We allow it for Block accounts, but not for Unmetered/Unlimited accounts.

Regards,

Goran