Newsgroup reviews

[Soulassassin]

Just thought it would be a good idea if people posted what newshosters they are using or tried and what they thought of them. Things like speed reliability retention etc. I know a lot of people have asked which is best etc but I find most reviews are from ppl abroad.

At the minute I am using two, Blueyonders own which since the 10Mb upgrade seems to have gone downhill very quickly, lots of incompletes. Not a great number of groups but enough to generally get what you want. However the big minus is there retention of around 4 days and the big plus of full 10Mb download speeds and its free.

The other I am currently trying is Anonynews, seems to be a few incompletes not many though, plenty of groups but nowhere near as many as other news servers have. Retention seems to be around 25 days and I get a download speed of around 800kB/s this one costs £10.99 a month.

I went to Giganews site and they have a download speed tester thing there and that says i get around 500kB/s

So anybody using any other newshosters, what are your views?

[daz73]

http://www.newshosting.com/

Unlimited downloading for $14.99 works out £8 a month..

gr8, never had a complaint..

24days retention

[ABCMan]

anonynews.com carries almost all the active groups and many of the smaller ones, has an online group checker to see if it carries what you want, speed is excellent with a choice of 3 seperate servers the main selling point is the addition of a seperate upload server that strips all identifying details off your uploads. dl speed upto 1mb/sec capped to 300gb then 260k/sec to 500gb and 60k/sec over 500gb a month, west coast server allows access on port 8080 instead of 119 to allow bypassing of restrictions from certain isp's (not however plusnet who still have it capped) they are working on this issue but say it could be a couple of months till its resolved

newshosting.com premium service, 10gb a month (which you can add to whenever you need), the daddy when it comes to downloading with retention of binary groups upto 40 days at 99.9% completion, webnews access gives search, queue, download or create custom nzb or zip and dl (resume supported with download managers), uploading is DREADFULL if you have anything like a decent upload speed then forget newshosting for uploads, its a great way to have to continualy repost and you'd probably need to generate pretty much 100% par files for anyone to have a chance of getting a working file at the other end. dl speed i havent seen a uk connection max it out allegedly it maxes at around 100mb/sec allows 8 threads on each connection from upto 5 ip's simultaeniously

newshosting.com unlimited service, £8.85 a month 25 days on binaries 99.9% completion pretty much every active group (you can request any you need) speed is supposed to be capped to 2meg (260k/sec) but many report they get much more, supposed to be restricted to 4 threads max but again many have no issues with 8, this is probably the most popular unlimited service and as with newshostings premium service the servers are pretty stable and issues are usualy resolved fairly quickly, it does however use different servers to the premium ones and should issues arise on both premium gets priority, however this hasnt been an issue yet since the unlimited service started, again as with the premium service this is not a service you want if you like to upload unless your choice is to upload the same thing over and over and read all the flame posts you get slow uploaders are catered for but if youur upload is 1mb or above, forget it.

[BM]

newshosting as recommended by ABCMan. Read comments above

[daz73]

newshosting.com unlimited service, £8.85 a month 25 days on binaries 99.9% completion pretty much every active group (you can request any you need) speed is supposed to be capped to 2meg (260k/sec) but many report they get much more, supposed to be restricted to 4 threads max but again many have no issues with 8, this is probably the most popular unlimited service and as with newshostings premium service the servers are pretty stable and issues are usualy resolved fairly quickly, it does however use different servers to the premium ones and should issues arise on both premium gets priority, however this hasnt been an issue yet since the unlimited service started, again as with the premium service this is not a service you want if you like to upload unless your choice is to upload the same thing over and over and read all the flame posts you get slow uploaders are catered for but if youur upload is 1mb or above, forget it.

Currently d/ling at 312k/sec!!

[Lazaru5]

the only problem with the afore mentioned newshosts is their payment options. if, like me, you don't own a credit card then you're pretty much stuffed when it comes to getting a decent newshost.

i am currently using newsdemon who i found after a google. it's about a tenner a month unlimited, reasonable speeds but it does fluctuate a lot and pretty good completion. they claim 25days retention on binaries although i think in the more popular groups it is a lot less!

the fact i could pay via paypal, (yes i know b4 u start), was the main reason i chose them.

if i could get anonynews/newshosting accounts i would definitely choose them above newsdemon but as a second, (or third?), choice it aint bad!

Laz

[lloydi]

Im with newshosting too, very good speed and retention and reliability, would reccomend them for sure :thumbs

[NuMbNuTz]

I use giganews and can't find a single fault, been with them for over a year and never had any sort of downtime or fuckups, unlike a few of the others. Plus the 60 day retention is very nice

[casio]

newshosting for me too ive never had anything but top speed from my 2mb line and its never crapped out on me
(im on the £8ish unlimited plan)
cas

[ABCMan]

the only problem with the afore mentioned newshosts is their payment options. if, like me, you don't own a credit card then you're pretty much stuffed when it comes to getting a decent newshost.

i am currently using newsdemon who i found after a google. it's about a tenner a month unlimited, reasonable speeds but it does fluctuate a lot and pretty good completion. they claim 25days retention on binaries although i think in the more popular groups it is a lot less!

the fact i could pay via paypal, (yes i know b4 u start), was the main reason i chose them.

if i could get anonynews/newshosting accounts i would definitely choose them above newsdemon but as a second, (or third?), choice it aint bad!

Laz

newshosting will accept cash or cheque payments but for download only, they will not allow uploads unless you pay by cc although i believe that you can pay using e-gold via www.privacy.li

[2die4]

i'm quite new to newsgroups having only been using them for about 6 weeks now. Signed up to newshosting unlimited and I cannot fault it. I'm getting 800+ kb/s all day long. Can pretty much get evrything I want in a day or a few hours for just a shade over £8 it's a bargain.

[stimpy]

Giganews for me all the way.

2 servers (USA & Europe), 10 connections, 59 day retention, 99%+ complete postings & no caps.
I have never had a download too incomplete to fix with PARs.

All for $25 per month.

[jimboozer]

newshosting - as a heavy unlimited user you cannot beat them. Upgraded from claranews tried a few others but they pale in comparison

[SiE]

using astraweb and get 800+ all day long

[RhinoBanga]

I use usenetserver and pay $40 for 3 months "unlimited" access. Max 4 connections and constantly get between 220k-240k on my 2mb DSL line.

Retention is great too.

[copey123]

Astraweb all the way!

[Q-Buster]

I have signed up about 3 weeks ago with 100proofnews $35 every 3 months - thats about £6.80 per month, unlimited downloading, 8 connections and on my 2 meg connection I usually get at least 235-250 download speed, I can recommend them.

Q-Buster

[fossil]

Astraweb's "pay-by-download" service was the reason I went with them. Works out cheaper (for me) than a fixed monthly payment. You can use your credits whenever you want.

Only been with them a couple of months, but not had any trouble. My 3Mb connection always max's out, providing you use their European server.

[hxbro]

I've been abusing my new 8Mbit connection today, getting 600+k/s from unlimited.newshosting.com with 8 connections in grabit, managed to go back as far as 26 days retention on one download.

[Hippie on hill]

I'm with Newsdemon too @ $12.59 a month unlimited (£7.32 this month via Paypal) after signing up with a 30% off for life discount code (WELCOMEBACK30)
They claim retention is upto 55 days, I've had some completion trouble with posts over a month tho tbh.
Service is generally good, I am on pish poor Tiscali connection so who knows really lol, I manage to max out whatever connection Tiscali decide to give me with downtime of an hour or so in the last 2 months that I know of.
Spoke to who I was lead to believe was a tech support worker via their ticket system for 24 hrs once who then said he'd forward my problem to tech support, which I found just a little disconcerting. Later found out it was all Tiscali's fault tho.
Also had my contract changed this month from 8 simultaneous connections down to 4 with no warning or notification emails, just Grabit saying I'd used up all my connections. On questioning them, was told they'd done it as their server could max out 99.9% of their customers connections with just 4.

Am now thinking of switching providers now tho tbh just on principal.